The wishes for a happy holiday, delivered with actual warmth and good cheer, surprised me.

I stopped by Macy’s yesterday The madhouse scene confronting me was amazing, as frantic shoppers clogged the aisles, snatching up sale items like they were Santa’s understudies. The employees, though, were shockingly cheerful in the face of the onslaught.

I’ve served in the holiday retail trenches before and can, as much as anyone, keep a plastic smile glued to my face while dealing with people who obviously have trouble with the entire concept of shopping: The woman in line with me yesterday, for example, who wanted to find a “Regis” tie to match the shirt she was holding. It took the clerk four tries to make her understand where the ties were — just off to the right, under the freakin’ huge sign that said “Regis ties.”

But to say “Have a Merry Christmas” and mean it … well, that’s nothing short of amazing. The combination of cheerful clerks and last night’s snow-covered trees has actually put me in the Christmas spirit before Christmas Eve. Shocking.