Every year during the holidays, I select a favorite Christmas column from the past 25 years that I particularly liked and think you’ll want to read again. Or reading for the first time. Or maybe the second time, but you don’t remember the first time. None of these work for me.
This story began several years ago when a UPS truck stopped at the curb at our house. We saw the driver struggling with a huge cardboard box the size of a large screen TV. He maneuvered him to the front porch and left him leaning against the door. I went outside to look at it.
“for whom?” I asked my wife, Mary Ellen.
I checked which label was directed to me, but sometimes that label is misleading. Some of our credit cards are in my name, others are in Mary Ellen’s name, so when the delivery is made, we’re not sure who ordered it and who the gift ultimately is. If the wrong person opens it, there will be a surprise on Christmas morning.
“She says it’s meant for me,” I told her. “But I don’t remember ever asking for anything so big. Maybe you did, Mary Ellen?”
“Dick, I know what it is. It’s that special item I mentioned a couple of months ago that I wanted for Christmas. You said you found it in the catalog. Don’t you remember? I’m so excited! Thank you.”
“I have no memory at all. Can you give me a hint?”
“No hints. That would spoil the surprise.”
“Sabotaging the surprise? The gift is for you! It’s supposed to be your surprise. But you already know what it is. I’m the one who has no idea.”
“It doesn’t seem right to tell you. It’s not in the spirit of giving, Dick.
“Okay, whisper softly in my ear and I promise I won’t tell you what I said.”
It scared me a little that this made sense.
“Is it a high-tech item?” I asked.
“Not really,” Mary Ellen said.
“Did you plug it in?”
“no.”
“But I don’t want to play anymore. If you guessed it, I’ll have nothing to look forward to on Christmas morning. I want to see the expression on your face when I open it, and you’ll see what you got from me.”
Later that morning, when Mary Ellen went out to buy groceries, she opened the box. Let me tell you, it was a really nice gift. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier with something I bought for my wife. Before Mary Ellen came home, I resealed it, gift-wrapped it, and put it under the tree. Of course, now we both know what was in the package. It will still be a surprise on Christmas morning, if we can keep the secret.
