Ted Barris

That Sunday afternoon just before Christmas, I arrived at the community centre in Mallorytown, in eastern Ontario, for a history talk. Members of the Mallory Coach House heritage group had decorated the hall, set out chairs and prepared refreshments for visitors.

It turned out to be a (pre-COVID) capacity audience. Only I was without an important ingredient for the event. I had none of my books to sell at the end of my talk. Then suddenly, out of the blue, this guy arrived with his car trunk full of my books.

“Tom Stormonth,” he said, “Beggar’s Banquet Books, in Gananoque.”

“That’s a fair hike to here, isn’t it? I asked.

Tom nodded. “Hey, it’s about getting your books out there, right?” And he added, “Merry Christmas.”

It’s the time of year for doing good deeds. Some say it goes without saying. But this week – with holiday carolling, feasting, card-exchanging, gift-giving, and other rituals of this season at hand – I think it is worth saying, that giving makes a difference.

And Tom Stormonth, who with his wife and business partner Alison Dunn, owns/operates the bookstore, is a perfect example. He’d heard I hadn’t any books on hand, loaded up his car with stock from their popular Gananoque store, Beggar’s Banquet Books, that Sunday afternoon, and drove the 50 kilometres to fill the gap.

There is no shortage of need in our community, around the world. And whether it’s the B.C. flood victims, nationwide toy drives for kids in need or filling the Christmas bowls provided by the Salvation Army, the act of giving has taken a dramatic hit in 2021.

Imagine Canada, a charity standards association, recently told CBC News that the pandemic has slowed donations this year. Their national survey showed that half of the 1,219 charitable organizations contacted have seen donations reach only half what they were a year ago.

I guess it’s an obvious segue, this time of year, but December never passes when I don’t think of those lines from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, when Ebenezer Scrooge’s nephew Fred comes to bid his curmudgeonly old uncle “a Merry Christmas.” Fred is rebuffed by the notoriously “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner” Scrooge, as he scowls his traditional “Humbug!”

But undaunted Fred recites, I think, the most indelible words from Dickens’ story.

“I have always thought of Christmas time … as a good time, a kind forgiving, charitable, pleasant time,” Fred tells Scrooge, “when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people … as fellow-travellers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”

Such an invocation has always given me pause and inspired my wish to help – whether it’s offering volunteer time, taking a few minutes to help a stranger or opening my cheque book to donate to local service clubs, charities or community projects that need a boost.

A couple of days ago, friend and fellow author Terry Fallis contacted me. (We recently appeared together during Blue Heron’s “Book Drunkard” Festival when I interviewed Terry about his latest book Operation Angus). But Terry had bad news. He’d just learned that booksellers Tom Stormonth and Alison Dunn had just suffered a devastating fire. No one was hurt. Firefighters managed to save Lola, the couple’s dog. But most of their home outside Gananoque was destroyed.

“We were sitting in the car with our dog,” Tom Stormonth told a local reporter, “watching our house burn in front of us, while the firefighters tried to knock down the flames.”

Over the years, I can remember many such losses around Christmastime. I’m sure like I, you’ve watched the monsoon-like flooding in British Columbia’s lower mainland the past few weeks. It’s no surprise that neighbours, service groups, the Canadian Red Cross, the CanadaHelps online fundraiser, Canadian Forces personnel and those moved by these events from across the country, have come together to help. Especially now.

So, with their example in mind, I want my giving this holiday season to make a difference.

Normally, I would sit down and sift through the invitations to donate we receive in the mail and decide to which arts group I’d like to make a decent donation. This year, my arts donation will go to Tom Stormonth and Alison Dunn, not just because they’ve helped authors and readers come together in a celebration of books, nor because of that Sunday afternoon at Mallorytown when Tom showed up to supply books at my talk.

But because, like Fred Scrooge said: “Though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe (Christmas giving) has done me good, and will do me good.”