Peace on Earth

It is Christmas Eve in Odyssey, and Whit's End is packed. The eggnog has run out, the vanilla ice cream is gone, the mugs are all dirty, and John Avery Whittaker cannot get a single thing finished. He has just told his daughter over the phone that the presents he mailed to his grandchildren never arrived, and every time he calls the parcel service, the machine puts him on hold and then hangs up on him. He still has gifts to wrap, and the pastor has called to remind him that the choir must be at church an hour early. When Jimmy Barclay bounces in wanting to read aloud the list of presents he hopes to unwrap in the morning, Whit does not have a minute to spare for him.

Connie Kendall is happier than she has ever been at Christmas. This is the first year she has wanted to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and she says so plainly. Eugene, who intends to spend the holiday catching up on work, offers a tidy lecture on Roman festivals and scholarly disagreements, and then asks the question that lands hardest: the angels announced peace on earth, so how can Christ be at the center of all this rushing about? Whit starts to answer and is interrupted by the telephone again.

It takes Tom Riley to slow him down. Tom arrives with snow on his coat and a wrapped present for Whit to put under his tree that night. After the shop empties and the lights go off, Tom makes his old friend stand still in the doorway and simply look - at the snow, the lights, the quiet. Whit admits Tom is right. He has been going like a house on fire, and he needs to practice what he preaches. Upstairs, Whit finds Eugene sitting beside the nativity scene, and learns that Eugene has no family left and no plans beyond a dorm room, some computers, and a few Bing Crosby records. Whit will not hear of it, and brings him home for Christmas.

That evening, after a beautiful church service, the two stop by the Barclays'. George Barclay is proud of the tree, the wreath, the holly, and especially the mountain of presents. Jimmy has counted seventeen. When Whit mentions the birth of Christ, George agrees warmly that it matters, and admits the family rather takes it for granted.

At a quarter to six on Christmas morning, Jimmy wakes everybody up, and the family goes downstairs to find the tree bare and the house emptied. Burglars have taken every gift, every decoration worth carrying, and even the food. Donna cries over the nightgown she sewed for her mother. Jimmy wants to know what he would have gotten. George, standing in his stripped living room, hears his own words from the night before come back to him and realizes he meant them less than he thought. Presents are not the center of Christmas, and he tells his children so, blaming himself for not showing them better. Mary agrees, and points out that what actually matters is still in the house. George opens the one thing the thieves left behind, his Bible, and begins reading Luke chapter two.

He gets one verse in before the doorbell rings. Whit and Eugene are on the step with a hot turkey. Behind them come Tom with his famous Christmas punch, Connie with spare decorations and a load of unwrapped gifts, and a friend with an armload of firewood who claims he has only stopped by to check for clues. The house fills up with people stamping snow off their boots, and Jimmy, standing in his pajamas in the middle of it, can think of nothing to say except Merry Christmas.