Christmas Secrets and Memories by docweasel

It was a quiet night. No wind, no rain, no moonlight. Not a night normally associated with spirits and mysticism. Just a quiet, spring night. Clarissa laid across her bed, reading. She was preoccupied and distracted, and her mind wandered out of the story as her eyes continued drifting over the pages, without really seeing. She was thinking of something her Mother had told her, years ago. Remembering.

Geese and the Snowstorm

There was once a man who did not believe in either the virgin birth of Christ nor the spiritual meaning behind it, and was skeptical even about God. He lived in a farm community. It was a poultry farm, with ducks and chickens, and a large flock of geese, which were the man’s pride.

He had no family of his own. He lived with his housekeeper and her two small children.

His housekeeper was a devout believer and diligently raised her children in the faith. He sometimes ridiculed her piety and mocked her religious observances.

“It’s all nonsense — why would God lower himself and become a human like us? It’s such a ridiculous story,” he said.

Even though he was not religious, he loved Christmas. Of all the fowl, he loved goose the best. And Christmas was the day the housekeeper would make his favorite meal.

Magic Tapestry

The brand new pastor was newly assigned to his first ministry. He was to reopen a church in a run-down part of the big city. He and his housekeeper arrived in late Autumn excited about their opportunities.

When they saw their church, it was very neglected and needed much work. They resolved to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.

They and some volunteers from the parish worked hard, refinishing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc. A week before Christmas they were ahead of schedule and just about finished. The next day a terrible tempest with a driving rainstorm hit the city and lasted for several days.

The next day, the morning before Christmas Eve, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high and going up several feet toward the raftered ceiling above.

Reindeer Games

The reindeer stood unshivering in the sub-zero temperatures of the barn, harnessed and ready for the annual flight.

The flight that defied both time and space, that tested them to the extreme of their stamina, that strained each one of them to the limit of their endurance and strength. After such a flight it took an entire year for the reindeer to recover.

The reindeer communicated without speaking, a communion of minds, a shared memory and life-experience, for they had been born together, and had never been apart since. They had no need of words, they spoke with their hearts, each hearing the thoughts of the others as plainly as if they were spoken aloud.

Peace on Earth

Three millennia had passed since the first Christmas. The old pagan gods of war were long forgotten. Only the rocks and a few bristle-cone pines could reflect back on that horrific history entire, from the lonely birth of an unknown babe, to the great Pax Humana.

Gift of the Magi

They were newlyweds, and poor in all but love. For the first year, that was enough.

For the second, a tightness came to her face, and he looked a bit less elegant, with his thrice turned cuffs. He looked a bit pathetic, going from one place of business to another looking for work after he lost his job at the bank.

She smiled less and they stopped talking of having children, having them soon, anyway. He made due with patched shoes and shiny, threadbare suits. She mended her dresses and tried to be patient with staying home every night of the week and week-ends too, when they used to dance four nights of the week and dine out three before they were married.

All that remained of his former affluency was his heavy gold watch, the pride of his family for generations. Even in his impoverished state, he was always reassured when he pulled it out, hefted it in his hand, the ever true timekeeper. Somehow, it made him feel a little better.