They never had Christmas after their parents died, Violet thought. It was like all of the winter months passed by uninterrupted, and the spring months and summer months were like winter months, too. They still kept birthdays, if they remembered them, but those were unceremonious. Birthdays happened regardless. The earth always turned and time always passed, they just weren't good times. Christmas was different.
Klaus said once that Olaf's heart was ten sizes too small, and maybe that was his only problem.
Christmas at the Baudelaire mansion was gorgeous, there were decorations everywhere and you could feel the house was rich and full of life, and at least that's how Violet remembered it. The stockings were hung from left to right: Father, Violet, Sunny, Klaus, Mother. Violet liked it that way because it was as if mother and father were the protectors of the stockings within them. It was as if their parents would protect them if Santa would come and try to give one of them a lump of coal for Christmas, and mother would say that the Baudelaires were good kids and we were a good family.
It always appealed to her that Sunny was in the very middle, like even if the Baudelaire parents were gone for some reason Sunny still wouldn't get a lump of coal for Christmas, because Violet would explain that Sunny was a good kid and she deserved a carrot or something hard to bite other than coal. Klaus and Violet be her supporting guard and her defenders.
But they weren't parents, she wasn't a parent. Violet didn't even know what day it was.
She kept wondering what it was that Klaus was going to say on the caravan that was hurtling towards their apparent providence. Kismet. Death. She hoped he was going to say, "I love you," and not, "I love you, you're the best big sister I could ever ask for." Of course, he might not have been saying either of those things, but surely he had something intended.
She wanted him to say, "I love you," like he was her counterpart. As if he was the sentry and she was the safeguard, and they'd patrol the decked and garlanded hallways for the rest of their lives.
But what she really needed was for this to be over, so they could have Christmas again.
