A Trapp family Christmas - from the collection of Christmas stories in 'Will Mrs. Major Go to Hell' by the late author Aloise Buckley Heath; a holiday publication tradition by National Review

National Review, Dec 27, 1993 by Aloise Buckley Health

Actually, it didn't turn out too badly. After a few days of such good turns as reporting that a Christkindl hadn't done his arithmetic because he was going to copy Georgie's before school tomorrow (and he just can't learn anything that way, can he, Mother?), or throwing a Christkindl's cherished leather jacket into the washing machine (because it was so absolutely filthy he could have got germs from it, Mother), or taking the batteries out of a Christkindl's flashlight because she reads under the covers after bedtime (and that's why practically everybody practically constantly goes blind, isn't it, Mother?), everybody was getting pretty tense, not to mention bloody, until one of them--I haven't asked which--found a solution: every Sunday now, they each buy seven penny lollipops, and every night they slip a lollipop under their Christkindl's pillow. Well, I know that doesn't sound so terribly spiritual, but it's better than what they used to do. What they used to do was steal each other's lollipops.

I wouldn't want anybody to think that my baby and I have sunk to such a mundane relationship, though. We haven't had to change our routine at all. Every morning Janet allows her Christkindl to rock her a little; and every evening I rock my Christkindl a little.

A Christmas piece by the late Aloise Buckley Heath is an NR tradition. This and Mrs. Heath's other Christmas stories are collected in Will Mrs. Major Go to Hell? (National Review Books).