It was Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2024, and Ebenezer Scrooge was unusually grumpy at this time of year. He had a deep resentment and loneliness inside of himself. Other families gathered on Christmas morning to share presents and joy, but poor Ebenezer was all alone with nothing but his money. He lived by himself in his little house on Concord Street in Williston Park and so for him Christmas was the worst time of year.
He went to bed at his usual time of 9:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve and his sleep was fitful. He tossed and turned and had flashes of disturbing images like Donald Trump eating breakfast at Mar-a-Lago, Elon Musk speeding down the highway in a red Tesla and J.D. Vance sitting in front of a fireplace musing over the possibility that he would be America’s next president in 2028.
Suddenly Ebeneezer heard a knock on the door, awoke and wondered who would have the nerve to knock on his door at this time of night. Maybe it was some obnoxious Christmas carolers.
He quickly put on his bathrobe, opened the door a crack and looked out. To his amazement he saw three gentleman standing there in the cold. Ebeneezer snorted, “What do you three characters want? I don’t give charity out and I don’t want to hear any Christmas carols!”
They all spoke in unison and said: “Good evening. Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Scrooge. We three are the ghosts of Xmas past, Xmas present and Xmas to come and we are here to ask you a simple question?” “Bah humbug!” shouted Mr. Scrooge. The three ghosts asked, “Ebenezer, we want to know why you have not put up any Christmas lights like all your neighbors ?”
“What are you guys? Nuts? I don’t have to answer your stupid questions. I have better things to do than to waste time and money and risk my life trying to put up Christmas lights.”
With this the three ghosts said: “Please come with us. We want to take a walk through the neighborhood.”
The three ghosts were large and frightening and Ebenezer thought it wise to go with them. The first home they passed had a giant blow-up doll of Santa, which must have been 10 feet tall.
“You see,” grunted Ebenezer, “look at that stupid Santa doll.” The three ghosts just smiled and proceeded to the next house with a small string of lights along the gutter. They kept walking and as they proceeded, Ebenezer began to notice that nearly every home had lights, wreaths, little candy cane figures, a Snoopy doll blowup on a sleigh, a snowman and even a blowup doll of Casper the friendly ghost.
When they finally got back to Ebeneezer’s house on Concord Street, the ghosts asked Ebenezer why he thought all these Williston Park folks put up lights on Christmas. Ebenezer thought for a bit but could not find an answer, so they said to him: “Townspeople like these in Williston Park do this for many reasons.”
They went on to say: “We are in winter solstice, the shortest, darkest day of the year and we need light. They hang lights out of nostalgia for the sweetness of their past. They do it as a family ritual and to delight their children. They do it to be kind and to brighten the neighborhood. It is what we call charity, altruism and goodness. Simply put, it is an act of love and a sign that humans are more good than bad. And in this day and age of loneliness, anger, distrust and stress, we all need a little love, don’t you think?”
When Ebenezer awoke the next day, he wasn’t sure if the night before was a dream or if it had actually happened. But he had a strange feeling inside of him. After giving it some thought, he concluded this feeling must be what they call the Christmas spirit. So he put on his Sunday best and went to church with a smile on his face and he quietly put $1,000 into the poor box. It was too late to put up lights, but it wasn’t too late to give back to others.
