The Good List Is Flowering This Year

(I work at a craft and hobby store. it is a few weeks before Christmas, so we have all kinds of Christmas merchandise. One very slow night I’m straightening up an aisle, and a mom sends her young daughter, four to five years old, over to give me some flowers she picked up off the floor. The daughter clearly wants to keep them, but the mom is teaching her about stealing and how you have to pay for things in stores.)

Daughter: *very politely* “Here you go. I found these on the floor, and my mom said I probably should give them to you to put away because we don’t have money to buy them today.”

Me: “Oh, my goodness, thank you! Now, I’ll tell you a little secret. These flowers are actually broken.” *they had fallen off their stems, so it was only the bloom* “So I can’t sell them any more. Would you like to keep them? You did the right thing by bringing them to me, so it’s my way of saying ‘thank you!'”

Daughter: “Oh, yes, thank you! Mommy, mommy, the nice lady said I get to keep them!”

(I explain to the mother that I would just have to throw them away otherwise. Because we’re so slow, I then go to the back to get some other broken flowers that I had taken back earlier. I tell my coworkers to bring me any they have, too. While getting the flowers, I also find some extra floral wire laying around, so I tell a coworker to keep an eye on the mother-daughter duo and not let them leave while I make something really fast. When I’m done, I go out to find the family again.)

Me: “Hi, remember me? Well, I was just so impressed by how good you were being that I went and made a little something for you.” *I pull out a little flower crown that I made from the blooms and wire*

Daughter: “FOR ME?! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!”

Me: “Yep, I think it’s perfect for a polite little princess like yourself. And just so you know, it’s true that Santa’s always watching. We elves are everywhere!” *I put on one of our store “elf hats” and my coworkers come around the corner wearing the hats, too* “You really impressed him today, so he called and asked us to give you that crown!”

(The little girl was speechless, and the mother couldn’t thank us enough. Hopefully, we just helped mold a good future customer!)