my favourite real-life Christmas story

At this time of year I'm always reminded of my favourite spontaneous Christmas experience.  I wrote about this a few years ago, so forgive me if you've heard the story before.

I was shopping on Christmas Eve in a large department store, along with hundreds of mad 'last-minuters'.  Queues for the cash registers reached way back through the store and the air-conditioning had failed.

We'd been standing there for more than forty minutes when the lights in the store flicked and failed.  Worse - the registers went down!  There was a horrified, collective gasp...

I looked at the bulging trolleys - pushed by frazzled shoppers who still had hours of organising to do and thought, 'this isn't going to be pretty...'

Then, right before the anticipated explosion of complaints, a lone voice started singing, somewhere way back in the store.

'Dashing through the snow...'

Silence.

'In a one-horse open sleigh...'

A ripple of quiet laughter.

'O'er the fields we go...'

Clapping.

'Laughing all the way...'

Cheering!

Then, like we'd been rehearsing for months, a choir of hundreds joined in with the chorus!

People cried (I was one of them).  It was a beautiful, beautiful situation to be in - trapped in a shopping queue on Christmas Eve, with no power.

Christmas can become stressful if we let it.  Alternatively, we can let the hassles and the heat and the tensions wash over us and focus on having fun with people, like that we did that day the the department store, when one voice instantly and easily changed the mood from riotous to joyful.

Have a wonderful break, a peaceful Christmas and a fun, relaxed holiday season.  Thank you so much for your continued support, feedback and engagement with WorkLifeBliss throughout 2011.