“I have no gift to bring, pa-rum-pa-pum-pum…”
--The Little Drummer Boy

It is the first of December and I am pleased as punch, as the saying goes. I have (no kidding) finished my Christmas shopping. Each gift has been wrapped and placed under the lighted and ornament-laden Christmas tree that dominates a corner of our English country living room. Those packages that must be mailed no later than December 15^th have been. I have amazed myself and I have stayed firmly within budget (which has stunned my husband).

There is one gift, however, that has him puzzled. It is a Christmas card with his name scripted across the front of the envelope. When I leaned it against another’s gift with the same gingerly touch as I set all the others on the gold tree skirt, he asked, “That’s my gift?”

“Yes,” I answered. “This year you get a Christmas card.”

The perplexed look will — on Christmas Day — be replaced by a look of joy when he sees that I have given him a weekend away. I am taking him (And it’s okay for me to say this, he never reads anything I write!) to my favorite island getaway. Just the two of us. Alone. I am giving him the one thing he wants most from me these days: time.

Poor Little Boy
I am reflective of another era in our joined lives, a time when we hardly had enough money to treat our children at Christmas, much less each other. A time when, if someone gave money as a gift to us, we used it to play Santa. A time when our presents to each other was a “Merry Christmas” kiss.

Most of us have been in this place at one time or another. Sometimes its when we are young and in college or just beginning our adult lives on our own. Other times we’re older and have had a stroke of bad luck. Either way, the season comes upon us and we have “no gift to bring.” The skirt under our Charlie Brown Christmas tree is exposed without a single gift resting upon it. It is at this time that we may be reminded of the poor child in the beloved Christmas tune, “Little Drummer Boy.” Like him — like the baby Jesus and like his parents, Mary and Joseph — we are flat broke.