The Christmas Box

Richard’s ignorance about Mary’s tragic loss mirrors his broader ignorance about the impermanence of life. This is shown when Richard fails to pick up on the despair of his customer, who comes to rent a suit for his dead son. As in previous chapters, Richard is preoccupied with material and financial concerns instead of being sensitive to the subtleties of the human experience. In this way, the novella alludes to The Journey from Materialism to Deeper Emotional and Spiritual Truths. Richard feels false confidence that he will have all the time in the world to spend time with his daughter, Jenna. He fails to grasp the fleeting nature of childhood, and, on a broader level, life. The customer’s revelation about his dead son foreshadows Richard’s discovery of the death of Mary’s daughter. Mary’s devastation over Andrea’s death is revealed through her letters, as well as through Steve’s memory of her weeping at Andrea’s grave: “On the ground before it knelt a woman, her face buried in the snow. She was sobbing as if her heart were breaking” (103-4). Mary’s prostrate position, as well as her weeping, illuminate her heartbreak over Andrea’s death.

Andrea’s death helps Richard to understand the message that Mary is trying to teach him, and that is delivered divinely through his dreams. Andrea continues to be symbolically linked with the stone angel from Richard’s dream. This is illustrated by the statue on Andrea’s grave, which resembles the angel that Richard dreamed of in Chapter 3: “I look into its cherubic face, its eyes turn up toward heaven, and the angel turns to stone” (64).

A divine medium—Andrea as the angel—delivers the novella’s key message, which is that familial love should be embraced and prioritized. The message is symbolized by the Christmas Box, which Richard comes to understand in these chapters. Although the box is empty after Richard burns Mary’s letters to Andrea, it is metaphorically filled with love. Richard understands this love through the framework of the Christian belief about Jesus’s life and death, which is believed to be a testament to God’s love: “[T]he sacred contents of that box are a parent's pure love for a child, manifested first by a Father's love for all His children, as He sacrificed that which He loved most and sent His son to earth on that Christmas day so long ago” (125). The Magic of Christmas continues to be established; Christmas is a Christian celebration of familial love, rather than a cultural or commercial event. As Richard reflects, familial love is the “source of the magic of Christmases for centuries to come” (125).

Richard now appreciates The Power of Familial Love with more sincerity and gravity. For example, he goes home from the hospital and holds Jenna devotedly: “I picked up her warm little body and, cradling her tightly in my arms, brought her back down to the den. My tears fell on her hair. My little girl. My precious little girl” (118). Richard realizes that he has been taking his relationship with his daughter for granted. Andrea and Mary’s deaths teach him that connections with family must be cherished: “How foolish I'd been to let her childhood, her fleeting, precious childhood slip away. Forever. In my young mind everything was so permanent and lasting” (118).