This year’s War on Christmas continues and the outcome is still very much in doubt as the final skirmishes unfold over the next week.

As always, it is very much a guerilla war, made even more complicated because the combatants who switch sides are inclined to switch back and forth between sides ahead of the annual one-day ceasefire on Dec. 25.

I have been keeping careful track of the reports, communiques and correspondence from a hundred battlefields.

Here is an update:

On Dec. 3, the spirit of Christmas suffered a stunning blow from an unexpected source. On a trip to the grocery store, Tom, who most folks consider to be one of the finest, most respectable men in town, ignored the old beggar who hangs out by one of the shopping cart returns and asks for a few dollars saying he hasn’t eaten all day.

“What would it have hurt to give him a few dollars?” his wife, Mary, scolded.

“He’ll just spend it on alcohol,’ Tom said.

Mary pondered this, then responded, “That’s what I’d do with it.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Tom said.

“Not at all,” she said. “A few dollars don’t go far no matter what you spend it on. He can get a free meal at Loaves and Fishes, but nobody gives away a stiff drink when you could use one.”

Tom didn’t have an answer for that. It seemed to him to be a new way of looking at things.

So, in the end, it was a nice rally by Christmas.

It wasn’t like that everywhere.

In retail areas, where traffic is heavy, drivers stubbornly refused to let other drivers merge onto the main thoroughfare, even though they weren’t late for an appointment.

Last Saturday, Sandra returned to her car while shopping to discover that someone had dented the left rear panel of her car and broken a taillight but didn’t stick around or leave a note with their contact information.

But only an hour later, just across the street, six people in a row paid it forward with drink purchases at Starbucks. You could feel the warmth of good will toward men in that half hour.

As usual, “Merry Christmas! “greetings outnumbered “Happy Holidays!” by a wide margin. Again as usual, some were offended by the “wrong” greeting even though no offense was meant.

Yes, everywhere you looked, people were quick to think the worst of others, insist on having things their way and refuse to perform even the smallest act of kindness toward someone who was really having a bad day.

Christmas keeps rallying, though.

Someone left a box of cookies at both the temple and the Islamic Center. Toy, coat and turkey drives were a great success. A lot of poor folks were treated to a Christmas feast, courtesy of nonprofit groups.

A group of carolers made the tour of nursing homes, delighting the residents and stirring memories of the family Christmases they could no longer enjoy.

And just yesterday, this scene played out at the county jail:

A skinny 18-year eagerly collected his first commissary at the end of a miserable first week in jail. But soon after he dumped his purchases on his bunk, a bigger inmate stood at his bunk and demanded he surrender it all.

He fought as best he could – he was told he would have to fight or he would always be a target – but it didn’t do any good. A few moments of violence later found him bruised and bleeding curled up on his bunk, all of his commissary gone.

He never felt so afraid, so hopeless. Could it get any worse?

He looked up to see Sammy, whose reputation as the meanest, most dangerous inmate in the unit was not in dispute, towering over him.

“Lost your commissary, huh?” he said.

“Yeah. Some big dude beat me down and took it.”

Sammy didn’t say anything. He just nodded and walked away.

A couple of minutes later, he returned, tossing several packages of ramen noodles, a couple of honey buns and a candy bar onto his bunk.

“Thanks! I don’t know how I can tell you…” the kid said.

Sammy cut him off, embarrassed by his uncharacteristic kindness.

“Yeah, well, Merry Christmas I guess.” he said.

Christmas can be like that, you know – undeserved and unexpected.The first one was.

That’s worth keeping in mind as the War on Christmas nears its end.

As always, the outcome relies mainly on what side we are fighting for.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].