Some people hide their eyes and look down when they slip money in the red bucket, like they don’t want to be noticed.
Some nod and tell you they will get you on the way out, and they do.
Some cheerfully smile and return your Merry Christmas with an even merrier one.
Some avoid eye contact all together and make a wide arc to get into the store’s door.  These are the ones who seem sad to me.   It isn’t that they don’t give, it is their expressions.
We smile anyway.

The children have the most fun of all.

My girls have always loved to fold the money or plunk the coins one by one into the small hole in the red kettle.  Gabrielle tried to get her eyeball into the hole to see the money.

One year, it was freezing, we bought a hot chocolate for a bell ringer who shivered in front of a Wal-mart.  It was bitter cold meets icy wind.  We brought it back for him and he paid us with a big smile.

This year it was nearly 70 degrees!

With no bells last year, we thought we had hit the jackpot!
…. 3 bells and 2 aprons!  We even got the bells in rhythm.
…..And shortly discovered that hand bell ringers, we are not.
But we sure can make some noise!
We had a blast.

Consider the bell ringers this CHRISTmas!  Consider Salvation Army too 🙂

Psalm 41

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.