NORTH SAANICH, B.C. -- The day began with a double rainbow that inspired KarmaLee to take a pair of pictures and receive a prediction from her neighbour.

“He said that means its going to be a good day,” KarmaLee says with a smile.

The prospect of a good day for her — and her four-year-old son Quinn — couldn’t have been more welcome.

“It’s been a hard year for everybody,” she says. “Christmas is coming and you want to make it special.”

So KarmaLee and Quinn went to buy some Christmas lights at the Canadian Tire in North Saanich. You can see them walking into the store on the surveillance video. The boy starts bouncing up and down when he notices a big, plush bear.

“He was like, ‘Wow! Look at that!” KarmaLee says. “‘I need that bear!’”

Quinn’s comments caught the attention of the manager walking nearby.

Dave said that hearing the little boy list the reasons why he needed an almost six-foot-tall bear was heartwarming. But what happened next made him stop in his tracks.

“(His mom) said, ‘We can’t (get the bear) right now.’ And the boy said, ‘OK. I understand, mom,’” Dave recalls how the boy didn’t whine or complain. “That just blew me away. He’s four years old.”

When the mom and son walked, Dave returned to work. But he couldn’t stop thinking about them. It prompted him to consider his young granddaughter in Ontario, who he’s been missing during the pandemic, and remember those past Christmas times when he was a single dad.

“I raised my son from the time he was six days old,” Dave explains. “I know what I went through and people gave me help.”

He never forgot how it felt to receive random acts of kindness so he tracked-down KarmaLee and quietly asked her if he could buy the bear for Quinn.

“I started tearing up,” KarmaLee says. “It was a really meaningful gift.”

It was a gift in a box so big you could see them on the surveillance camera wheeling it out of the store. A gift so cuddly Quinn couldn’t stop hugging it when he got home.

There’s also video of little Quinn struggling to drag the giant bear up to his bedroom, where there’s a photo of him attempting to embrace the bear in bed.

“Christmas is going to look a lot different this year and you just try to make it as magical as you can for your kids,” KarmaLee says. “And this guy did that. It’s pure magic.”

Dave’s co-workers say it’s just pure Dave; that he often acts on his impulse to be kind.

When I ask why he does it, he answers simply: “Why not?”

“You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow to any of us. If you can do something good for somebody, do it,” Dave says. “You’d be surprised how it makes you feel.”

Back at Quinn’s house, the boy is drawing pictures of rainbows and bears. He’s been doing it ever since that day their neighbour predicted would be good.

Quinn also thanked Dave for the day by giving him a card with one of those drawings in it.

Although it will be a while before the little boy outgrows the big bear, when he does, he’ll realize he also received a more enduring gift that day: realizing the positive power kindness.