As I entered the little shop, I could not help but hear the two women discussing giving gifts. “When they were little I always gave them something, a toy or a game. As they got older I began giving them money. But I wanted to do something else.”
She looked for ideas of different ways to give checks, cash or gift cards.
Every year, she filled two dishes with snacks for guests to enjoy. One held peppermints, the other held nuts that she had shelled and picked out the meat. Everyone enjoyed the tradition of nuts and peppermints.
One year, she put the peppermints in little jars and placed them around the tree rather than putting the peppermints in a snack dish. No one pointed out the change, but finally, one grandson sighed, “I want a peppermint.” eyeing the pretty jars under the tree.
“Well help yourself to a jar under the tree,” she said.
He walked over to the tree, picked a jar, opened it and shook out some peppermints and some money. He looked up and smiled. “That’s your gift,” she grinned at him.
The others soon caught on and each chose a jar.
She could not repeat the same gift giving idea the next year, so the white-haired woman kept looking for fun ways to present them with their cash.
“Then I read this idea where you open a walnut, take out the inside and then put the cash or check into the walnut and seal it shut again.”
She looked at the other woman in the shop, “You do not know how many walnuts I cracked trying to get a perfect shell to reseal.” She said dryly and shook her head at the memory.
But crack the walnuts she did, until she had perfect half shells for each member of the family. She carefully folded the cash, tucked it into the shells and sealed each one shut. Then she set up a row of little bags, one for each member of the family, She put in the cash walnut, then filled each bag with other nuts .
The family came. Gathered, ate peppermints and wondered what happened to her usual stash of shelled nuts. “I didn’t feel like shelling all those nuts, but I do have a sack of nuts for you to shell,” she handed each a sack of unshelled nuts.
“I don’t want nuts in the shell. I won’t crack them,” some muttered.
She shrugged, if they didn’t want them, that was their problem she had offered them a gift.
As a few began to gather coats to go home and leave the nuts with her, she insisted, “before you go, since you do not want to crack and shell the nuts, I want you to crack the nuts. Then I can take off the shells and get the meat. Here are hammers for you to use.”
They looked at her in disbelief. She wanted them to crack the nuts?! She always cracked and shelled the nuts. Reluctantly, a couple of the guys each picked up a hammer and began cracking nuts for grandma. No one joined them until one cracked open a resealed nut and discovered cash. Suddenly everyone wanted a hammer to shell the nuts in their bag.
She still smiles at the fun she had giving them their monetary gift that year. “That was the best idea ever,” she said as I brought my purchases to the counter.
And it is. I may try it myself. I like to give cash. My husband likes to crack nuts. Yep, it’s a perfect idea.