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A White Christmas Wish
by William G. Willis

As Christmas approached, a young family began to look forward to this wonderful holiday season.  Mom and Dad spent the days leading up to Christmas doing everything they could to make the holiday perfect for their beautiful children.  They went out and bought the gifts that the children had been hoping for.  They decorated their home with tinsel and holly.  The living room held a large, beautiful tree with sparkling lights and brightly-colored decorations.  In the front yard was a large nativity scene with a much smaller version displayed on the coffee table inside.  With all of these preparations made, there was only one thing left.  The parents began to hope and the children wished with all their might for a white Christmas.  A winter snow would make everything perfect for Christmas day.  They kept wishing and hoping until Christmas Eve finally came.

On the other side of town, that part of town that no one visits or talks about, another young family had been making preparations for Christmas day.  The father of this family had lost his job and had been unable to find work in their town.  Before long, they had lost everything they owned.  As December rolled on, this young family had found a small abandoned building and had gathered scraps of clothing to help to protect them from the weather that had been turning colder and colder.  With very little food and a few scraps of wood that the father had managed to gather, this young family settled in for the Christmas season.

On the night of Christmas Eve, the temperature dropped sharply and it began to snow.  By Christmas morning, the snow was knee-deep to the happy children who had been wishing so hard for a white Christmas.  As the young children gathered with their parents around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning, they talked excitedly about how their hopes and prayers for a white Christmas had come true.  Everywhere they looked from the windows of their cozy house there were fields of white.  It was a beautiful sight to behold.  The houses and trees were covered with snow and the smoke rose in curls from the chimneys of the other homes in their neighborhood.  It was clearly a dream come true.

The next day, the police were called to the small abandoned building where some passerby had heard the cries of children from inside.  When they got there, they found the children wrapped in rags next to a meager fire that had burned out hours before.  Next to the ashes of that burnt-out fire were the bodies of the mother and father, holding each other as they had slipped quietly into death from freezing.  The young policeman called for someone to come and pick up the newly-orphaned children and an ambulance to pick up the mother and father.  As the young policeman stood waiting for the others to arrive, he began to weep as he looked at the scene before him.  He began to wonder if it was really worth it.  He began to wonder if he and his family should have hoped and prayed so hard for that white Christmas.