A Christmas Story

It was the day before Christmas but she didn’t feel any Christmas spirit. “Christmas spirit. Ha! Just what is that emotion?” she thought to herself as she bustled around getting ready to go work. She had tried to find someone to take care of her baby because the day care decided at the last minute to close early and she really needed to go to work.
In her frustration, hot tears started streaming down her cheeks. She threw her purse across the room and lay down in the floor and prayed. “Lord” she cried, “please help me to find Christmas spirit. I don’t seem to feel it like I should.”


She watched as her precious little girl was playing contentedly in front of the sparse little Christmas tree that she fondly referred to as the ‘Charlie Brown’ tree. She had found it one day when she took the trash out. There it stood leaning on the dumpster, a huge box filled with fake evergreen limbs. She dragged it back to the little apartment and took out all of the pieces.


The poor tree had seen better days so she had improvised and just used the top of the tree and a few extra branches and made a short table top tree. Her daughter’s eyes sparkled with delight as she put on a single string of lights and plugged it in. The lights transformed the pathetic little tree into something magical. For ornaments she had dug all of the little Happy Meal toys from the toy box and hot glued ribbon to them and tied them to the little branches. It didn’t look like all of the beautiful trees in the department stores but it was still a special tree to her child and that was all that mattered.


Since she couldn’t find a sitter, she decided to bundle up her daughter and take her into work, after all it was the day before Christmas and there wouldn’t be much for her to do. Most people had already taken their Christmas holiday and wouldn’t be there so a coloring book and a few crayons would occupy her daughter while she did some paperwork. She didn’t have any Christmas holiday time because she had already used up any time off that she had accrued. The tension headaches were pretty bad some days and she couldn’t work when those hit. And sometimes her precious daughter was sick and she would stay home with her. It was tough being a single mother but she didn’t complain.


She didn’t have many friends. There wasn’t any time to make friends and the only people she ever saw was the other women that she worked with. They were all wrapped up in their own lives anyway she thought. Why would they want to be her friend? She just kept to herself and didn’t offer too much information about her life. She went to work, then picked up her daughter at day care and then home. Whatever she cooked for supper the night before became the next days lunch at work. She preferred to eat alone so that no one would see that she sometimes ate Mac and cheese over and over again.


They arrived at her office and when she went to her desk she noticed a large envelope taped to her monitor. She opened it and it was a musical card playing some little Christmas ditty. In it her boss had written that an anonymous someone in the office had donated some of their extra vacation hours to her so that she could take off a few days for Christmas.


She could not believe what she was reading! She scooped up her daughter and they ran back out to their car. There were still many errands that she had to run and paying the electric bill before her power was cut off was first on her to do list.


The ladies at the Power Company were just getting ready to close and go home early when she ran through the door. She laid the bill down and counted out the money while the clerk pulled up her file on the computer. Then the lady smiled at her and said,”why honey, you must have forgotten. Your bill has already been paid and you have a credit for the next month.”


She stood there in disbelief. “There must be a mistake” she stammered. She didn’t remember paying the bill. She had just gotten paid and the money was still in her purse. Before she could ask the question that was on her mind, the clerk smiled at her and said, “maybe Christmas is arriving a little early for you Sweetie.”


She slowly turned and walked out the door into the cold and got back into her car. As she was buckling her daughter into the car seat, the little girl just giggled and said “mare Chrism Mama!”

She was pondering many thoughts as she drove back to the little apartment, like who donated time to her and how did the electric bill get paid? She stopped and checked her mail box and there was a bright red envelope in it addressed to her and her daughter but no return address was on it. When she opened it there was a Wal-Mart gift card and a Kroger card. She just sat there looking at them. The Wal-Mart card had the words ‘go to customer service’ printed on it and the Kroger card had the words ‘go to the deli’ printed on it. The only other thing that was in the envelope was a slip of paper that said “Merry Christmas.”


“This is so bizarre” she said partly to herself and partly to her daughter. Her daughter just smiled and rocked in her car seat and said “Mare Chrism Mama”. They drove to Wal-Mart and she and her daughter went and stood in the long line of grouchy people at the Customer Service desk. Finally it was her turn and she told the cashier that she had gotten the gift card and when she showed it the cashier smiled and said “Oh we have been waiting for you to come.” With that said, the cashier called someone and they came out of the back pushing a large buggy filled to the top with many brightly wrapped presents some with tags addressed to her and some addressed to her daughter. The cashier smiled and said “Merry Christmas Miss. Do you need help getting that into your car?” She couldn’t speak any more. She just shook her head no and pushed the buggy out to her car.



By this time she was numb. She drove on to Kroger and went to the Deli. She showed them the card and they asked her for her name. Then they started getting all sorts of things together. There was a large pan of chicken and dressing and all the trimmings and a small baked ham and sweet potato pie and a fruit salad. It was a feast fit for a queen and little princess. She quizzed the Deli staff about who ordered the food but they said they didn’t know that the order came over the phone.


She and her daughter took all of the goodies back to the car. The little girl was clapping her hands and singing softly ‘Mare Chrism Mama.”


That evening, as she was heating up the wonderful Christmas dinner, she remembered the prayer of desperation earlier that day and how she had prayed for Christmas Spirit. She realized that the Lord had answered her prayer as she looked at the many packages under the tree and watched her daughter as she sat gazing at the twinkling lights. She was filled with wonder at the events of the day and the generosity of anonymous Christmas angels.


Her little daughter turned to her and cocked her head to one side and smiled. “Mare Chrism Mama!” “Merry Christmas to you my precious!” she replied. “Merry Christmas to all on this Night before Jesus. And God Bless us everyone”