The Christmas Story

Christmas Tragedy

It was Christmas eve, snowflakes were falling heavily from the grey sky with gusts of chilly wind whipping through the trees.  It was only morning and the storm was starting already.  The weather called for a blizzard that day and everybody was preparing for the worst.  Everyone was in a rush, as there were lots to get done that day.

The eldest son Jake got his snowsuit on and was headed outside to gather wood for the stove.  Jake gathered as much wood as he could from the woodshed carrying it into the house.  He stacked a neat pile of wood beside the stove and stuffed a few pieces inside it.  He lit a blazing fire in the stove to keep the house warm during the big storm, then set out in the kitchen to help with other chores.  Their mom, Lisa was in the kitchen preparing foods and desserts for a family gathering they always had on Christmas eve.  The younger son James was in the parents bedroom finishing wrapping the presents.  When David, the father came home he was sent to the store with a list.  They were to buy lots of groceries to prepare for the storm and Christmas dinner the next day.  While Lisa and Jake were preparing the foods and James was in the bedroom, smoke started to curl their noses.  They all ran around to check all the heaters in the house to check for a fire.  After going up and down the hallways and stairs of their two-storey home they were able to locate the smell.

Inside the living room of their home was the Christmas tree up in flames.  Jake had forgotten he left the stove door open a bit to get the fire started up.  There was a trail of flames coming from the stove to the Christmas tree in the corner.  Everybody panicked and ran to grab water.  Lisa called David to come home immediately and in a rush she told him it was an emergency and that she would explain when he got there.  They were all rushing for buckets of water, however the fire was only spreading further and further until it reached the presents under the tree.  When David arrived home he grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it on the fire.  The fire started to calm down after that and Jake and James threw four more buckets of water on the fire.  After a few more buckets of water they had finally got the fire out.

Just to be sure, Lisa grabbed one more bucket of water and put it on the floor.  The rest grabbed the tree and took it outside, there was barely anything left to it and only a few presents were saved in the event.  Everyone was disappointed, they thought Christmas was ruined.  With heavy hearts they cleaned up the mess in the living room, opening windows to clear the smell, drying up the water, and washing as much black off the walls from the smoke as they could.  The fire hadn’t done much damage to the room as it wasn’t going for long, they were able to replace some of the floor that got burned with extra floor tiles they had in the room.

After the clean up they continued to have their family gathering anyways.  When everyone arrived they asked questions about where the tree and gifts were and the family had to explain the incident.  One family member just happened to have an extra Christmas tree and gave it to them to set up. The family was never so grateful and the kids realized that if it wasn’t for family, Christmas would be nothing.  The children learned that it doesn’t matter if you have a tree or presents, the most important part of Christmas is gathering around with your family.