Christmas Trilogy

Sat in the leather chair he looked at the Christmas tree burning brightly, the base was covered in presents; he had forgotten how fun Christmas was. The door handle turned, the door flew open and the children threw themselves at the parcels, wildly tearing the paper. Behind came his wife who had a tainted smile, he was glad to see her turn and look at his photo on the mantle piece. There was sadness in her eyes and he got up and left the room. This was the first Christmas since his death maybe he would come back next year…maybe.

She was excited for the children, it had been a hard year, but today, Christmas day the children could forget everything and loose themselves in the excitement of presents and fun. She went down stairs; the thunder of feet coming from behind, the kids flew past and launched themselves at the presents. She walked in and glanced at the photo of their father who died in her arms 6 months ago, he swore with his dying breath that he would come back and be with them on Christmas day and somehow she just knew that he had kept his promise.

The eldest rolled over and jumped out of bed. His first thought, as always, had been of Dad, but Christmas has been a close second and he couldn’t stop the excitement bubbling. He went to wake the rest of the house but he was last up and Mum was already going downstairs; he joined the crowd of pattering feet and they flung themselves past her and into the presents waiting under the tree. Ripping into the first, he turned, half expecting to see Dad sitting in his chair, but he only saw Mum... she was looking at the photo again.