Just A Ceramic Tree…

As the holidays roll around, I’ll be honest I become a bit overwhelmed. For hairdressers this is our “season” of never sitting down. This comes as no surprise to many because who doesn’t want to look pretty for your holidays.(hello this chick is thankful you do) I look back on before I did hair and I guess to me everything was magical. Now don’t get me wrong, when I had kids, that magic returned and watching them Christmas morning is still amazing. I tell this story because the holidays start next week and for some it’s the worst time for many reasons. They have lost a child or loved one. Maybe they don’t have family period. So for people all around us…YOU may be the only “Happy Holidays” they may get.

When you sit in my chair we are going to talk. Whether it be about you, your family, your animals, your love for model airplanes or just chit chat, I’m gonna make you interact for the time you are there. I had a very special customer named Sandra. Her and her daughter would come and to me they were the light to my day. We shared stories of their past and present and one day I told them the story of my “Nanny’s Ceramic Christmas tree”. See as she got older, she was not much for pulling out the big tree, so instead she’d taped her Christmas cards she got around her door in her den. She also set her “Ceramic Christmas Tree” on her tv. Trust me to me it was fantastic. I don’t know why but it brought me comfort every year when I would see it. When she passed it was just a known thing that I was going to get the tree. It was my most prized possession of hers besides her dressing table. When it came time, it seemed to have vanished. We searched for what seems like forever and to no avail we came up empty..there’s a part here in the story I’ll leave out because I was ugly and honestly not proud of how I acted. Years past on and I shared this story with Sandra and Trina just as I had many other stories. I even think we had talked about good vacuum cleaners too. Lol. So around Christmas they come walking in with a big vacuum cleaner box. I was so excited because anyone who knows me knows I have horrible luck with vacuums. Oh but when I opened that box there it was… it was the identical ceramic tree my Nanny had. I literally went to pieces. I’m not sure they were ready for that kind of response but I can say that in that moment my holidays were magical. In fact, I left the ceramic tree up until April that year. I know…way too long but it was like even though it wasn’t the real one it was enough.

Sometimes just by listening and just by doing one small gesture you can change someone’s whole day, year even. So I encourage you to be the Sandra and Trina in someone’s life. Listen to people’s stories. Maybe their mom past away and she made pecan pies and that’s your specialty. Maybe your friend always went with her kids to look at Christmas lights and they have moved away. Just listen. It doesn’t have to be a gift or an event.. you could just call them and invite them to your house or out to dinner. I’ll never be able to share the amount of joy I received that year and years to come from that simple act of kindness. Be that person. Oh and I don’t worry about the real ceramic tree. Someone probably needed it more then me. Maybe it got put out in a goodwill stack. No matter why, it worked out perfectly and to make the story better my mom told her neighbor about it and he brought her one too. So we both get the magic. Happy Holidays and be safe. Be kind and listen ❤️