A very mer­ry Christ­mas and hap­py hol­i­days to every­one in our love­ly T&T. While we know that we have 12 months’ no­tice, doesn’t Christ­mas seem to speed around the sun every year? Per­haps it’s be­cause we are so pre­oc­cu­pied with life and liv­ing that time slips by al­most un­no­ticed.

Yet, when De­cem­ber ar­rives, the sea­son re­minds us of the beau­ty of hu­man­i­ty. The gift-giv­ing, the warmer-than-usu­al em­braces, the cheer­ful ex­change of greet­ings be­tween strangers and the joy of shar­ing meals.

This is the sea­son of cheer and good­will, with its grand ges­tures and even grander cul­ture of mer­ri­ment. It is as though we place our cares and fears on pause, al­low­ing our spir­its to breathe freely, if on­ly for a while. For many in­di­vid­u­als, Christ­mas is al­so the mark­er of an­oth­er mile­stone on the lo­cal hori­zon. Car­ni­val, the true sea­son of rev­el­ry.

Still, amidst the mer­ri­ment, there is an un­com­fort­able truth. Some be­hav­iours are sim­ply per­for­ma­tive. Smiles with­out sin­cer­i­ty and greet­ings with­out warmth. Yet, even these feigned ges­tures can­not dim the high-spirit­ed­ness of the sea­son. The gen­uine and the su­per­fi­cial co­ex­ist and some­how, the col­lec­tive pos­i­tive en­er­gy of Christ­mas over­whelms the in­sin­cer­i­ty.

We must al­so ac­knowl­edge those for whom Christ­mas is not a hap­py time. De­spon­den­cy can range from mild melan­choly, to deep grief. Too of­ten, these in­di­vid­u­als, some­times our own team­mates, mask their un­hap­pi­ness with smiles. If they don’t, they are dis­missed as grinch­es. In re­al­i­ty, they may be car­ry­ing the weight of loss, fi­nan­cial strain, or re­la­tion­ship tur­moil. Un­kind re­marks, un­fair la­belling, or in­sen­si­tive be­hav­iours should not be the go-to re­ac­tions to these in­di­vid­u­als.

This sea­son calls for grace, not judge­ment. Not every­one can sum­mon re­silience when sur­round­ed by ex­cess. Ex­tend­ing com­pas­sion is one of the most gen­uine gifts that we can give to oth­ers.

In this sea­son, com­pas­sion­ate ges­tures must be demon­strat­ed by both in­di­vid­u­als and busi­ness­es. Just as we are called to be at­ten­tive in our per­son­al lives, by lis­ten­ing with­out in­ter­rup­tion, ac­knowl­edg­ing the feel­ings of oth­ers and paus­ing self-cen­tred­ness, so too must busi­ness­es prac­tice at­ten­tive­ness.

De­tails mat­ter. Con­sid­er the car park. Is your busi­ness pre­pared for the surge in traf­fic? Too of­ten, bot­tle­necks arise from care­less dri­ving and “wrong and strong” at­ti­tudes. The so­lu­tion is not a sim­ple one; it’s root­ed in com­mon sense.

Place an at­ten­dant in the car park to reg­u­late traf­fic. In­side the store, thought­ful traf­fic man­age­ment can ease wait-time dis­tress. These small acts of care trans­form frus­tra­tion in­to re­lief, and re­lief in­to loy­al­ty.

Equal­ly im­por­tant, is the spir­it of joy. Un­like hap­pi­ness, which is tied to out­comes, joy can co­ex­ist with chal­lenges. It is a deep­er, more en­dur­ing en­er­gy. Shar­ing joy is as sim­ple as shar­ing good­will. Wish­ing oth­ers well, of­fer­ing a smile, or let­ting an­oth­er dri­ver fil­ter in­to your lane are all acts of good­will.

On the busi­ness end, it’s a cashier who re­mem­bers to ask a par­ent about his or her child’s re­cu­per­a­tion progress, af­ter the lat­ter has ex­pe­ri­enced an ill­ness. It’s al­so a se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer who of­fers a hol­i­day greet­ing, when cus­tomers are en­ter­ing and leav­ing the busi­ness. These are not triv­ial ges­tures. They are acts of good­will that rip­ple out­ward, en­er­gis­ing both giv­er and re­ceiv­er. They are mem­o­ry mile­stones, act­ing as emo­tion­al threads that bind cus­tomer to busi­ness. Joy is con­ta­gious and when busi­ness­es recog­nise loy­al cus­tomers, the good news spreads far and wide.

This sea­son is crit­i­cal for busi­ness­es that de­pend on Christ­mas sales to an­chor their rev­enue for the rest of the year. Wise lead­ers know that suc­cess is not on­ly about trans­ac­tions. Treat­ing em­ploy­ees well is both hu­mane and strate­gic, be­cause good­will poured in­to staff, in­evitably flows in­to cus­tomer in­ter­ac­tions.

Cheer and care, when paired, be­come more than sea­son­al niceties. They are pow­er­ful tools of brand dis­tinc­tive­ness.

For busi­ness­es that em­brace this prin­ci­ple, Christ­mas is not mere­ly a time to cap­i­talise on cus­tomer spend­ing. It presents an op­por­tu­ni­ty to es­tab­lish a defin­ing mile­stone in cul­tur­al lega­cy. It is a chance to prove that “val­ued cus­tomer” is not a per­func­to­ry phrase but a lived re­al­i­ty.

Christ­mas cheer and Christ­mas care re­mind us that both in­di­vid­u­als and busi­ness­es have the pow­er to el­e­vate the sea­son be­yond rit­u­al. When cheer meets care, hu­man­i­ty shines brighter and cus­tomer ex­pe­ri­ence be­comes not just about ser­vice ex­cel­lence, but about per­son­alised cus­tomer sto­ries.

Those that cus­tomers re­mem­ber, long af­ter the dec­o­ra­tions come down.