For the past 23 years, our Jewish family has enjoyed Christmas Day by dining at our favorite Chinese restaurant. It’s a tradition that we look forward to every year.
December 25th, 2009
After we were seated and had placed our order, I noticed an attractive elderly woman dressed up in holiday attire, sitting alone at a table. I watched as a young man came up to the table and invited her to sit with him and his wife. She paused as if not wanting to intrude on his holiday meal, but after the man assured her that they would love the company, she consented to join them. I watched as during the meal they engaged in conversation and appeared to be having a nice time.
I have another tradition during the holidays. I spontaneously give out chocolate gifts to people who I see go out of their way to spread goodwill. As I saw the young man finishing his dinner, I slipped him a gift and thanked him for his kindness toward a stranger. Before he left, he came up to my table to thank me for the chocolate and to let me know how much he and his wife enjoyed sharing their holiday meal . The stranger was from Germany and turned out to be a very interesting dinner companion.
After they left, several more tables of people (including ours) struck up conversations and we quickly discovered things we all had in common.
As I was driving home, I started thinking how nice it would be if every day… people treated each other as if it was Christmas!
