One airplane pilot says he and his whole crew got a touching surprise from a grateful passenger while they were working on Christmas.

"Today, a passenger gave our crew Christmas cards with this note inside," theunidentified pilot said on Reddit. The note was apparently from a nurse who cares for cancer patients at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Airplane crew members on Reddit seemed to support the idea that such a small gesture makes a big difference.

"As a former FA [flight attendant], I can confirm that it is always appreciated when passengers were nice, or acknowledged us in this way," user MonorailBlack wrote on Thursday. "Flying over the holidays isn't fun - missing Christmas with your family for more than 10 years gets really old. The little things made it more tolerable."