Christmas Envelope

The year when I was ten, my two younger brothers and two sisters thought Christmas would never come. The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas dragged on and on with snow falling every day, temperatures sinking and in general nasty winter weather that matched our feelings. We crossed off each day on the calendar but that did not speed up time.

Finally it was Christmas morning with a wonderful tree sparkling with real candles, glistening colored tinsel ropes and all kinds of presents that we were eager to grab and open. Some felt soft like socks or underwear; others hard like books or rattled like puzzles. Our excitement held no bounds.

Mother and Daddy slowed our eagerness down by telling us to take turns and let everyone have a look at our presents. We had to put aside those special gifts that were sent from grandparents or other relatives. We knew that later we would write thank you notes.

Toward evening, it seemed that the excitement had disappeared like the air streaming out of a balloon and we five children suffered let down feelings. “Why can’t Christmas last foreverrrrrrrrrrrr?” we whined.

Mother didn’t say anything but had a funny smile on her face.What a surprise it was the next morning, when we saw a white envelope hanging on the Christmas tree. “Open it and see what it says” mother encouraged us.

We eagerly tore it open and were puzzled to read a message. “When the clock buzzer goes off, look under the bed.” Time stood still, we never moved away from the clock until the buzzer went off about 10.00 that morning. We made a mad scramble for our parent’s bedroom where we were found a small cardboard box with another message directing us to look under the big wood stove in the kitchen. We almost fell over each other in the dash to the kitchen where we found several small presents.

The next day there was another envelope on the Christmas tree and again there were directions and more hidden presents. The following days, we continued to find envelopes on the now weary Christmas tree that was beginning to drop its needles. There were more directions and presents hidden in kitchen cupboards, in the wood box, under beds, under tables and other places. But the excitement began to wane as we found other things to do and one day when it was almost New Years Day we realized that the magic, the excitement and the anticipation for Christmas had disappeared.

The Bible story was still in our heads but somehow things were different.