WESTBROOK — Paul Young keeps an order slip pinched between his left thumb and index finger, his remaining three fingers wrapped around the steering wheel. He’s mounted an old-fashioned tally counter to the right of the steering column. It reads “0000” at the beginning of each shift.

“It’s just the way that I keep track of my tips,” he explains, clicking it 15 times — a $10 tip plus the $5 delivery fee.

Young, 63, delivers orders for China Villa, a family-run Chinese eatery in Westbrook, and has since it opened 18 years ago. He works on Christmas. Eighteen of them and counting.

He’ll likely make $300 this Christmas.

Christmas Day brings vital business for many Chinese Restaurants. It ranks alongside Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day as the busiest days of the year. Chinese restaurants are traditionally among the few establishments open on those holidays, and the cuisine has become a bona fide Christmas tradition in many families.

So for Young, working deliveries is mandatory, he explains. He doesn’t seem to mind.

After dropping each brown paper bag at its assigned address, he shuffles back to the car and clicks his counter.

“The tips are phenomenal, and it’s definitely worth it,” Young said.

A TRADITION, FOR MANY

China Villa expected between 400 and 500 orders on Christmas Day, of which about 10% must be delivered. Customers had begun placing Christmas orders two day in advance.

By 10:40 a.m. on Thursday, 20 minutes before the restaurant formally opened, the phones had started ringing.

The overlapping ringtones of incoming calls would be a constant acoustic backdrop for the rest of the day.

The restaurant even took the phones off the hook for about an hour around dinner time because they had so many orders, said Nicki Yang, who helps her mother-in-law Qing Li run the restaurant.

Before opening on Christmas Day, cooks stashed industrial-size rice cookers in one corner to keep their supply warm and ready. Some 20 cases of duck sauce, a popular condiment attached to almost every order, had already been prepared according to the family’s secret recipe and stashed in the kitchen wherever space allowed.

Crab rangoon and beef teriyaki are among the more popular dishes of the day. But the party trays might be the biggest sellers, the family agrees. For $77.95, the restaurant sells the small version of an assorted array of 50-plus appetizers, including egg rolls, chicken wings and spareribs intended to feed over five people. For $134.95, they sell a large version with over 100 items.

By 11 a.m., woks were crackling and the kitchen staff of 10 was sending out completed orders.

Eric Trombley, and his kids, Henry, 13, and Grace, 11, were among the first to the counter. This is an annual tradition for them, born a few years ago after Eric’s mother-in-law died.

“We’ve decided that we don’t want to cook on Christmas Day,” he said. “We want to make sure we spend enough time with family and don’t waste our time at the stove. So my father-in-law came up with this, and it stuck.”

Like many customers on Christmas, the Trombleys are loyal to China Villa. The food is of consistent good quality and they’ve developed an affection for the staff.

“They’re lovely,” Ashleigh Densmore said by way of explaining her family’s nine years of loyal Christmas patronage at China Villa. She waits in line wearing a sequined Santa hat and red dress with white trim.

By early afternoon, things are getting busier inside the restaurant. No one on staff is idle and the restaurant’s small dining area, now stripped of most furniture, is consistently full of waiting customers.

That’s when Paul Young returns to grab another four deliveries.

FINDING FREEDOM BEHIND THE WHEEL

Young has warm yet introverted air about him, the kind that might be easy to mistake in passing for awkwardness. The arms of his square-rimmed glasses fold into the word “love” as they stretch toward his ear. That wasn’t on purpose, he says. He just liked the frames.

Behind the wheel, Young is simultaneously deft and cautious on Westbrook’s snow-girded streets.

When his last car, a 2011 Nissan, got a new control arm and axle, Young lost faith in the vehicle and traded it to his brother for a more trustworthy Chevrolet. He typically spends Christmas morning with his brother and drives delivery in the evening. But China Villa had just one other driver on Thursday, so Young arrived at 11:15 a.m.

He had been delivering Chinese food for 12 years already when China Villa opened in 2007. Young says he’s never considered driving for DoorDash or any other gig-based service.

His work at China Villa is consistent enough, and he has an ebullient affection for Li, the restaurant’s owner.

Before that, he spent over a decade in office jobs with the federal government and suffered from debilitating depression, a condition for which he blamed the sedentary confinement.

Driving has been nothing short of liberation.

“When I was working in an office, you just watch the clock and the time drags,” he said, rounding the corner into a Motel 6 parking lot. “This, the shifts go by so quick. And I even want to come to work, you know? I mean, I’m making money. (But) I look forward to coming to work — I do. I don’t think a lot of people get to say that.

He drops a bag inside the motel, sinks back into he driver’s seat and punches the clicker on his tally counter five times.

Reuben M. Schafir is a Report for America corps member who writes about Indigenous communities for the Portland Press Herald.