Peter smiled, the memory of leaving the city alongside his father, at the lovely age of nine, to go into the forest just outside Finchley, and find a Christmas tree filling his mind. The littlest Pevensie sat on the ground, happily clapping her hands as she listened to her siblings. Back when Edmund and Peter got along splendidly and Lucy was still too young to walk. Susan was reminded of crackling chestnuts, and she thought she could smell them roasting over the fireplace as their father refilled their mother's cup of eggnog and bade the children sing another carol together. They had been sad then, too, but had overcame it, as he was certain they would do now. Of Mother, reading to the children of the Christ child as they sat around the little tree Peter had brought home, their first Christmas without their father. A wave of homesickness hit them suddenly, and it was with this that they realized that yes, they did wish to celebrate Christmas, despite the evil that had been winter of the last year.Ī warm feeling filled Edmund's stomach, and these presents, along with the sight of the old fellow that Edmund had spent the last year in the world of the wardrobe trying to convince Lucy was merely a fable, reminded him of home, of the last Christmas the Pevensies had spent there before coming to Narnia. Despite themselves, the four Pevensies crowded around the bag excitedly. The jolly old man laughed, and pulled the great brown sack bulging with gifts out of his sleigh, hoisting it over his shoulder and onto the snowy ground. Would that we had met the first time, as well."Įdmund swallowed hard, but before he had the chance to respond, Lucy interrupted, "You brought us presents then?" "Your Majesty, it is good to finally meet you. "Your Majesties," he greeted, before his shrewd old eyes turned towards Edmund. The old man turned away from Lucy, facing the other three siblings then, and gave them an exaggerated bow which caused Lucy and Edmund to chuckle. "Father Christmas," Susan said, in that soft voice of hers reserved for diplomats and guests from Calormene.
Lucy giggled, her whole face lighting into a young, happy smile, which soon dissolved into a frown as her older siblings came up behind her, faces twisted in surprise. It is Christmas, after all, and my work requires me to deliver gifts to their intended receiver." "You're here!"įather Christmas laughed, a beautifully loud, happy sound that had not been heard in Cair since the first snowfall. "Father Christmas!" Lucy shouted happily as the jolly old fellow climbed down from his sleigh, gently petting the reindeer that drove it in an attempt to calm them. The other three followed quickly after her, though with decidedly less enthusiasm. He had, though, so she needn't have worried. Despite the frowns of her older siblings, Lucy was truly glad to see him after such a morbid day, and had to restrain herself from shouting out to him and demanding to know if he had brought more presents as his sleigh pulled to a halt at the grand entrance to the palace.
The Pevensies felt that one could not be celebrated without the looming presence of the other, and therefore decided to celebrate neither to keep their minds at ease.įather Christmas quickly put an end to such thinking when he arrived at Cair Paravel, empty as it was after all the Talking Beasts and foreign dignitaries made their way home. Their first Christmas in Narnia was a decidedly sordid and quiet affair, as the four Pevensies, and the rest of Narnia, still had yet to decipher the difference between Winter and Christmas itself.
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