Christmas Hat

She was on her way to buy the hat. She had been saving up for several weeks. Every time she was in town, she had checked that it was still in the shop window. That it hadn't been sold. And now she was on her way to buy it, the money in her purse.

It was the dog that first attracted her attention. She stopped to pet it and talk to it before she registered the presence of the young man sitting on the pavement with his neatly-lettered card. The young man was polite and presentable. What was he doing here? With the dog and the sign and the upturned hat containing a few coins? She felt sorry for the polite, presentable man and for his poor, homeless dog. She should put some money in his hat. But, apart from the amount reserved for her hat, she had hardly any money in her purse. It would be insulting to the young man to put such a small sum into his hat. But if she gave him a reasonable amount - five pounds came to mind - then she would not be able to buy the hat today. And she had a sudden certainty that, if she didn't buy the hat today, then someone else would buy it. Maybe someone else was already on their way to the shop with the express purpose of buying her hat? She couldn't bear the idea of waiting another week with that uncertainty. What could she do?

She smiled as the answer came to her. She emptied ALL of the money from her purse into the polite young man's hat, patted the dog on the head one more time and walked on.

An Advent calendar. A family heirloom containing painted wooden surprises behind its doors. Every year, the same objects are taken out and admired - one a day. But each year, they are put behind different doors.