Rick Steves: Santa, Not The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Rick Steves is coming to town. He'll be speaking to a sell-out crowd in San Francisco this evening. He's not naughty, he's nice. And he turned out not to be The Grinch Who Stole Christmas; he's the Santa Who Delivered Twice.
In the late 1950's, Arthur Frommer began sending countless Americans off to Europe on vacation with his famous guidebook, Europe on 5 Dollars a Day, tucked under their arms. His initial foray into guidebook writing spawned a travel publishing empire that continues today and includes a new line of books by his daughter, Pauline, whom I met at last summer's Travel Writers' & Photographers' Conference at the Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, California. The two of them host a weekly radio show on travel topics.

Two decades after Frommer opened "the front door" of Europe to American tourists, Rick Steves came out with his first guidebook, Europe Through The Back Door, which is still being published and became the "brand name" for his travel and tour company based in Edmonds, Washington, just north of Seattle. His half-hour European travel programs air on Public Television stations around the U.S. and, like Frommer, he has his own radio show. Today, Americans (me included) not only take Frommer guidebooks with them to Europe, but pack along those from Rick Steves, too.

When Christmas rolls around these days, instead of buying lavish gifts for some of our family members and friends, we put a small gift for them under the tree and make a donation to a charity in their name. Heifer International, the Central Asia Institute (founded by Greg Mortenson, author of the New York Times bestseller, Three Cups of Tea), and local food banks are among the non-profits that have benefited from these contributions.

This past December, my wife received an e-mail from Rick Steves asking his supporters to cast $100 of their bread upon the waters for the charity Bread for the World. In return, Rick promised at his complete expense to send donors the DVD of his wonderful PBS European Christmas TV broadcast, plus a CD of the music from the program, and a small "coffee-table" book about the making of the show. If you made a donation by December 15^th, Rick guaranteed that Santa would deliver these items to you by Christmas. So my wife pulled out her electronic checkbook and promptly sent off the money to Bread for the World. Her plan: Give these terrific gifts to her cousin and husband, now in their 80's and 90's, who made many a trip to Europe in their younger years, and were the ones who pointed us to Rick's PBS TV shows and, ultimately, on the road to and through the front and back doors of Europe on the four trips which we made over the last decade.

But, as often happens with "high tech", there was a glitch. Four days after his initial fund appeal, Rick Steves sent out a second e-mail: The contribution form on the Bread for the World Website had malfunctioned; anyone who made a contribution before December 7^th would have to make it again. Rick said: "We're sorry for this inconvenience. We have plenty of eggnog on our faces. And we appreciate your support in spite of this." Once again he pledged to deliver the goods by Christmas if you delivered the loot to Bread for the World. Out came our electronic checkbook and the money was sent through Cyberspace one more time.

Usually when you make an on-line donation to charity you get an immediate transaction summary and then later, an e-mail confirming your donation. While Bread for the World provided my wife with a summary confirming her contribution, neither it nor Rick Steves' company ever sent her a follow-up e-mail. By the beginning of Christmas week, the European Christmas gifts still had not arrived. My wife began to wonder if Rick Steves had actually made the fund appeal or if his famous name and smiling face had been hijacked by nefarious types who had gone on a holiday "phishing" expedition into the wallets of Rick's fan base.

When December 23^rd came and went, she asked me to investigate. The credit card transaction for the donation had cleared our bank on December 11^th, so Rick Steves should have made good on his promise to deliver the items by Christmas. While the Bread for the World and Rick Steves' Websites mentioned the fund appeal, neither offered a way to track our order. And because Rick, being a good-hearted employer, had given the entire staff of his Europe Through The Backdoor company time off from Christmas Eve through the following weekend, there was no one there to answer a phone inquiry from us.

In early afternoon on Christmas Eve, we headed off to a party at the home of friends. When we returned home late that evening, no package from Rick was in our mailbox or on our front porch. So, on Christmas Day, my wife's relatives found that their Christmas stockings were empty. Had Completely-Reliable-in-All-Respects Rick Steves turned into The Grinch Who Stole Christmas? We would have to wait until after the holiday to find out.

On the Monday after Christmas, I spoke by phone with Russ, Rick's employee in charge of the Bread for the World gift program. He said their records showed that the European Christmas gifts had been sent out by Priority Mail on December 18^th and should have arrived within a couple of business days. He apologized for the snafu and said that mine was the first such call he had received. He promised to mail another set of those items off that day and said that if both the original and second mailings both came, we should keep the duplicate set with the compliments of Europe Through The Back Door. And two days later, that's exactly what happened. So as the New Year begins, my wife's cousin and husband are enjoying yet another Christmas, this one courtesy of Rick Steves, and so are we.

Is Rick Steves The Grinch Who Stole Christmas? Not even close. He's The Santa Who Delivered Twice to us and, with the help of Bread for the World, made December and 2010 a happier time for many folks around the world.

Happy New Year and Happy Travels to Rick and the staff at Europe Through The Backdoor from Tales Told From The Road!