Spirit of Giving Animates People, Nature on Christmas

America was in a giving mood this Christmas, with mail carriers trudging through the snow bearing last-minute packages, bikers in leather serving up peas and pumpkin pie and an anonymous Santa in Georgia buying groceries for a struggling family.

Nick Giannaris gave dinner to about 1,200 people at his Hagerstown, Md., hotel; student Becky Altemose gave away 75 Christmas trees in Omaha, and Mother Nature gave New England a storm of snow, sleet and freezing rain.

Ford Brewington Jr. got up at 4 a.m. Thursday to start making dinner for 1,000 people in Delmar, Md.

“There are a lot of lonely people. . . . That is my aim--to feed the lonely people,” said Brewington, who dishes out meals at the American Legion Hall.

Others got something slightly less pleasant this Christmas: stuck.

Instead of spending Christmas morning opening presents, about 250 travelers spent Thursday aboard planes after their flights to Chicago on Wednesday were diverted to or stalled in Milwaukee because of a snowstorm.

“It was just like Laurel and Hardy was running the airport,” said Croft Long, 38, of Costa Mesa, Calif., who was traveling to Little Rock, Ark.

His plane was grounded for five hours at Mitchell International Airport--on the runway, with no drinking water or working toilets.

“It’s a Christmas to remember,” he said.

Floridians were wishing for the ultimate Christmas present--the jackpot. With the state lottery offering its fifth-largest jackpot ever of $60 million, people around the state were on a hunt Thursday for open convenience stores.

Two days after New England got nailed with a foot of snow, another storm came through Christmas Eve and left treacherous driving conditions around Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The weather didn’t keep mail carriers from delivering priority packages Thursday, and some even dressed as St. Nick.

Santa was also incognito in Dalton, Ga., where Demisha Phillips approached a supermarket cashier to pay for Christmas dinner supplies and was told to put her money away. Later, the cashier told her an elderly man behind her in line signaled that he wanted to foot the bill.

“Everybody these days is in it for themselves. You just don’t find that anymore,” she said.

And there were gifts. A hard-to-find Sing & Snore Ernie for a homeless shelter in Roanoke, Va.; toiletries and dinners of ham and stuffing for people with AIDS in Baltimore, and for Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey, something they likely won’t get on Christmas for a long, long time: peace and quiet.

The Des Moines couple planned to spend Christmas with just their 22-month-old daughter, Mikayla, since their seven new daughters and sons aren’t expected to be released from the hospital until late next month.

Even those who don’t celebrate Christmas got into the spirit of the season Thursday.

At the Beth Sholom Home of Central Virginia in Richmond, more than 100 Jewish volunteers came in to entertain the elderly residents and let the Christian staff members stay home with their families.

Since the tradition began more than 20 years ago, they spend the day celebrating the anniversary of the founding of Israel.

“It’s just the greatest day every year,” said social services director Deirdre Arnowitz.