This Christmas story from a former M&S employee in Dublin will give you the feels

We’ve all had our tails from Christmas’ gone by and as this year will be, well slightly different, people have been taking to social media to chat about their fondest memories.

But there’s one that has been doing the rounds from a former M&S employee that hit us right in the feels.

It has time pressure, it has risks, it has self-doubt, it has father/son bonding, and even a Creative Zen MP3 player.

Richie Craven got his first-ever job working at M&S in Dundrum when he was 16 years old.

As soon as he started he kept hearing these myths about the Christmas Eve Waste Sale, where all the food that wasn’t sold on the 24th was marked down 90%.

Everyone Craven worked with kept telling him not to get anything in beforehand because there was so much left that you could get your whole Christmas meal after the shop had shut on the 24th.

He and his father argued for weeks about whether or not to get a turkey beforehand or risk it.

Eventually closing time rolls around and all the staff clock out and wait for the sale to start.Now comes my next heart attack. I thought it was just whoever was working Christmas Eve that was able to go but the entire workforce has trickled in since closing and is waiting.

— Richy Craven (@RichyCraven) November 26, 2020

The main Foods manager comes out and ceremoniously announces that we can go in and I stick the head down and charge.I don’t go quite as far as to trample anyone but I can’t say I wouldn’t have itf it had come to it.I’m convinced it’s going to be an all out brawl and…

— Richy Craven (@RichyCraven) November 26, 2020

It was then he grabbed a Turkey the size of “an American toddler” and felt he was at a loss so grabbed sausage stuffing, croquette potatoes, duck-fat roasters, candied parsnips and carrots.

He starts to drift towards the tills and the manager asks him what he’s doing.

I go to the till, expecting this to be the big reveal where it will actually end up costing me my entire month’s pay.It costs 23 euro.Now my only problem is that I have about 16 kg worth of food and I’ve arranged to meet my dad 2km away because Dundrum parking is extortion

— Richy Craven (@RichyCraven) November 26, 2020

Anyway. I schlepp this bounty all the way to where we are supposed to meet and I see that he is literally pacing, at 11.00 Pm in December, outside his car.He sees me and he looks like a husband waiting for his wife’s operation results.

— Richy Craven (@RichyCraven) November 26, 2020

He was instantly like “Rich, this is too much. How much did you spend? The whole idea is that this was supposed to cost less!”I showed him the receipt and we ended up driving home blasting Springsteen the whole way.

— Richy Craven (@RichyCraven) November 26, 2020

Craven goes on to say that the best thing was that his dad made a big deal about him providing it and any time someone said they liked something he’d give him an elbow in the ribs.

By the end of the dinner you’d have sworn I’d taken the job as some sort of Oceans 11-style long-con.

He also received a Creative Zen MP3 player. 

His best Christmas ever.