The sacred spirit of Christmas — at my local drug store

As a Catholic, I will celebrate the incarnation at Mass this Christmas, as I do every year. Unlike your typical Christian, I’ll also savor the sacred spirit of December 25 at my drugstore.

Belmont Pharmacy in the suburbs of Boston will be open that day; sickness doesn’t take Christmas off, as manager Bob Pavlan says. But not long after hanging out his shingle in 2015, he began laying out a Christmas Day spread for customers — gratis — each year, to go with their prescriptions, cough medicine and vitamins: 200 to 300 mini-sandwiches of ham and cheese, turkey and cheese, and roast beef; chips and pretzels; pastries (“the cheesecake is pretty popular,” he says) and candy. The pharmacy’s cooler becomes a giant Christmas stocking, dispensing free water, juices and sodas.

I stumbled upon this tradition last year on a Christmas walk. Passing the pharmacy, I ambled in to offer Bob season’s greetings and thought he’d opened a deli. Two food-laden tables stood in front of the counter. After exchanging pleasantries, I went home with a free beverage for Christmas dinner.

Dr. Seuss’s Grinch found redemption in a simple insight: Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Nor is it the exclusive province of houses of worship. Bob, raised Presbyterian, no longer attends church. But each year, he practices what the ordained preach, on a day that recalls a family in desperate need of food and shelter.

Bob, raised Presbyterian, no longer attends church. But each year, he practices what the ordained preach, on a day that recalls a family in desperate need of food and shelter. 

This Nativity generosity, paid out of Bob’s own pocket, began with two regular customers, an elderly couple, one of whom suffered from Parkinson’s. “They were estranged from their daughter,” the pharmacist recalls. “They had nowhere to go [for the holidays].” He’d already been noodling with the notion of an in-store banquet for his patients as a thank-you for their patronage.

Voila. The pharmacy became a spot for some free Christmas cheer. The first year, the customer turnout flirted with his occupancy permit cap. Another year, a parent whose out-of-town kids couldn’t get home for the holidays came for a little companionship. Between the lonely and folks who aren’t alone, but still enjoy the conviviality, he estimates that 60 people pass through his door during the course of a typical Christmas Day.

My own Christmas ship came unmoored when my ex and I separated three years ago. But, I typically share a holiday meal with her and our son. I’m lucky: Two-thirds of Americans feel lonely over the holidays, according to one survey. Sure, public decorations fill the air with the feeling of Christmas; I even enjoy the seasonal radio music, which starts at Halloween, making the non-fans add a power failure to their holiday wishlists.

But even with carols, door wreaths and tinsel twisted around lampposts, it takes human connection to make a full Yule. Festive trappings of the season only reinforce the un-festooned, inner solitude that weighs on those who are alone.

So I’m looking forward to Bob’s pharmaceutical feast — not for the food (my vegan diet precludes the sandwiches), but for the chance to share Christmas greetings. Last year, we chit-chatted about everything from the origins of the banquet to Bob’s competitor a block away. Belmont Pharmacy sits in a former print shop that’s a minnow compared to the 96,000-square-foot orca of a CVS down the street.

Owing to space constraints and choice, Bob and his staff eschew the convenience store approach of chain pharmacies, focusing just on pharmaceuticals and related services: delivering prescriptions and filling elderly customers’ daily pill dispensers for them, ensuring that they take the right meds each day. The holiday spread complements the Lord’s work that’s performed by this and all pharmacies on the 364 other days of the year.

For Dickens, Christmas heralded “a time of all others when Want is keenly felt and Abundance rejoices.” Some of Bob’s customers endure Want for human company during the holidays. Giving that gift through the sharing of food marks his gratitude for the Abundance of paying customers whose business feeds him.

Being reminded of that thankful attitude is a Christmas gift in itself. And so, this Christmas Day, good health permitting, I’ll stop by the pharmacy to wish Bob a merry and, this year, make a donation for my drink. His charity should inspire the same spirit in all of us, whether we be godly or grinch-y.

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