A Random Act Of Kindness That Made My Christmas

A tale of fake snow and hard lessons that weren’t learnt that year

© Susie Kearley

I was about 6 or 7 years old, standing in the local hardware store with all my money. I looked longingly at the spray snow, which I wanted to decorate the windows at Christmas.

I’d been told I had to save up if I wanted snow, so I’d saved all my pocket money for weeks. I’d probably saved some birthday money too, as my pocket money was only 5p. In my grubby little purse was everything I’d got.

I went up to the counter, full of anticipation, and asked the old man there for a can of spray snow. He picked one up off the shelf and gave it to me, quoting the price. I put my money on the counter. There wasn’t enough.

Mum and dad stood there. He looked at them, they looked at me.

I knew it. I was about to get another lesson about life being hard. About knowing the value of money. About not being able to have everything I wanted.

I didn’t want everything. I just wanted snow.

Dad used to say, “When you’re earning your own money, you can have whatever you want. But until then, the answer is ‘no’”. Parts of my childhood could have been scenes straight out of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.