One Christmas Story I Bet You've Never Heard Before

There is no way for you to have heard it. Just because it's my father's story. As for me, I have heard it over and over again, as my dad loved to tell it to our guests. And even if I heard it more than once I never got bored of it. He was such a good teller! Not only did we not get bored, but actually we did not get enough of it. We were the ones who would ask him: "Dad, tell them your story about that Christmas!" And after we would ask him a couple of times he would nod and set off on a journey back in time, taking us along with him:

"When I was young I just loved to go carolling with my friends. In those times, under the communist regime, Christmas was not a national holiday, so we were supposed to go to work on the Christmas day just like on any other regular work day. But still, I would go carolling with my friends all night, and then go to work.

This time, I lost track of time, and by the time I realized I should go to work I was already about an hour late. I did not expect them to be easy on me. Being late on a Christmas day was even worse than being late on just any other day. It was because they would know the reason was our sticking to our Christian customs, which they wanted us to get rid of. They would tell us over and over again there is no such thing as God, and then why celebrate His birthday? They said it was stupid to do so.

People still did not forget about God and about Christmas. But the leaders had to. You could not be one if you were a Christian. If you still insisted on going to church they would expel you from school or they would retrograde you at work. All the leaders, policemen, teachers, leaders of any workers group had to be members of the communist party.

So here I was, late on the Christmas day, in a communist country. And still, I did not care a bit! I was so happy and I had had such a good time that the encounter with my boss did not scare me. Full of energy and with a smile on my face I stepped into the room greeting everybody in a happy tone: "Christ is born today!"

They were all working, their heads bowed. It was cold. It was gloomy. The boss was angry and they were all sad to be there.

When the boss saw me, he thundered: "Go right now to the cooperative president and show him what time you come to work!"

What else could I do than go to the big boss? So I went to his office, knocked on the door and entered. He raised his head and asked me why I had been sent to him. "Well, I have to tell you that it's very cold out there. We need some more wood to make a fire cause it's just freezing."

The president smiled. I guess he figured out what it was all about. And he responded, with a smile on his face: "Go back to your boss and tell him that Ion is not here to chop wood today, but he'll be here tomorrow and first thing in the morning I'll have him take some to your building and make a fire. Till then go back and tell everybody that you don't have to work in that chilly room, just go home for today."

When I went back the room was just as tense as I had left it. You could feel the pressure in the air. They all lifted their heads again as I entered, probably expecting to see me cooled off by now.

My boss asked me in a derogatory tone: "So, what did he say?"

"He said that he cannot send us wood for fire today, but he will first thing tomorrow morning. Till then he said we should just go home."

When they heard that all my colleagues just burst out lauging so hard! It was an explosion! They started to cheer up, applauding and whistling. "You know what? My wife has cooked the best sarmale (cabbage rolls) ever! Why don't you all come over have some?" So we all went to this colleague and had the most delicious sarmale. Then we went to another colleague who invited us over for some dessert. And so, together with my colleagues and their families, we had a great time, I guess the best Christmas day I remember!"

Things that start off very bad can sometimes turn out very well. And it's on us to change them.