Nov
14
2016

The Saga Of The Sign

Posted in Christmas | 3 Comments

In the mail each day, there are always items that can be classified as junk.
When my husband brings in the mail, he separates it on the kitchen island.
You got some catalogs; I put them on your desk.
I always want to answer him, They are not my catalogs; they are junk mail.

There they are on my desk in the kitchen.
Catalogs with names of stores I do not know.
Catalogs for places I have never ordered from before.
I always wonder how my name gets on the list to receive them.

Every one of those catalogs goes into recycling.
I never order from them yet they still come.
Imagine the cost of printing the catalog and then mailing it to people like me.
The companies must have done some feasibility study that I cannot comprehend.

Tucked in the pile of junk catalogs was one catalog I have ordered from before.
It is a wonderful country catalog with items that fit the decor of our home.
I have ordered from this catalog  a few times before.
This is one catalog I enjoy perusing.

When I settled down later that night with my cup of tea, I paged through the catalog.
There on the right hand page, right at the top was a country sign.
It was a vintage Merry Christmas sign.
The sign caught my eye.

I usually buy one new Christmas decoration each year.
It is usually something whimsical and primitive.
It cannot be just any thing.
It has to be the right thing.

This sign was it.
It was made of vertical boards of old wood.
There was a red pickup truck with a Christmas tree in the back drawn on the boards.
The truck appeared to be driving in a snow covered field with pine trees on either side.

I knew just the place for the sign.
I have seen red pick up trucks with Christmas trees on other things at Christmas time.
This was different.
This was made of old barn wood and had a red strip of tin on the top and the bottom.

The price was a little higher than I wanted to spend.
Then I saw there was a discount that was going to expire in a few days.
The total cost of the sign was a bit under the amount needed for the significant discount.
I added three other little items to make up the difference.

All the items came to the original cost of the sign.
I was excited about my purchase and couldn’t wait for my sign to arrive.
A confirmation email was sent.
I was mentally placing the sign in the place I selected.

Two days later I got another email.

We have been informed by our vendor that they have sold out of the Merry Christmas Vintage Truck sign so we have had to cancel this from your order. However, our vendor does have a similar sign with the exact same design for the same price, but it says “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.”

I was so disappointed.
I had just received the catalog in the mail.
How could they have sold out so quickly?
I was to inform them if I wanted to replace the sign with one that said, Happy Holidays.

I knew my answer: No.
I called the company anyway because I wanted to see if they were going to restock the sign.
The answer was, No.
All they had left were signs that said, Happy Holidays.

I went online to check the item after I hung up the phone.
There in large, red letters I read: SOLD OUT.
Under the picture of the sign I saw the artist’s name.
I decided to email her directly.

I sent her a email, telling her how much I loved her rustic artwork.
I told her the saga of the sign.
I asked her if she knew of any other place where that particular sign was sold.
Hours later, the artist emailed me back.

She had contacted her vendor and asked them to contact me.
She hoped that somewhere in my state there was a vintage Merry Christmas sign.
The next day, I received an email from the vendor.
Graciously, they listed seven stores in my state that carried the sign.

At 4:00 on a Friday afternoon I began my search.
I Googled the name of the store and found their phone number.
I called and explained the nature of my search.
Each person I talked to was sweet and extremely helpful.

Oh, we only had a few of those signs.
They were really pretty.
I will call you back after I check our storeroom.
On every return call I could tell by the tone of their voice the search was not successful.

Finally, I called the last store and the woman said, We had that sign.
This is our Christmas open house weekend and we are quite busy; let me call you back.
After about an hour, the woman called me back.
I have the sign, she said excitedly as she began to describe it.

Vertical boards of wood, red pick up truck with a Christmas tree, and Happy Holidays.
No! That is what led me to call you in the first place.
I don’t want it to say, Happy Holidays; I want it to say, Merry Christmas.
Wait,
she said as I heard noise in the background, I have only one left!

One sign with vertical boards, a red pick up truck with a Christmas tree and Merry Christmas.
We talked for a bit and I told her what the artist had told me.
There were years where she was discouraged to put Merry Christmas on her art.
Discouraged or not, that did not dismay her.

The woman and I noticed the irony.
All the Merry Christmas signs were gone while the Happy Holidays signs remained.
Well, we say Merry Christmas in our store, the woman said.
We talked for a few minutes and realized that we had the Lord in common.

I found the store on Facebook and liked their page.
The store is six hours away in the western part of the state.
Pictured behind an old fashioned counter was the woman I talked to on the phone.
This is a store I would definitely frequent if I lived nearby.

I emailed the artist and the vendor to tell them that my search was successful.
I thanked them for everything they did for me.
The price of the sign was a little less than the one in the catalog.
The woman even gave me the Christmas Open House discount.

I thought of what Charles Dickens wrote as he told the story of Scrooge in, A Christmas Carol.
I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
Honor Christmas in my heart means, saying Merry Christmas without thinking twice.
Keep it all the year, means never forgetting that Love came down that first Christmas.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Honor Christmas in my heart, means honoring the One who was born on that day.
Every day, we remember that divine Love came down in the form of a baby.
The baby, Jesus, is the Son of God.
Jesus, who saves the people from their sin, became man.

Happy Holidays cannot even begin to capture the meaning of Christmas.
That Happy Holidays greeting secularizes the divine.
We are not celebrating plural holidays.
We are celebrating one glorious day when the Son of God took on flesh.

We are celebrating the day that God became man.
We are remembering that Jesus’ birth was the fulfillment of many years of waiting.
Jesus’ birth was the answer to a promise.
Jesus went through everything we experience yet was without sin.

This is the saga of my Vintage Merry Christmas sign.
This is the story of its journey.
I am anxious to open the package when it arrives.
Love came down that Christmas.

Merry, Joyful, Holy, Promised Christmas.

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3 responses to “The Saga Of The Sign”

  1. I am the salesperson that sold that sign to the store that sent the sign to you. The owner of the store just sent me your blog because she thought I would appreciate it. I do appreciate it. Rarely do customers share this kind of story or maybe few customers truly appreciate the “extra mile” the small independent store owners go to to satisfy a customer. Not only is my job in jeopardy of fading away but so is the small businesses across our country and that truly will be a great loss – much greater than any of us can foresee.
    Thank you for sharing.

    • Karen,
      I am extremely grateful to you for going that “extra mile.” God willing, that sign will be part of our Christmas decorations for many years to come. Small businesses are the backbone of our country. We cannot lose them. The personal touch is so important. Someone knowing your name as you come in the door is such a blessing. I truly appreciate you. I am grateful to every person along the way that helped get that wonderful sign to my door. Thank you for taking the time to write to me. Blessings.
      Gina

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