Secret Santa visits local fast food restaurants
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IDAHO FALLS — Hundreds of people working at Bonneville County fast food restaurants and similar locations, received a Christmas surprise from an unexpected source this year.
The Secret Santa and his “elf” visited almost every fast food eatery in Idaho Falls and Ammon last Thursday – Christmas Eve – and dropped off $100 bills to everyone working.
It took approximately three hours to distribute a total of $25,000. (Santa ran out of cash with just four restaurants to go!)
Secret Santa and his wife chose fast food outlets because they thought those workers probably needed it as badly as anyone. They were also willing to be at work the night before Christmas rather than spending time celebrating with family and friends.
“Santa” felt the dedication to their family and their employer made them deserving of a little extra Christmas cheer. The Secret Santa and his family have been making similar Santa visits to fast food restaurants in Idaho Falls on Christmas Eve for the past several years.
On Christmas Eve a local worker posted on Facebook:
“So today at work, end of our day (around 3), a young guy walks in and tells me he’s got a secret Santa gift for all of us. There were four of us left in a very, very long week before Christmas. He handed each of us a white envelope and left. We said thank you and Merry Christmas. He left and we opened the envelopes to find $100 in each envelope. We were all so shocked we didn’t even know what to do. That put us all back into the Christmas spirit to finish off our day.”
While they may have been downhearted for having to work the night before a holiday, things suddenly changed.
We often hear about the over-commercialization of Christmas and how the world is forgetting the true meaning of the holiday. That may be true. But, for a few hours last week, some folks in Idaho Falls were unexpectedly reminded of the true spirit of Christmas.
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