The Christmas Gift

by Robin
(New Jersey)

We found out that a Christmas gift doesn't have to cost anything. My husband worked as a corrections officer at a county jail. Like a police department, you work night, weekends, and holidays. Our daughter was 4 at the time and we were so deeply disappointed that my husband would have to work all Christmas day. Especially since it was the first year our daughter would really understand Christmas and what it was all about and be excited about Santa coming etc. We were bummed about this for three weeks.

Two days before Christmas, my husband's sargeant called him at home and asked him how he felt about working Christmas. When my husband answered, his sargeant said he was going to see what he could do about it. We were shocked because we couldn't imagine what he could do about it - employees were warned of the consequences of calling out on a holiday or the day before or after it.

Well, it turns out that what the sargeant did for us was go into work for my husband Christmas day! He told us the day before Christmas that since his kids were grown, his wife and he agreed to give a Christmas gift to one of the guys with young children by working for them so they could be home with their family and this year he picked my husband.

I can't begin to tell you how touched we were. This man spent nothing, but gave us such a meaningful gift and we were astounded. He wanted absolutely nothing in return (some guys were working deals to have others work for them for big cash and we could not afford this). He was our Christmas miracle!