Opening Our Eyes to the Miraculous

In the Connie Willis story “Miracle,” Lauren takes her lunch hour to go shopping.  She drops off her purchases at home, but before she can return to work a young man rings her doorbell and insists he’s there to give her a Christmas present.  Despite his “Save the Whales” T-shirt, he insists he’s the Spirit of Christmas Present.  Not Present as in “now”, but present as in “gift.”  Her sister channeled him from the Astral Plane to get Lauren whatever she wants for Christmas.  He tells her she can call him Chris for short.  

Chris, the Spirit of Christmas Present

When Lauren keeps closing the door on him, he grows tired of this and materializes in her apartment.  He frowns at all her store-wrapped presents, complains that everyone’s always rushing around, spending too much money, and hurrying off to parties.  Why can’t they just take the time to relax, drink eggnog, and watch a movie?  He also criticizes her printed Christmas cards: there’s no accompanying letter, no personalized notes of affection, not even her signature.  She tells him she doesn’t have time for all that, or even to think about what she wants for Christmas.  Then Chris disappears.  Her preprinted cards vanish with him.  In their place stands a Christmas tree.  It has not been cut and placed in an attractive stand.  Instead, it is growing out of her kitchen floor.

In the novel A Clubbable Woman by Reginald Hill, a murder investigation must be put on hold to search for a missing child.  When he is finally found, Superintendent Andrew Dalziel blames the “bloody schools” for over-stimulating the boy’s imagination.  It appears that little Mickey Annan was a wise man in the school nativity play.  As Dalziel says to Detective Sergeant Pascoe, “When his teacher explained that Jesus was born again for everyone every Christmas and Bethlehem was never far away,” Mickey left home and traveled East to where his Uncle Dick and Aunt Mavis lived.  

Celebrating the Miraculous

Connie Willis’ Lauren may not be as jaded and cynical as Hill’s Superintendent Dalziel, but she is treading down a dangerous path.  Chris tries to warn her of this, but she views his miraculous appearance as an unwanted intrusion in her life.  Her next move will be to seek out Fred in the Documentation department.  He played the magician at last year’s Christmas Eve party after all.  Surely, he knows how to exorcise an unwanted spirit!

The holidays should be magical days filled with wonder, but as we grow older, this somehow becomes more difficult to perceive.  Maybe we shouldn’t act as naively as little Mickey Annan, but it would be nice to believe that miracles can still happen.  If we could find a way to act upon Chris’ advice and prioritize time for relaxing this holiday season, perhaps then we could open our eyes to the miraculous.

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis, is available from Bantam Books.

A Clubbable Woman by Reginald Hill is available from Felony and Mayhem Press.


Related Dragon Cache entries
True Humility for Christmas

A Fictional Role Model?

If the Stars are Gods: A Final Word

The Well-Trodden Path