“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be said of us, and all of us! Charles Dickens, ‘A Christmas Carol’
As we keep Christmas, and keep Christmas well, we would do well to keep the Christmas tradition of tipping those who bring us mail all year–including our Christmas packages–and those who haul off what we can’t use. A Christmas card with a few bucks and a ‘Thanks for all you do.’ means much more than the money. It’s an acknowledgement from all of us that they do a good job all year ’round.
Imagine yourself, high up in the cab, backing a garbage truck down an icy hill, in Alaska’s dark December, cars parked on both sides, where they’re not supposed to be, but are because there’s no place else to park with all that snow. It takes skill and a lot of nerve. Someone has to do it.
And as far as money, you don’t have to give a lot. If you think about it our mail carriers and garbage collectors have hundreds of homes on their routes. Say, 400 households on the lower end. If even half the homes they serve gives them a card with $10, that would cover a nice part of their holiday.
As if that’s not enough, your few bucks works for you all year long as the trucks wait for you as you roll your can down the driveway on garbage day, or run a letter out to the mail truck. The drivers know that you know they do a good job. Maybe it’s a small thing, but it’s one of those small things that communities are built of.
