Christmas at the Curtis House

"My turn to open the presents first!" shouted 15 year old Ponyboy as he ran excitedly to the tree on Christmas Eve after the threesome had arrived home from the Christmas Eve church service.

"You always want to be the first one to open the gifts!" responded 18 year old Sodapop.

"He's the youngest, so he gets the first dibs. You get to do yours next, then I do mine last," stated 21 year old Darry.

Ponyboy eagerly tore into his package. "A new blue scarf!" he held it up appreciatively.

"About time you got to wear something new, or had a decent scarf to wear," Darry answered.

Ponyboy hugged him. Next, he embraced Soda after opening the Ralph Lauren Polo Blue cologne that Soda had purchased for him. He knew that his brothers had had to save a lot of money over a long period of time to purchase these gifts. Ponyboy himself had carefully set aside a large percentage of the money he had earned from teaching piano lessons to small children, a job he had held since the previous summer.

Then, Soda opened his presents-a photo book with brief textual descriptions about the wild horses of Cumberland Island, Georgia (a place that Soda dreamed of visiting) and a large box of chocolate seashells. The former was from Darry and the later was from Ponyboy.

Finally, Darry's turn came. He received a new red flannel shirt from Soda and he fingered, almost caressingly, the new black gloves that Ponyboy had purchased for him.

"I just can't thank you two enough."

"Your old gloves have holes in them," Soda said.

"Your other flannel shirts that Dad originally wore are now all frayed. They were already used even when he first got them years ago from Goodwill," Ponyboy added.

Darry nodded, still holding the shirt and gloves to his body and taking in the new smell.

Seldom did any of the 3 brothers have any truly new clothes to wear, even before they were orphaned.

Suddenly, a familiar voice called out to them from the porch outside.

"Two-Bit!" yelled Soda happily and let him in.

"Fruitcake! Fruitcake!" Two-Bit Matthews said shoving a big plate of it toward them.

Little Kate Matthews placed a card with a drawing on it in Ponyboy's hand, Steve Randle gave out a large container of store-bought cupcakes, Mrs. Matthews furnished a basket of cocoa mix packets and even Mr. Randle provided a large bottle of cream soda.

"You all are the best!" Soda cried joyfully.

"Merry Christmas!" everyone embraced and soon retired for the night.

When Christmas morning dawned, though, there was more to the day than simply the Curtis brothers opening their stocking presents.

Both the Randles and all the Matthews woke to find small sparkling bags of Christmas candy that had been "mysteriously" slipped through their mail slots during the night, with drawings of creches and candy canes attached, as well as the story of the original candy cane.

Three small children in even worse neighborhoods than the one the Curtis brothers dwelt in also woke to miraculous surprises that morning.

A small boy received a new dazzling blue toy train, purchased by a young man with softened blue eyes who liked model trains himself.

A little girl got a new stuffed toy golden pony that a teenage boy with eyes of golden brown had bought.

Finally, a child in a homeless shelter "found" a pop up book about the story of the very first Christmas, donated by younger teenage boy with eyes of gray green and auburn hair.