Season 1, episode 34
Isabel wishes she were home for Christmas instead of all alone in a big city. She knows that other people in her apartment building are also alone, so when the electricity goes out, she decides to spread light and joy through candles and song.
This story is in the third person and the present tense. Important vocabulary in the story includes: feels, neighbors, candles, box, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Nativity, and carols.
Merry Christmas
Isabel is a kind young woman. She lives very far from her family. She likes spending time with them and typically she goes home to celebrate Christmas. However, this year she doesn’t have the time or money to travel home for Christmas.
On December 24, Isabel walks through the city where she lives. She thinks of the things she would be doing at home with her parents, siblings, and extended family. They would spend a lot of time outside playing in the snow, building snowmen, throwing snowballs, sledding, and ice-skating.
They would also do a lot of things in the house. They would cook a big dinner for Christmas Eve. They would make Christmas cookies and sing carols while they took the cookies to their neighbors. They would listen to their grandparents’ stories about past Christmases. They would go to church for a special Christmas Eve service. They would open gifts and they would be very happy.
Isabel passes a church. There is a big Nativity with figures of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. A big banner says: “Merry Christmas”. Isabel pauses to observe the scene. She hears the sound of a choir practicing carols for Christmas Eve. The music and the scene make her feel a little better, and she continues on to her apartment.
When she arrives at her apartment there is a box in front of her door. It is from her mom. Isabel opens the package and finds a letter inside.
Dear Isabel, I am sorry you are not with us for Christmas this year. I hope that with the things in this box help you feel closer to us. Merry Christmas! Love, Mom
Isabel feels sad and alone. She misses her family a lot and she doesn’t feel like it is a merry Christmas. She looks at the things in the box. There is a bag of gingerbread cookies, her favorite. There are homemade marshmallows and a variety of chocolates. There are small gifts and a lot of candles.
Isabel takes the gifts and opens one. It is a donkey, like the one that took Mary to Bethlehem. Isabel puts the donkey on her table and opens another gift. This one contains a young shepherd. Isabel thinks about the shepherds that listened to the angels’ song and then looked for the Christ child.
The next gift has a figurine of Mary. Isabel thinks about Mary’s absolute faith and in the responsibility of being the mother of Jesus Christ. Isabel feels a great admiration for Mary. The next gift is Joseph. Isabel thinks about the trust that Joseph put in God.
Isabel keeps opening the gifts. There is an angel, a cow, the three wise men, another shepherd and a lamb. She puts the figures on the table to form the Nativity scene, but the most important figure is missing: where is the Christ child?
Isabel looks in the box again, but she only finds the candles. It is a tradition in Isabel’s house to eat Christmas Eve dinner only with the light of candles, without any electric light. It is a tradition that she likes a lot, but there are too many candles in the box for a dinner for only one person. Under the candles there is a note from her mom that says: “Light the world”.
Suddenly, the electricity goes out. Isabel looks out the window and sees that the whole city is dark. Isabel feels very sad and alone. It is not a perfect Christmas Eve like when she is at home.
Isabel is sad and alone, but she knows that there are other people that also feel sad and alone during Christmas. She looks at the box of candles and she has an idea.
She lights a candle and walks with the box to the hallway. She knocks on her neighbor’s door. When her neighbor, an older man, opens the door, Isabel sings.
The first Noel the angel did say Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay, In fields where they lay keeping their sheep On a cold winter’s night that was so deep. Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel! Born is the King of Israel!
Isabel lights a candle and passes the candle to the man. He goes with Isabel to the next apartment. They knock on the door. A woman and her daughter open the door and Isabel and her neighbor sing.
Oh, come, all ye faithful, Joyful and triumphant! Oh, come ye, oh come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold him, Born the King of angels; Oh, come, let us adore him; Oh, come, let us adore him; Oh, come, let us adore him, Christ, the Lord.
The woman and her daughter take candles from the box. They light their candles and walk with Isabel and her neighbor to the next apartment. A family of six opens the door. Isabel and her group of neighbors sing.
Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, all is bright Round yon virgin mother and Child. Holy Infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace; Sleep in heavenly peace.
The group goes up a floor and knocks on the door of another apartment. An older woman with a cane opens the door. Isabel and her group of neighbors sing.
Angels we have heard on high Sweetly singing o’er the plains, And the mountains in reply Echoing their joyous strains. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo.
The woman with the cane can’t walk with the group, but Isabel gives her a candle to light her apartment. The group of neighbors goes to the next door and sings.
Hark! the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled! Joyful, all ye nations, rise; Join the triumph of the skies; With th’angelic host proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem! Hark! the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King!
The group continues through the hallways of the apartment building singing carols and passing candles to the neighbors. Some neighbors decide to join the group while others, like the woman with the cane, stay home. Some neighbors have their own candles, while others take candles from Isabel’s box.
After singing at the last apartment, Isabel has a pretty big group. They don’t want to simply return to their lonely apartments, so they decide to get together in a big room on the main floor of the building. They go to their apartments to get food to share in their improvised Christmas party.
Isabel sits in the room lit by candles from her box and eats with her neighbors. Now she doesn’t feel alone or sad, but she feels like something is missing. She thinks about the woman with the cane. She is not in the room because she can’t go down the stairs and the elevator isn’t working due to the lack of electricity. Isabel fills a plate of food and walks to the woman’s apartment.
When she knocks on the door, the woman invites her to enter. Isabel sits and talks with her. She learns that the woman’s kids couldn’t come home this year due to work and that it is her first Christmas without family. She was feeling very sad and lonely until she heard the music of her neighbors. Now her Christmas is much happier.
Later, Isabel returns to her apartment with her empty box. When she enters, she throws the bow to the side, but she hears something. The box is not completely empty. Inside the box there is one more small present. Isabel opens the packet and finds the figure of the baby Jesus. She puts the figurine with the rest of the Nativity and she sings her favorite carol.
What Child is this, who, laid to rest, On Mary’s lap is sleeping— Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping? This, this is Christ, the King, Whom shepherds guard, and angels sing: Haste, haste to bring Him laud, The Babe, the Son of Mary!
Merry Christmas!
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