Classic Christmas Stories by Frank Galgay Page B

possession of one would be the ultimate in glamour. In the back
     of my mind there lurked a sneaking suspicion that I might get both items, but I
     was afraid to suggest it. Well, on Christmas Eve the presents came down from my
     grandmother, who lived just up the road. We were always allowed to open her
     gifts on Christmas Eve, partly because our parents were as anxious to see them
     as we were. As soon as I saw the small, flat box with my name on it I knew I had
     my watch, but my heart felt curiously heavy. I put it down without even opening
     it and watched my five-year-old sister excitedly tearing the wrappings off her
     big baby doll. I can see it now, golden-haired and beautiful, in a lovely dress
     and bonnet of blue organdy. Without warning I burst into tears. I was heartily
     ashamed of myself but I couldn’t seem to stop. My parents seemed to know what
     the trouble was but they said nothing. When my father tucked me in bed that
     night he bent close to my ear and said “Pray hard for a doll like Margie’s and
     you don’t know what might happen.” I did just that and the next morning I awoke
     to find a doll exactly like my sister’s except that it was dressed in pink. To
     this day I can’t be sure where the doll came from, but I expect frantic
     conniving on my parents’ part. Luckily for me, at that time the stores were open
     quite late on Christmas Eve.
    At our house even more energy and effort were expended in preparing for New
     Year’s Day than for Christmas Day. We children found it rather an anticlimax
     after Christmas although we always clamoured to be allowed to stay up until
     twelve o’clock on New Year’s Eve to “see the New Year in.”But
     for our grown-ups, New Year’s Day was The Day. For it was the one day in all the
     year when two very important relatives came to dinner. They were my great-aunt
     and an even older lady whose relationship to us was rather hazy. They always
     arrived in mid-morning, had dinner with us and departed at about four o’clock in
     the afternoon to have supper with our cousins down the road.
    On New Year’s Eve preparations were frantic and furious. The whole house had to
     be cleaned again, a new stock of delicacies made and there was also the giant
     turkey to prepare. The two old ladies held decided views on the consumption of
     alcoholic liquors, and the men of the house were admonished to sweeten their
     breaths and stay away from the stuff while our two elderly relatives were
     present. The older of the two claimed that tobacco smoke makes her sick, so the
     pipes, cigars and cigarettes were carefully hidden away with the bottles.
    After dinner, while the women were cleaning up, it fell to the lot of us
     youngsters to entertain the two visitors. Our great-aunt was a lover of games
     (not cards, of course, but brainy games like anagrams). One of us would
     challenge her to a contest of some kind and the rest of us would be left to
     entertain the even more ancient lady who always proclaimed proudly that she “had
     never played a game in her life.” She was very deaf and, to save our throats we
     usually let her do most of the talking. This was not difficult, for in her day
     she had been a great Sunday-School worker and she enjoyed telling us of past
     glory and quoting temperance rhymes she had composed. It was hard to maintain an
     expression of intense interest in her conversation, for we had heard all her
     stories many times before. Then, too, my young brothers were very skillful at
     making us laugh while keeping dead-serious faces themselves. I look back on New
     Year’s afternoon as being the longest one in the year.
    After we had finally seen the two visitors off late in the afternoon, the house
     began to hum. My uncle dived for the “drop o’ stuff, ” my grandfather dug out
     the tobacco and my father hurried to the kitchen for a fresh supply of glasses.
     By this time, Mother and my aunt had collapsed on their beds in a state