As a kid, I can remember riding in my parents car, looking out the window, and seeing literally every store, restaurant, and service in town closed for Christmas – it’s why there was always a little bit of panic on Christmas Eve about having enough food in the house for Christmas, because if we didn’t, well, we wouldn’t have anywhere to get more. As the years went by, more and more things started to open on December 25 and, flash forward to 2018, now you can find plenty of eateries, coffee shops, movie theaters, grocery stores, and more are open on Christmas Day (you can check out a list here). And while it’s nice to have a reason to get out of the house (you can only watch that Yule Log stream for so long), it does suck that some people have to punch the clock in order for it to happen. But there’s something you can do to make things a bit better for everyone.
Tip the hell out of everyone on Christmas
Yeah, that’s right. Everyone. You might already be doing this for the restaurant staff for your Christmas dinner, but go ahead and hand out a couple of bills to the girl who takes your movie ticket and the barista who whips you up a holiday latte too.
I worked a movie theater in my teens and had a handful of people throw down Christmas tips and those people were, and this is a technical term, rad.
Be one of those rad people.
People working Christmas will remember what you did, you will make being away from their family on Christmas suck just a little bit less, and, who knows, maybe one day it will come full circle and they will write a blog about it just like this one.
“But these people are getting paid and they’re lucky to have jobs,” your uncle in the red hat will say. And that will be a good reminder that you should probably tip a little extra because dealing with that dude is always such a pain in the ass for people everywhere you go but he’s family and why, exactly, did he get invited to go to the movies anyway?
And while tipping is the best on Christmas, there’s one thing that is the worst. Do not be one of those people who goes the whole, “oh, what a bummer it is that you have to work on Christmas route.” Umm, dude, they wouldn’t have to work if you weren’t shopping, eating, or whatever there. But, it is what it is, so just thank them, fork over a couple of bucks or lottery tickets or some other awesome thing and make them think you got visited by three ghosts in the middle of the night.
