How's Your Santa Doing?

It was a few days before Christmas and it seemed like everything was going wrong. The biggest issue I had as the store manager of the Sharper Image store was that two stock guys quit right before Christmas. This created a real challenge since this store had multiple remote stockrooms on different floors.

We were already a bit challenged since some of my people were college students and we had agreed to let them leave to go home for the holidays. It was unusual to let people not work through Christmas but the rest of the team had agreed to work longer hours so these kids could go home. We had enough staff - we thought - except we weren't planning on being down stock guys.

I had been working some very long shifts and was getting pretty thin on patience and tolerance and what holiday spirit I'd had was long gone. The last thing I needed was to lose those stock guys. Without the stock guys we had to run for our own stock which required us to use a public set of stairs to the main remote stockroom.

The first time I had to run down the stairs to get product I was annoyed because a mother and her three children were blocking the bottom of the stairs. I rushed passed them and asked them to please move. I wouldn't say that I was gracious about it but I wasn't obnoxious either. I was really too busy to be either. A few minutes later I had to run down the stairs again and saw that the family had moved over to the side. This time I noticed that this was not a family who would normally shop in this upscale mall and had probably stopped in to get warm on their way somewhere else.

A few minutes later they came in the store and started to look around. I didn't pay much attention since we were busy and I knew they weren't going to buy anything. I was actually a little annoyed with them since it seemed the kids were always in the way when I was trying to show something to a customer. We had cleared out the rush and for a few minutes about the only people left in this store was this family. As they walked by me, one of the children said to the mother that he sure hoped Santa was going to bring him a remote control car like the one he had just played with. She put her arm around the child and said, "I'm sure you'll like whatever Santa brings you. Don't forget, Santa's had a tough year." And off they went, down the escalator and out the door.

Clearly the mother was preparing her children to not be disappointed with the presents she could afford to give them. All day I kept thinking over and over about what she said, "Santa's had a tough year." I realized that I was so wrapped up in work and my "challenges" that I had lost the spirit of the holiday. I was failing to see all the wonderful things in my life.

My Santa wasn't having a tough year at all. I had a great job, a terrific staff, a wonderful new wife, and an overall fabulous life. I had just gotten too busy to remember. As I walked to the train that night I made sure to throw a little something in every red bucket I could and give out a few extra dollars to the homeless. I may not have been able to help that family, but I did find my holiday spirit again.

Some fifteen years later I was walking through the same area with my family after enjoying a Boston Pops concerts and I couldn't help but think how blessed I am. I know you'll be insanely busy this weekend. I hope you take a moment to remember how well your Santa is doing. At that concert  Pops conductor Keith Lockhart asked Santa Claus what the true spirit of Christmas is. Santa replied that it isn't about the good things you do for others at Christmas time but the Christmas things you do for others the rest of the year. I do hope you and your staff can help someone else's Santa have a good year.