It's Christmas season.  It's the time when you can watch many different versions of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol.  It's the story of a cold-hearted business owner named Ebenezer Scrooge.  Thank goodness, not all business people are like Scrooge at Christmas time.  

One example is Joe and Cindy Sell walking the streets of Lawrence Park dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus.  They are continuing a tradition they started five years ago.  Joe and Cindy walk around neighborhoods where they purchase, fix-up, and rent-out houses.  They knock on the doors of their tenants. They give the adults a poinsettia and a Christmas card.  They give the kids a big candy cane.  With these landlords, it's not Bah Humbug! during Christmas.   It's Ho! Ho! Ho!

"We love to give back to the community,” says Cindy.  “We love to give back to our tenants.  We ask them to take care of our places.  So we try to give back to them as much as we can too."  

Joe and Cindy own a lot of properties.  It will take them at least three days to distribute their gifts. The time and effort is worth it to them. Joe says he patterned his gift giving practice after a man who used to do the same thing when Joe was a kid.

"There was a successful businessman in Harborcreek that used to deliver poinsettias to the neighborhood and that's where I got the idea.  Back when I was a kid, my mom and my grandma would be so excited when they would get the poinsettias on their steps,” recalls Joe. 

The appearance of Santa and Mrs. Claus easily draws a crowd of children.  You don't have to rent from Joe and Cindy to get a gift.  They give to Lawrence Park Police officers and to the community's hard working letter carriers.  The tenants who rent from the Sells consider themselves lucky that they have landlords that would dress-up as the jolly old Christmas couple. Heather Neenan is one of those tenants.

"It's a good time because it's very difficult during the holiday season.  And when they knock on the door, it's nice.to get a card and know we're appreciated as tenants,” says Heather.   

Lori Spangler is a tenant who appreciates her landlords' Christmas gift-giving so much, she offered to join them this year.  As an elf.

"It's awesome,” says Lori. “I don't know of any other landlords that do this for their tenants."

The Sell's son Patrick also portrayed an elf for this year's deliveries. The couple also dropped-off Christmas presents to the contractors and vendors their company deals with throughout the year.