“Haul out the holly!
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again!
Fill up the stocking!
We may be rushing things,
But deck the halls again now!
For we need a little Christmas,
Right this very minute!
Candles in the window,
Carols at the spinet!
Yes, we need a little Christmas,
Right this very minute!
It hasn’t snowed a single flurry,
But Santa, dear, we’re in a hurry!”

“Sounds like that song fits our situation to a tee,” said JC dryly. “We could sure use a little Christmas right about now.”

“From the looks of this place,” said Chris with a little wave of his hand, “you would hardly know Christmas was the very next day.” Glancing out the nearest window, he added, “Heck, it looks more like April when you look outside.” 

JC had to agree when he took a peek through that same window. While most of the trees had long since shed their leaves, some trees still looked a little too green for December, and the grass still looked pretty healthy. A few scattered flowers still made their presence known, too.

“Maybe we should sue that weatherman,” JC said as he turned away. “For every cent he’s got.”

Chris just sighed and dropped himself into the nearest big black armchair. Next to him, the radio blared cheerfully, almost mockingly,

“Climb down the chimney!
Hang up the brightest string of lights I’ve ever seen!
Slice up the fruitcake!
It’s time we hang some tinsel
On that evergreen bough!
For I’ve grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older,
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder!
We need a little Christmas now!”

Chris made a disgusted face. “Oy…some jolly holiday this is gonna be.” 

It was bad enough that they wouldn’t be celebrating the holiday with their families and friends. Not even Justin would be able to make it this year because he had just called to say that his boy Silas was still sick from that unrelenting ear infection, and there was no way he could leave poor Jessica in her sleep-deprived state.

Well, at least Karly, Michael, Joey, and Kelly would be there for the festivities, even if they wouldn’t actually show up until sometime tomorrow morning or afternoon. Chris wondered what they would think of the decorations: a few lights, a bit of tinsel, and a tree that was about half the height it was supposed to be. Nothing outrageous, of course—but far from anything worth bragging about.

While Chris sat and brooded (and fought the urge to chuck the radio out the window), he heard the front door open and Lance’s voice holler, “I’m back with the goods!”

In a minute, Lance himself appeared in the living room with several bulging grocery bags. That was all it took to get Chris to his feet once more.

“Well, it’s about time, man! You should have been back half an hour ago.”

“I’m lucky to have gotten out of that madhouse alive,” Lance sighed as he dumped his bags onto the sleek brown coffee table. “All those last-minute shoppers…I swear, Chris, I thought there was gonna be blood on the floor. And I half-prayed Moses would come to part the sea of cars as he had the Red Sea. You’d be amazed how many vehicles can fit into one itty-bitty lot at one time.”

Peeking into one of the bags, Chris asked, “Did you get the honey-glazed ham like JC asked?”

Lance shook his head in dismay. “Wouldn’t you know it? They were down to their last ham when I got there—and I mean their very last one—and this lady with six screaming kids had her eye on it, too, and I just didn’t have the heart to take it from her.”

“So what are we supposed to do for meat?”

Lance had to fish through at least two bags before he produced a can of ham patties. “This was all I could find that had anything to do with meat, I’m afraid.”

He could tell by Chris’s face that Chris probably couldn’t swallow a single patty from a can if it was force-fed to him. But all the older man said was, “I guess they’ll have to do. What else did you manage to scavenge?”

Gently sifting the groceries again, Lance said, “At least I managed to scavenge a few good things. I found these really nice mashed potatoes—”

“Hmm, at least they look good enough to eat.”

“—mushrooms, onions, Camembert cheese, apples, cherries, cinnamon rolls, instant coffee, and I lucked out with their last fruitcake.”

Chris asked, with yet another grimace, “You mean to say people actually eat the fruitcake and like it?”

“It’s not so bad, really,” Lance insisted.

As Chris hauled three of the bags to the kitchen, he muttered, “Well, at least we won’t starve to death.”

 

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It was only six o’ clock, and already you would have thought it was well past midnight. At a loss for better things to do, JC, Chris and Lance hung around the living room, watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, on DVD so as to avoid the pesky commercials. Chris must have watched this movie at least five thousand times, so he didn’t pay too much attention—though, admittedly, he did feel a bit of a connection with Charlie Brown, with it being Christmas and him not feeling the way he was supposed to feel. 

Towards the end of the special, something made Chris sit up a bit straighter and listen a bit closer.

“I guess I really don’t know what Christmas is all about. ISN’T THERE ANYONE WHO KNOWS WHAT CHRISTMAS IS ALL ABOUT?”

“Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about. Lights, please.

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’

“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

Chris could feel a rock-hard lump in his throat, and he blinked his eyes furiously and prayed fervently he wouldn’t start bawling like a little kid. Unbeknownst to him, JC was also blinking faster than usual and Lance’s Adam’s apple gave a noteworthy twitch.

A minute later, when the whole Peanuts gang was assembled in their rendition of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” JC commented, “Man, isn’t it amazing how you can learn the most profound lessons from a mere kid’s cartoon?”

“And just when you think you’ve learned that lesson,” Lance added in a somewhat hoarse tone, “you find yourself learning it all over again.”

Chris only nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

No sooner had JC retrieved the DVD from the player than the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” said Chris, jumping up about as quickly as if someone had set off a firecracker under his feet.

When he pulled the door aside, he saw, to his great astonishment, Joey and Kelly and their two daughters standing on the step in coats and hats (Joey sported a traditional Santa hat all his own), and with a huge stock of brown grocery bags at their feet.

“Hi, Uncle Chris!” said Briahna with more enthusiasm than he would have believed possible for a young teenage girl. “Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas!” echoed Kloey as she bounced up and down on her heels.

“Ho, ho, ho!” said Joey with his best Santa chortle. “May we have permission to enter the abode, my good fellow?”

Chris stood staring like a complete idiot for about five seconds before stepping quickly to the side and holding the door for them. “What are you all doing here?” he asked, unable to hide how surprised (and how glad) he was to see them. “I thought you said you weren’t coming until tomorrow!”

Joey gave a little impish wink as he set foot over the threshold. “Lulled you into a false sense of security, didn’t we?”

“We come bearing gifts,” said Kelly as she brought two of the brown sacks with her, which she could barely get her arms around.

Briahna was no puny girl herself, and even she could barely get her arms around her own sack.

Chris lent them a hand, and the sheer weight of the bags amazed him even more. “Sheesh, Joey, these things must weigh a ton!”

“No one can accuse the Fatones of being stingy,” Joey replied jovially, “any more than they can accuse old Santa himself!”

“What have you got in these, anyway?”

“You’ll see once we’re in the kitchen,” Kelly said.

Once they were all assembled in the enormous rustic-modern kitchen, Joey said, “Okay, first things first. Has anyone eaten yet?”

“No,” said JC, “though I was going to cook dinner in a minute.”

“Then we’ve got you covered!” said Kelly, revealing with a flourish a huge package of fresh filet mignon, enough to feed everybody with plenty leftover. There was also a bag of red potatoes, a bag of baby carrots, several cans of green beans, and two jumbo bags of ready-to-bake dinner rolls. There were even eight liters of soda (each a different flavor) to go with the food, and Kelly had gone the extra mile with a terrific honey-glazed ham and a superb pumpkin pie for the next day.

“All right!” Lance whooped and Chris found his mouth watering already.

“And that’s not all,” said Joey as he dove into one of the many sacks. On the kitchen island, he arrayed at least ten different types of cookies, ranging from Oreos to Vienna Fingers to chocolate chip to giant gingerbread people.

“Wowsers,” said Chris with a whistle through his teeth.

“Good thing the Cookie Monster’s not here!” said JC, which made them all laugh.

“The best cookies in America,” Joey proclaimed as if he were displaying the rarest jewels. “And if these don’t satisfy your sweet tooth, we’ve got loads of candy, too.”

And by “loads,” he was far from exaggerating. From that same grocery bag, he hauled out bag after bag of M&M’s of every kind, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, caramels, peppermints, chocolate-coated pretzels, and marshmallows. He also produced a considerable number of boxes of fancy chocolates and truffles. Kelly even had a little mountain of homemade fudge on a plate, all double-wrapped in plastic.

“Ho-o-o-oly cow,” JC gasped, his eyes set to pop from their sockets.

“How sweet of you guys to do this,” Lance grinned, which earned him a playful smack from Kelly.

“And now for the pièce de résistance,” said Joey with a nod with Briahna.

With a “ta-dum!” the girl revealed five tubs of ice cream from her own bag, along with plenty of chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, cherry syrup, crushed nuts, whipped cream, and pretty much everything you needed for the perfect sundae.

“Geez,” said JC, unable to stop shaking his head, “we’re all gonna be tipping the scales at three hundred pounds before the holiday’s even over!”

“This’ll save us from shopping for at least a month,” added Lance.

“And speaking of shopping,” Joey said, leaning in closer and lowering his voice, “there’s a trunkload of gifts in the car for later. What do you say we fetch ‘em after the kids are in bed?”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Lance whispered back.

“Wow, Joey,” said Chris in a hushed, humbled tone. “I…I don’t know what to say.”

Joey merely grinned and flung one arm about the older man’s shoulders and the other about JC’s shoulders. “No words are necessary, mateys. ‘Tis the season to be jolly!”

An hour ago, Chris would have rolled his eyes at that last statement. But this time he was able to smile back and respond with complete sincerity, “It sure is.”

Outside, the first snowflakes had already begun to fall. On the road, several more cars (including a car carrying a happy, healthy baby and a well-rested mom) were well on their way.

And from the living room, the ongoing radio sent out the musical lines that would have fit this scene to a tee:

“For we need a little music!
Need a little laughter!
Need a little singing
Ringing through the rafter!
And we need a little snappy
Happy ever after!
We need a little Christmas now!”

 

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