Countdown to Christmas

It’s that time of year again.

The tree is up, colorful lights and flickering candles are lit. For some, this holiday is only about the gifts and decorations. Only about the family traditions that fill the days.

And yes, while Christmas is made special by those traditions, and the gifts are certainly something really fun to look forward to, we know that isn’t the real reason we celebrate.

Christmas time is a season gifted to us to help us remember the Great Gift that Christ gave us when He became a tiny baby in a manger. When He came into this world to eventually die on a cross, wiping our sins away and giving us the gift of salvation.

This year, some friends of mine and I have all gathered together to create a great big bookish countdown to Christmas! Check back every day for a new, fun post!

I get the honor of kicking off the event with a short story, featuring the characters from my story, For the Undeserving, from the Seize the Moment anthology.

So… without further ado…

Merry Christmas. That’s what everyone’s been saying since Thanksgiving afternoon. Merry Christmas, and joy to the world.

What’s so merry about it? 

I leaned back against the overstuffed armchair that had somehow become mine in the past couple of months, tilting my head until I could see Michelle from where she stood behind me. “Remind me why we’re going to all this trouble? Just for one day?”

My sister glanced up from the hopeless mess of stringed lights she was trying to untangle, giving me her signature raised eyebrow. 

“Hey, I’m resting.” I pasted on a grin, shrugging carelessly. Which…was a really bad idea considering the angle of my head. Quickly, I pushed myself upright, twisting around in the chair until I could face her. A twinge of pain shot down my leg as it bent to accommodate my new position, but I ignored it.

  Chell shook her head, taking the wise route and giving up on the lights. She stood, her thick crimson cardigan trying to stick to the rug beneath her. Tugging at it, she moved around me to mess with something in the bookshelves in front of us. 

I could see in her face how much the fluffy thing annoyed her, but Alienor had loved it, and we both knew it was useless to argue with Alienor about things like that. It was the most Christmas-y thing I had seen Michelle wear in ages, and the mere sight of it brought back dozens of old memories that refused to let me push them away. 

So, instead of stuffing them away, I ignored them. I shuffled back around, wincing as my leg protested the movement. I eyed the pair of crutches laying on the ground next to me, but before I could even begin to inch my arm towards them, Chell’s foot pushed them out of reach. 

I jerked my gaze up, meeting her unamused glare. “Please.” A groan burst from me as I flopped my head back. “Just moving across the room can’t do that much to my leg.”

“Dai.”

“Chell. I just want to help.”

“And I just want you to give your leg a rest. That crash was no joke.” 

“Are you sure?” I couldn’t help but grin. “I think I heard the car say ‘knock knock’ when it hit me.”

“Damian Shepherds.”

I gave up with a long sigh. resigning myself to silence as I watched her move about the room.

You know…three months ago, I wouldn’t have thought this was possible. I would have looked over to where Chell had been glaring silently at me, and probably have decided that my future self was crazy. 

And well I still might be a slight bit crazy, it was possible. Things had changed for the better, in a way I never thought they could.

Sure, she was different now. We both were. No one could go through what we did and not change.

But I had my little sister back. Something that I had given up hope of ever happening. 

“Here.” No amount of Chell’s little-sister bossiness could hide the sly grin that flickered across her face as she broke through my thoughts. “I’ve got a job for you.” 

“Finally. A person shouldn’t be able to get this bored.” I pushed aside reflection in favor of the present moment, shoving myself upright against the chair. Seriously, no matter how many times I insisted on it, Chell seemed to believe that even lifting my pinkie finger would be too much strain. Which was ridiculous. It was my leg that got smashed in the car crash. Not my finger. 

But it didn’t matter to Michelle. Nope, she would see me sitting still in this dusty chair until I suddenly figured out how to live life without getting myself hurt every other month. Ugh. Please, let that never happen. I still had no idea how the armchair gathered so much dust. It was pure torture. 

“And that’s not my fault.” Michelle’s voice broke through my rambling thoughts once again and she brushed past, dropping something into my lap. 

I looked down, eagerly grabbing for the— “Oh, come on! Seriously?”

She shrugged, smirking. “What else do you think I’d let you do? Climb on the roof to hang lights?”

“Too late, the roof stopped letting anyone up on it years ago.” A cheery voice proceeded Alienor’s appearance in the small, bookshelf-filled room. She balanced a large tray filled with mugs in one arm, her fuzzy sweater making Chell’s outfit look drab. “Damian, listen to your sister. You’ve been up and about enough today. It’s time for a rest.”

Chell shot me a triumphant look, and I shook my head, scooting myself upright again and ignoring the way my leg agreed with them as it started throbbing. The tangled lights in my lap seemed to flaunt their victory, further complicating their knotted state before my eyes. 

And…apparently even the inanimate objects agree. 

Alienor handed me one of her mugs and I quickly shoved the lights aside, closing my eyes for a moment as the warm chocolate steam hit me. It was useless to ignore the memories now. They slammed into me full force, dragging me into the past without bothering to ask me if I wanted to come with. 

The scent of hot chocolate filled the house, one of the few Christmas traditions followed throughout the years. 

Faint Christmas carols filled the air, sung by friendly neighbors at the door. 

I blinked hard, forcing the images away and taking a sip of my scalding hot chocolate. My eyes followed Michelle and Alienor around the room, watching them light an assortment of oddly-sized candles that brought a warm glow to the darkening space. 

Flickering candles filled the windows, wavering as a gust of cold wind blew through the house. 

Michelle broke away from Alienor and sat down beside my chair, leaning her head against its dusty arm. I pushed back the sting of the past and shot her a grin, glancing around as silence settled over us. 

“So…what now?” 

Michelle shot me a glare. 

“What?” I feigned innocence, shrugging. “What happens next? Decorations are up, candles are lit. What meaningless tradition are we going to do now?”

“Dai!” My sister’s indignant gasp warred with Alienor’s chuckle. 

“What?” I rubbed a hand down the brace imprisoning my leg, raising an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what Christmas is about?”

“It…” Michelle paused, as at a loss for words as Alienor was with electronics. 

See? I smirked, my words enforced by her silence. “Yup, Christmas. The time of ‘joy to the world’ and whatever.” Try as I might, I couldn’t stop the bitterness from seeping into my words. “Traditions. Family. Sure, all that stuff. But what about the people who don’t get the perfect, joyful holiday? What about the ones who don’t have traditions and family?”

Where did joy to the world come in when there was next to nothing to be joyful about? What made people like Alienor so excited to pour so much work into one day?

One day that would only ever bring me pain. 

I scooted forward, biting back a wince at heat that shot through my leg when it bent against the side of the chair. “What’s so important about Christmas? It’s just some random day that people decided to make up a whole bunch of things for.”

Michelle stared at me like I had gone crazy. But I was too heated by my own words, too fed up with trying to understand, to care.

Alienor just stood there, silently watching us both. 

For a second, I thought I had done the impossible, and made her mad. 

Michelle pushed to her knees, sending another glare my way. “Damian Shep—”

Alienor lifted a hand, stopping her mid-sentence. Another long moment passed, but it soon became clear that she wasn’t mad. She just stood there, with a look on her face that almost seemed…sad. 

Why?

“Do you two know the story of Christmas?”

Okay…that honestly was not what I had been expecting her to ask. Blinking, I nodded slowly. “The nativity. It’s got something to do with a baby in a barn and a bunch of shepherds.”

Michelle groaned. 

Alienor just looked amused. “It’s that, and so, so much more.” She moved over to one of the huge bookshelves, searching for something. “It’s the story of how Christ came into this world as a baby, to be our salvation. About how the King of all became the lowest of the low, for us.” She pulled a thick book out of one of the shelves and moved to sit, leaning back against the wall of books. “The thing that is so important about Christmas is that it calls for us to remember the love Christ has for us. The love He gave us when He took on human flesh—became a baby in a manger—to bring the gift of salvation to those who could never be worthy.”

“But what about when you don’t know that love?” I huffed, crossing my arms. “What if everything’s all messed up? Some people don’t have the ideal life. Where’s the ‘joy to the world’ in that?” I glared up at the dark ceiling above us, trying to push away the pain my words brought. “Not everyone gets to have the perfect Christmas.” 

Alienor smiled sadly. “Of course nothing is perfect. The world is full of sin and pain and sorrow.” She looked down at what I could now see was a Bible, her gaze thoughtful. “That’s when we have to turn to Jesus for our joy. That’s another thing Christmas is truly about. The world wants us to look around us for things to bring us joy during the holidays, but it’s when we turn to Christ that we find true joy.” 

I frowned, slowly pondering her words. 

Michelle raised an eyebrow, tilting her head as she seemed to ponder her own questions. “But what does that have to do with all the stuff people do around Christmas?”

I snorted. “Yeah, I bet the nativity didn’t have Christmas lights and a tree.”

Alienor set the Bible down beside her, giving a small laugh. “Those traditions are a way of turning our attention towards Christ. The gifts, the tree, even the candy-canes, they all point to Jesus. To the great gift of salvation.” She nodded first to one of the candles in the window, then to the pile of lights beside me. “The lights, the way they give warmth and life to the darkest time of the year, remind us of the Light that came to save us from the darkness of sin.” She turned to me. “That, in a very condensed version, is what Christmas is about. Turning to Christ. Remembering how He came to save us. Crafting the traditions that bring us closer to each other, and closer to Him.”

Okay. Some of that made sense. And I could kind of see why Alienor loved stuffing her windows with candles. 

But still…how could that all work? Was Christmas seriously because of one Person? How in the world could someone find joy just by asking Him for it?

I shook my head. “I still don’t understand.”

Alienor laughed again. “I would be more surprised if you understood immediately.” She glanced down at the Bible in her lap, biting her lip. “But…would you two be open to helping me start a new tradition? Reading the Christmas story, just the three of us? It might help give you some understanding.”

Traditions. Did I really want to get tangled up in those again? They fell apart so quickly, and all they left behind was pain. Emptiness. 

I glanced over at Chell, and she met my eyes with what almost looked like tears shining in her own. Apparently all this talk of Christmas was bringing back the same memories for her that it did for me. 

I couldn’t stand traditions. But…did I want to start pushing Chell away again? Did I want to give up what had once brought our entire family together, just because it hurt to remember?

I grimaced, turning back to Alienor. “I guess?”

A strange look followed Alienor’s smile as she leaned back against the bookshelf, opening the Bible and flipping through the crinkly pages. She stopped, smoothing out her place as her gaze flickered to us for a split second. “Luke 2…” Her voice softened as she began reading, as if the story she was telling was special to her. 

I found myself slipping away with the words as she read, pondering things I’ve never thought about before. The story I’ve heard once or twice over the years suddenly took on a new light.

“‘And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.’”

A hand suddenly squeezed mine, pulling my arm over the armrest. My gaze locked with Michelle’s and she gave me a wobbly smile. I squeezed back, my eyes falling shut as I let myself get lost in Alienor’s words. 

So this was why people celebrated Christmas.

Maybe…all this ‘joy to the world’ stuff…maybe it kind of made sense.

“‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.’”