As Jason perused the cozy shop, he eyed an adorable angel figurine, hanging daintily by a shimmery, golden string loop. The curious 22-year-old brought the ornament up into the light, noting how inviting its soft, cherubic features were.
“That’s a very special ornament you have there, my dear,” an old, croaky voice startled Jason from his concentration on the tiny figure.
“Oh, hi! Are you the shopkeeper?” It was clearly so, Jason imagined, as the old lady’s shop-logo-adorned sweater so obviously advertised.
“Why yes! And what need have you for this rather special little angel?” The beginnings of a smile manifested as the old woman practically begged her young customer to inquire about the ornament.
“Alright, I’ll bite,” he obliged, “what’s so special about this angel figurine?”
The shopkeeper spoke mischievously, yet Jason sensed no malintent. “Well, you see, sweetheart, this peculiar little thing here is unlike the bulk of my vast collection. This ornament is enchanted. After hanging it from your tree, if you place any old Christmas gift under the tree on Christmas Eve, you’ll wake up ever so enchanted the next morning, reliving that very same Christmas day you received the gift.”
Jason was much too old and much too clever to pay mind to such fantastical musings of this kindly old woman, who clearly spent too much time cooped up in this suffocatingly cheerful shop. Nonetheless, he humored her. “And what would happen the day after Christmas? Do you just wake up like normal?”
“Here’s the trick, dear, and you’re exceptionally clever for making that point,” she planted a soft, weathered hand on the young man’s shoulder. “You must ensure that you place two things under the tree. The first, you’ll place unwrapped, hidden beneath other gifts; this is the item from the Christmas you wish to relive. It is a gift already given, so it mustn’t be wrapped again. The second will be any item from your current life, wrapped nicely, as if to give your past self a gift from the present, enabling a return trip to Christmas future. This second gift must be in your possession by midnight, the end of Christmas day, or the ornament’s power will not manifest.”
“That’s awfully specific,” he scoffed, before giving a moment’s contemplation to the possibility of reliving that indescribable feeling of wonder that can only be experienced as a kid on Christmas morning. “And it’s only $20 for all that?” He eyed the ornament even more suspiciously now.
“Correct. A small price to pay for the chance at a Christmas miracle.”
---
Jason lied lazily on his bed, a bit smaller than the one in his college apartment he felt, or perhaps that was just the illusion of smallness granted that he was in his childhood home. As his parents and relatives mingled downstairs on this especially average Christmas Eve, Jason turned the small figurine in his hands, as if further inspection would reveal the source of its alleged powers. He was more interested in it than in hanging out with his cousins. Having no siblings, Jason was constantly made by his parents to maintain some kind of a relationship with his two older cousins, Michael and Brett. The two remarkably immature brothers, who were 5 and 3 years older than Jason, respectively, always found it fun to gang up on poor, lonely Jason, even in their adult years; though, their teasing had more to do now with his career prospects out of college than with noogies, pantsing, or wet willies. Besides, even if they tried any of their old antics, Jason was no informidable foe in his adult years, more than strong enough to defend himself now.
All in all, his cousins’ presence, and Jason’s anxiety, fueled by the near end of his college years and the beginning of his life in the workforce, had him feeling all the more nostalgic. What if this little thing really could do all the shopkeeper had claimed? It certainly couldn’t hurt to try, right? Worst case, his family finds some random discarded item from eons past under the tree, and he’d somehow have to explain it away.
What Christmas would he even want to go back to? For that matter, what Christmases could he go back to? What gifts did he have from Christmases past that he hadn’t lost or gotten rid of? Fortunately, Jason was never really one for the Marie Kondo lifestyle. His room had artifacts from nearly every part of his life, much to his mother’s dismay. He’d just have to do some digging.
As the evening festivities carried on downstairs, Jason opened his closet to rummage through drawers and boxes alike. In no time at all, worn out clothes, old toys, and school medals and trophies littered the floor of the college senior’s childhood room. One obvious problem was that Jason wasn’t sure he could pinpoint which items were Christmas gifts and which were presents obtained from some other occasion like birthdays. Well, there were a few things he could say for sure were from certain Christmases. A dainty yellow blankie almost certainly came from his 2nd Christmas, at least according to his parents. There was also a green, rubber T-rex toy from his 4th birthday, which happened to be one of his earliest memories, so he was confident in that gift. Then came the gifts that weren’t really gifts, at least from a young boy’s perspective, but it was an immovable fact that Jason’s parents had gotten him underwear for every Christmas starting on his 6th birthday, when he’d incessantly begged for a pack of Pokémon undies, which he now held a pair of in his hands, amazed that he’d ever fit into the tiny underoos. When Jason turned 10, it was the first time he started wearing plain underwear, having dismissed the cartoon prints as entirely too juvenile, and his parents accordingly gifted him a pack of tighty-whities that Christmas, which he was sure his cousins were all too happy to make fun of at the time, despite the small milestone of maturity they represented to him. The smallest pair of Hanes briefs he could find from the old boxes were almost certainly from his 10th Christmas.