A Christmas Fable

Santa, the lesser of two kings of Christmas, sat on his royal throne pondering and wondering over little Billy’s humble, but informative letter. Billy, apparently was deeply distressed and anguished over his bad behaviour to others, and expected Santa to repay him in kind, yet begged for forgiveness and some presents. Now the ‘presents’ side of the situation was no anguish for Santa, as he respected repentance and would deliver, but the distress was a dilemma! As Santa was deep in agitated thought, he was interrupted by Mrs Clause bestowing upon him a large present, which gave him an ingenious idea!

Billy woke up on Christmas morning in the orphanage with a pile of presents at the bottom of his bunk. He eagerly leapt out of bed with a beaming countenance that wore a wide smile where usually a malicious, contorted grimace would reside, with intent on devouring the wrapping paper on the presents like a frenzied dog! Just as he was about to set upon them, an unusual thought crossed his mind, to read the inscriptions in the cards that were all mysteriously wide open before him. It was a practice he was unaccustomed to. He looked about the dormitory, all the other children, apart from one boy, were awakening with glee.

He looked at the beginning of the first message on the largest present, and was alarmed to see that it was addressed to another child in close proximity: then he looked over all the inscriptions – all of the presents were for everyone else and not one was for himself! He looked at the messages again, and noticed this time that all of the presents were named as gifts from himself: ‘To Cheryl, love and best wishes, from Billy, etc.’.

Something inside prompted him to go and deliver all of the gifts, and he immediately loved the lit-up faces that were brighter than any Christmas tree, the kind sentiments, the appreciative hugs, he liked the whole experience of giving and felt so wonderfully good inside, a feeling he was unaccustomed to, yet liked very much.

After the gladness came a sadness, as he only had one present left, the smallest, and it was for the boy who had been asleep, who was now waking. He sluggishly strolled over to the boy’s bed with his gift in hand and enviously eyed up the boy’s extraordinary large pile of presents. This exertion was particularly bad for him as the small boy in question was the object of most of his bullying.

He unwillingly handed over the gift, and was so touched by the boy’s recipient tears, that he cried himself, and in that instant the weight of the world fell from the yoke on his small shoulders, and all the self-harm that he had inflicted upon himself washed away on the shores of his cheeks!

The boy, upon seeing that Billy had no presents, gladly offered him half of his own, which was the largest gift of all to Billy, but it wasn’t the offering of presents, but the gesture of a hand of friendship in the shape and form of forgiveness, and from there on they became, and remained, the best of friends.