It is a week before Christmas and my mom is visiting from out of state. My roommate, my mom, and I decide to keep with tradition and go to one of the better Christmas light displays. We are really excited! Money is tight, but I happen to know that this show is the cheapest one in town. We load ourselves into the car and, singing merrily, head out to see the lights.

To our horror, when we get to the venue, the price is more than double what we expected! We are crushed; it’s more than any of us can afford.

At just that moment, a man leaving the venue, kid in his arms and another running along playfully in front of him, flags us down. He explains that he has an extra ticket; he bought the family pack but not everyone could go, and he asks if we would like it. My mom, surprised by his generosity, gratefully accepts the ticket. As the man walks away with his cute kids, my mom looks at the ticket in her hands. Paging through the paper ticket, we belatedly realize that the man has given us, not one, but three whole tickets! It’s enough for all of us to get into the light show!

We were never able to catch up to the man to thank him enough for his gift, but he brought such love and happiness to our little group. Thank you, kind sir, and I hope that whenever you are now, you know you were our Christmas Miracle!

This story is part of our Feel Good roundup for December 2020!

Read the next Feel Good roundup for December 2020 story!

Read the Feel Good roundup for December 2020!

I am working as a cashier, right near toys, and it’s a week or two before Christmas. I am ringing up a mother and her five- or six-year-old-daughter. As I am ringing them up, a man walks in. He’s heavy-set with a full white beard, red nose, a red and black plaid shirt, half-rimmed glasses, and a really old and worn Santa Claus hat. The little girl watches him go by.

Girl: *To her mother* “Was that Santa?!”

Mom: “I don’t know, maybe.”

The little girl looks at me and I give a half-shrug.

Me: “Well, we do have a landing pad on the roof. Where do you think we get all of these toys?”

She gasps and gets really excited as she looks back at her mom again.

Girl: “Can we look for the reindeer?”

You could just see the magic in her eyes. It so made my day!

This story is part of our Feel Good roundup for December 2020!

Read the next Feel Good roundup for December 2020 story!

Read the Feel Good roundup for December 2020!

My father and I have both always had interesting relationships with anything that uses electricity. He tends to have computers and cleaning appliances break for no explained reason, while I tend to have light bulbs blow around me. We also each have a lot of weird errors with any electronics we use in general, and while we don’t have an explanation for this phenomenon, many of my friends have observed and joked about it.

For instance, in my college physics lab, immediately before the lecture, we’re doing an assignment on circuits using five light bulbs. I pair up with one friend, while my cousin, also in the class, pairs up with another. Though I usually guide my friends through the labs because I have experience with physics in high school, my partner and I struggle because we can’t get the first light in the series circuit to work.

Me: “Let me make this a parallel circuit and see if the other lights come on.”

Sure enough, they do. We talk to the professor, who tells us to nab an unused light bulb. We replace the first bulb and continue through the experiment. However, as we proceed, each of the remaining light bulbs blows, and we continue replacing them. My professor has seemingly not noticed that we’ve blown all of our bulbs as he makes his way through the classroom. Finally, we make it through the experiment and think we’re done.

Professor: “[My Name], this is a crank battery. It transforms mechanical power into electrical power. See how hard it is to crank?”

He gives the crank to me so I can pump electricity into a series circuit. It’s fairly difficult and the lights are dimmer. Then, he turns the series into a parallel circuit, which makes the cranking much easier. The lights glow brighter… and one bulb blows. The professor stares at me. My friends, who have seen how many bulbs I’ve already blown, start to laugh. I hand the crank back to the professor.

Me: “I think it’s time for the lecture.”

I work at a Christian store that sells Bibles, gifts, apparel, and education supplies. This happens right before Christmas with a very crowded store. I’m helping a couple pick out a train set for their two young children who are playing nearby with a train we have set up.

Mom: “Are these pieces compatible with other train sets?”

Me: “I’m not sure. They should be.”

Mom: “I have some of the pieces in our car. Do you mind if I take one of these pieces from the table and compare it to ours?”

Me: “Not at all.”

The mom takes a train track piece out to their car and is gone for about five minutes. In that time, the dad starts talking to me about how his kids have been sick, they’ve been giving them breathing treatments, they have 102-degree fevers at that moment. I try to sound sympathetic as I inch slowly away from them.

Me: “Oh, no, that’s awful. Poor things.” 

The mom returned, saying the piece fit. They picked out a train set and went to check out. I ended up disinfecting that whole area.

I am a front end supervisor at a popular discount retail store. I arrive forty-five minutes prior to us opening to start my shift. A customer is standing next to me while I hit the buzzer to alert the manager I need to come into the building. This customer and I have been talking for a few minutes, my name tag and uniform clearly visible to her.)

Customer: “Oh, I never knew they had a doorbell!”

Me: “Yeah, it’s used for us employees to let the manager know we are here before opening for our shift.”

The customer completely ignores what I said.

Customer: “It’d be great if they let us in earlier!” 

My manager comes up to the door and unlocks it to let me in.

Customer: “OH! THEY ARE OPENING EARLY!”

Me: “Oh, I wish they would! It would be easier shopping for you! I’ll see you once we open!” 

The customer attempts to walk in after me but my manager slowly closes the door.

Manager: “We don’t open for another forty-five minutes, ma’am. She—” *referring to me* “—works here.” 

The customer gets irritated and raises her voice.

Customer: “SO I’M NOT AS GOOD AS HER TO BE LET IN EARLY? I HAVE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING TO DO AND IF SHE CAN GET IN EARLY, SO CAN I!”

Manager: “Ma’am, we are not open yet; we open in forty-five minutes. She’s obviously wearing a uniform with a name tag that clearly has our store’s name on it. I don’t understand how you could not see that she is an employee.” 

Customer: *Continuing to yell* “NO! YOU JUST THINK SHE IS BETTER THAN A CUSTOMER! HOW PATHETIC. NEVER AGAIN WILL I SHOP AT THIS STORE!” 

Forty-five minutes later, we open and she walks through the door. I greet her and she has her nose up in the air. Thirty minutes later, she comes to my checkout and says the following.

Customer: “I can’t believe you let me look like a stupid customer in front of your manager. You should be written up for that. ” 

Me: “Like my manager said, I’m clearly dressed in the store’s colors with black dress pants and a name tag that states the store name. I can’t help it if you didn’t notice it. I even told you the doorbell was for employees and you watched me as I pressed it. ” 

Customer: “WELL, I DEMAND A DISCOUNT!” 

Me: “Sorry, I can’t give a discount for you waiting for a store to open. And my manager will tell you the same.”

She ended up throwing her purchases at me and storming out.