Miracle at Christmas, 1982

Please come with me to see … a miracle. It happened near Christmas in 1982, to a Salvation Army bellringer and is what happens when people of heart refuse to let circumstance defeat them. May the spirit that made that miracle happen never stop flowing.

Wind the clock back to that frigid, frightening winter in 1982, when America caught in the deepest recession since the Great Depression, 1929. Unemployment was spiking as the 1970s ended and hit 11 percent in 1982. Nationally, 26.5 million breadwinners were out of work.

Tax cuts, a safety net, and brighter days lay ahead, but no one could see that. The dark days of Christmas 1982 stung like something out of Charles Dickens, something tragic, hopeless.

Nowhere was the tragedy felt more than in Chicago. The city experienced the fourth hardest winter on record, with constant negative temperatures, high winds, blizzards, and minus 26 degrees.

Meantime, key sectors saw record joblessness. Chicago witnessed two-thirds of a million people file for unemployment, a record at the time and at Christmas – a time of faith sorely tested.

Many felt fear. The Salvation Army bellringers were out in force in Chicago and nationwide. They had been since Advent 1891, making Christmas dinner, Christmas itself, possible.

In 1982, people needed hope, something to get them beyond their circumstances, some encouragement not to give up. Someone somehow understood. Into one bellringer’s kettle, outside Chicago, an anonymous donor resolved to ignite hope dropped a valuable gold coin.

It was like magic. That act hit the press and, in a time when nothing did, went viral.  Never before had the Salvation Army received such a gift, poignant, anonymous. The coin appeared in a kettle in Crystal Lake, a frozen, discouraged suburb of Chicago. It lit a fire that burns today.

Word traveled fast. Papers like USA Today wrote about the anonymous gift, never before experienced. Something about that gold coin, dropped by someone no one knew, lifted the nation. People remembered it and that when you pray and hope, incredible things happen.

Since that day, more than 4000 gold coins have found their way into Christmas kettles, changing lives, lifting generation after generation, Americans caring about Americans, offering hope – giving American Gold Eagles, Quarter Eagles, Double Eagles, Krugerrands, ancient coinage.

The phenomenon – the idea of an untraceable, life-changing gift at Christmas – has grown. Since that cold Chicago Christmas in 1982, the Salvation Army has received gold coins and bars, diamond rings, one bellringer “five golden rings,” silver, antiquities, and $500,000 in one kettle.

The effect has been electric and remains so today. One person’s inspiration caused others to share the spirit and bring hope, surprise, life, faith, and dreams to life lovingly and anonymously.

What did Matthew write about what Christ said? “When you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing …Give privately. Your Father sees …” This, we know.

As Christmas 2024 approaches, what have we? More givers, dreamers, believers, and anonymous generosity. Last week, a stunned Salvation Army bellringer in Washington found a 1927 gold Double Eagle worth $2,600 dollars. That will buy Christmas dinner for 208 families.

Last week, another anonymous donor dropped a gold South African Krugerrand in an unsuspecting kettle in Detroit. The coin was worth $2,642 and will buy Christmas dinners for 211 families. In Oregon, a bellringer was shocked to find a gold coin worth $3000, 240 meals.

And so it goes. Each year, these quiet miracle workers have appeared, doers of good, resolved to act on God’s will, answer a call, and ask nothing at all.  They feel the need to feed those who – without their generosity – would have no Christmas, light of Tiny Tim for worlds cold and dim.

They are among us now, and who knows, may appear near you, too. What we know is that a single soul, inspired by that long, cold winter of 1982, did something new. That soul’s resolve, one day, one act, one young hand or old, dropped a coin of gold and got countless others going. May the spirit that made that miracle happen never stop flowing.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).