# 'tis the season to be jolly **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 22, 2007, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927 "2007-12-22T11:48:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927/1 "2007-12-22T11:48:18Z")
Yes it is the season all right. But for many it is not. We are the fortunate ones, we will be surrounded by family,friends and loved ones over the Christmas period. Seated around the table we will eat good food and drink good drink and afterwards, after all the gifts have been unwrapped, we will slump on the sofa full of good cheer as well as food. We’ll talk about all sorts of things, play silly games, open bottles, cans and scoff chocolate and other sweet stuff…eventually we’ll tire and fall asleep. When we wake we’ll go back to eating again and when the day is over we’ll retire to a warm bed and sleep the sleep of the happy. Before you drift off think on this: There are people out there, human beings just like us who will not have had a good Christmas. Instead they will have struggled in much the same way as they do each day of the year…I speak specifically of the homeless. These poor unfortunates will have no bed to climb into, they will lie in shop doorways, park benches and any place available to them which will afford them some sort of protection from the elements. They will have unwrapped no presents although they will probably have remembered a time when they did, before all their dreams, hopes and aspirations were shattered. They’ll remember their youth and all the plans they had for a bright future, plans which came to nothing. They’ll perhaps remember a time when they had a family, a home and money in the bank, a time when things were not so harsh…and they’ll be sad at these memories. Think on this…that could have been me or you or anyone of us ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927/2 "2007-12-22T12:22:06Z")
There’s a fair few I know of this season who have a home, but no family and their friends busy enough with their own families that all their time is taken up. To those out there who are alone and sad, with or without a home – you have my thoughts. Very good OP, **chowder**. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927/3 "2007-12-22T18:32:30Z")
Read this piece this morning – seemed appropriate for the thread : [the Larry Stewart story.](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10483925) > [@](#): > > Susan Dahl was homeless, hungry, tired and broke when a tall man in a red coat and red hat sat next to her in the downtown bus station of Kansas City, Missouri. > > Dahl, 56, who had just completed a harrowing 10-hour bus trip through sleet and snow, said the man prodded her quietly, asking where she was going and “if everything was all right”. > > “Actually, I was rather crabby, and I told him ‘No. I need an ice pack for my back and I can’t get one’,” she said between sobs. > > “He wanted to know why I couldn’t buy food, and I told him, ‘I don’t have any money. I’m homeless’.” > > “He said, ‘Here’s a $100 bill… and this is in the memory of Larry Stewart’.” ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927/4 "2007-12-22T18:54:25Z")
Damn, that article [set me off](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=448756) again. I don’t normally give to the homeless, but in this cold, and at this time of year I do, and I don’t care what they do with the money - a night in a shelter, alcohol, drugs, it doesn’t matter. Whatever they need to get them through. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927/5 "2007-12-22T19:33:48Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927/6 "2007-12-22T21:00:58Z")
Great OP, **Chowder**. It is very sad to think of those who have so little when we have so much. A man approached my brother on the street today and asked for $3 so he and his girlfriend could take the bus (presumably to go home or go to work). As I sit here typing on a $1500 computer, there is a $2 bottle of Coke on my desk that I thought nothing of buying. It gives me chills to imagine what it’s like not to have $3 in my pocket. And you’re very right, it’s only good fortune that keeps me from being in that man’s position. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927/7 "2007-12-23T08:29:16Z")
[QUOTE=Czarcasm] Moving thread from IMHO to MPSIMS. [/QUOTE] I wasn’t quite certain which forum to post in. Even so I don’t think my post belongs in this one but you being a mod and all … ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927/8 "2007-12-23T14:21:15Z")
Yesterday I bought some gift cards from McDonald’s. I keep them in the car to give to the homeless. I actually sought out this homeless couple I see all the time. I gave them $10 in certificates, and some buy-one-get-one-free coupons and they were very grateful. It’s not much, but it will feed them for a day or two. When I found them they were playing Christmas music on their little radio! It was heart-warming. I see beggars and homeless people all the time. I can afford to spend $20 or so every couple of months and give them out. I think I’ll do this more than just at Christmas. It feels good! Merry Christmas, everyone! ---
**Author:** ![Sassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927/9 "2007-12-23T17:08:49Z")
A related idea: [Untied Way](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1996/12/09/DD57735.DTL) ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly/430927/10 "2007-12-23T23:37:54Z")
**Sassy** , I misread your link, and still clicked on it. I love it.