A Miracle At Christmastime - 2. The Village, The State, The World

It’s a week before Christmas 1890, and Nicholas has made a list of something to give to every family in the village. In most cases it is an additional animal or two and a few weeks worth of extra food. He showed Christopher the list.

“Oh my God, father. Without reading it, I know this is going to be too much for me to think about in one night. I could not do this for the over fifty families here in a week.”

“Darn. We should have thought about that. Maybe doing it for Christmas wasn’t the best idea after all.”

“I think I have an idea, but I am not sure if it is possible.”

“What are you thinking?”

“You are not going to like it.”

“I’ll like being able to have more supplies and things more.”

“Well. I am thinking I wish for copies of me, so each one can think of things for a few families. And maybe the items get stored in the forest for a night or two before Christmas.”

“Extra things can be explained away if everybody gets them. Extra you, how do we explain that?”

“Well, if they are not here, we would not need to explain anything.”

“They’d have to be somewhere nobody could see.”

“Santa and his elves are supposed to live at the North Pole. But initially, could not they live in a house deep in the woods?”

“Why the woods?”

“Well, I could not check that they were really there at the North Pole.”

“True.”

“I will do that tonight. Make a house deep in the woods with a big barn. My copies can start working on the list right away and I can check on the progress every day.”

“We should change your name to Kris Kringle too.”

Chris laughed, “Well, maybe one copy will be in charge out in the woods, and he can be Kris.”

December 19th

After his morning chores were done, Chris climbed on Jesse and rode the mule to the spot he’d visited the day before. Although he put quite a bit of effort thinking about it the previous day, he was still surprised to see the large house and barn. He considered knocking, but then decided it was his place, so he walked in. He had his father make a copy of the list he'd created so he could leave it with his body copies here at the new house. He was greeted by eight copies of himself. He'd imagined them in the traditional green Santa outfit that was common at the time.

"Hello Santas."

"Hello, Christopher."

"I have a copy here of the list my father made. I had him circle the items for the six families I will create the gifts for. You all can split up the rest of them amongst yourselves."

"Excellent, Christopher."

Having all eight respond simultaneously was distracting. He pointed at one, "Please, you respond alone. And call me Chris."

“Alright, Chris. We will do as you ask.”

“I think you should all give yourselves Christmasy names. And think of different outfits for yourselves so I can tell you apart. I will come back every day to check on your progress. Do you all know what I want you to do?”

The boy he requested answer replied “I will take the Kris Kringle name. We are all you. We know what you know.”

“Very good. Then you are aware of the barn and what we need to do. I will see you all tomorrow then.”

“Have a good day, Chris.”

Chris imagined the gifts for his first family, his nearest neighbors, the Jonas family, that evening before going to sleep. A mule, two chickens, animal feed and enough grain to supply the family with bread for a month appeared in the barn in the woods. On Christmas Eve, he would imagine all the gifts had moved to their new owners.

The next day after his chores were done, as promised, he and Jesse went back to the house in the woods. He checked the barn first. When he saw it was nowhere near a quarter full, he realized it was larger than his visit the day before. His copies saw the barn wouldn’t be large enough, so they expanded it themselves. He went to the house and congratulated them on a job well done for the first night.

This pattern repeated itself for the next four nights. He’d gone back just before dark on Christmas Eve to see the barn nearly full. He was happy. In addition to his parents, the last family he needed to supply gifts for was the de facto mayor’s. His father had chosen a fancy carriage for them, as Mr. Paulson constantly complained about his rickety old cart.

For his own parents, aside from increasing their animal count, and feed, he created a butcher shop in the barn for his father. Now he’d be able to more easily butcher the animals for their meals, and make some additional money by doing the same for a few neighbors. Everyone would have more crops and wares to sell, so money would be more plentiful for all.

His mother always felt she was underdressed when going to church every Sunday, so he created a couple fancy dresses for her. Not as fancy as the ones Mrs. Paulson wore, but they were still very nice.

Christopher woke up early on Christmas Day and rode Jesse to the house in the woods. When he arrived at the location, the house and barn were gone. Nailed to a tree where the front door to the house would have been was a note.

Dear Christopher,

We took your suggestion and moved to the North Pole. We spent our days this week planning out a massive underground complex there. We chose it to be underground so nobody would know it was there. Now that we are there, we will create more helpers, mostly in your image. We will call them elves.

From next year forward, Christmas will no longer be special in only St. John’s Parish, but throughout the entire world. Your idea and efforts will allow children the world over to truly believe in Santa Claus.

Sincerely,

Kris Kringle and the St. John’s Parish Santas.

Merry Christmas to all!