Saturday 14 December 2019

Chocolate Christmas


In our town there’s a specialist chocolatier. The shop window is always full of the most exquisite and delicious looking chocolates of all sorts and sizes. If Heaven were made of chocolate then this shop would surely be it.

The chocolates are hand-made by the shop owner and his wife and three employees on the premises behind the shop. I remember once visiting their little workshop with a friend of mine, the shop-owner’s niece, and it was a marvelous experience seeing them make all these chocolates with so much care and passion.

Every so often they make different seasonal chocolates like rabbits and chocolate eggs at Easter, special selections on Mothers’ Day, or Christmas specialties.

One Christmas Eve we were in town late, just before going to Midnight Mass, and I decided to visit the shop to get something nice. I left the rest of the family to do some window-shopping and went there alone as a special surprise.

I’d intended to buy a chocolate Father Christmas just as they had in the picture in the shop window. Sadly all Fathers Christmas had been sold. Reindeers too! As well as Christmas tress or any Christmas decorations made of chocolate. In fact it is fair to say that the shop had sold out of any chocolate model relating to Christmas.

The shop assistant looked at me forlornly and suggested a selection from their wild animals’ series would make a good present. “They’ll look good in the Nativity scene beside the Christmas tree …” she said hopefully.

“Hardly …” I said somewhat dejected, “no one would believe that the three Wise Men came from the East on a turtle! It would have taken them ages to arrive. Or that shepherds watched their giraffes at night when the Angel appeared with Good News!”

“They are beautiful though …” she continued encouragingly.

“Yes … they are. But it’s not the same … a chocolate crocodile near the crib would frighten all the sheep away …”

I hesitated for a while. The animal models looked good enough to eat … in fact any chocolate is good enough to eat as far as I’m concerned, regardless of its shape. But this was not for me. This was a present and ideally I would have wanted a Father Christmas, or an Angel … a Christmas tree … it’s the festive shape of the chocolate that matters on this particular occasion. And a rhinoceros or a kangaroo is just not the right shape; even though it might taste just as good when you eat it.

After a lot of soul searching I decided to buy the giraffe. It was big and with such a long neck it meant there was even more chocolate for everyone to share.

“Could you gift wrap it please?” I asked.

As the shop assistant was wrapping my purchase I heard a little girl beside me say: “I want the giraffe … just like in the picture over there!”

“I’m sorry … the last giraffe has just been sold” replied the shop assistant to the girl’s mother.

I looked at their sad faces and knew how they felt.

Now … the right thing to do in such cases is to take my purchase and get out of the shop quickly before my conscience has had a chance to wake up.

But I’m stupid that way and somewhat slow … in my slowness I asked the assistant to sell the giraffe to the girl’s mother instead.

“We have some left-overs from our Halloween series” said the assistant to me after the other customers had gone, “I can let you have two for the price of one!”

That Christmas our Nativity scene was visited by Frankenstein’s monster and a zombie. And the sheep were not frightened at all.

Tasted good too!

22 comments:

  1. This story is fantastic for a Christmas Miracle Victor...I love it!
    In the chocolate world everything is good and God would have loved a chocolate monster as well as a giraffe, too!
    Everyone loves 🍫

    God's Blessings ✝ My Friend 🎄🌟🎅

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    1. Thank you Jan. It's great to see you here again. Thanx.

      I love chocolate, and Guinness. I'll have to try both together this Christmas.

      God bless you always.

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  2. His sheep should never be frightened:)

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    1. Indeed not, Chris. What a lovely thought for Christmas. Thank you.

      God bless you my friend.

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  3. I loved this story, Victor. You did a good thing. Jesus would be proud! We should all be so selfless.

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    1. As far as I am concerned chocolate is chocolate, no matter what shape it is. And it is best eaten rather than looked at.

      God bless you Diane.

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  4. What a beautiful story, Victor! You made that little girl's Christmas a special one, indeed.
    And no matter what shape it comes in, chocolate is always good!
    Blessings!

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    1. That's true, as I mentioned to Diane (above) the shape does not matter; chocolate is always good.

      Happy Chocolate to you, Martha. God bless.

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  5. I didn't see that coming … what a perfect Christmas story!
    Even tho' I'm not a fan of chocolate, this story has touched my heart.

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    1. What a nice thing to say, Mevely. Thank you so much. You are very kind.

      God bless you and yours always.

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  6. A happy ending to your dilemma. You made a child happy. Can't go wrong with chocolate no matter what shape. Enjoy a Guinness, you deserve it.

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    1. I shall have to try Guinness with chocolate some day. Keep smiling, Bill.

      God bless you and your family.

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  7. You did the right thing. : )
    You gave a little girl a happy Christmas.

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  8. Awww, that was very kind. Sometimes not having what we thought we at first wanted does give us some special memories.

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    1. That's a good point, Mimi. Yes, I do believe you are right.

      God bless you always.

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  9. Your good deed actually gave you more chocolate to eat...and you got to feel good about yourself, too.

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    1. Too true. I bought two for the price of one. I forgot about that!

      God bless you, Kathy.

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  10. A lovely story - you did the right thing :)

    All the best Jan

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  11. Most lovely story. Thank you. Lsp

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