Bobby came into the kitchen where Mum was mixing up a Christmas cake. It looked good, even though it wasn’t cooked, and Bobby smacked his lips as he thought of cleaning up the basin when the  cake was in the oven. He liked hanging around when Mum was baking, so he could lick the spoons.

“Why does Christmas only come once a year, Mum?” he asked.

“Well,” said Mum, “How many times a year do you have a birthday?”

“Only once”, said Bobby, “But I wouldn’t mind if it was more than that! What’s that got to do with Christmas?”

“Don’t you remember whose birthday we remember at Christmas, Bobby?” Mum asked.

“That’s right, it’s Jesus’ birthday isn’t it!” Bobby said as he sneaked a couple of raisins out the bowl when Mum wasn’t looking. “That’s why we get presents isn’t it!”

“Yes,” said Mum as she moved the bowl of raisins further away “And that’s why we try to make people happy at Christmas time too. But you know, we shouldn’t wait until Christmas time to do this, but we should think of making people happy all the year round!”

“S’pose so”, Bobby said thoughtfully, “But it isn’t easy! Specially when people borrow your things and don’t return them.”

“That’s true Bobby,” agreed Mum, “But there are other ways we can make people happy besides giving presents you know. We can make time to spend with them helping them. For instance, you can read a story to Betty when she is too tired to play with you…she’d like that you know.”

Bobby wriggled uncomfortably. “She’s such a pain, Mum!” he said. “She doesn’t seem to listen to me! Besides, I don’t always have time you know.”

“Now, now Bobby,” Mum said, “You can’t use that as an excuse. You know you can always find time to do the things you want to do like playing with your train outside.”

“Mmm”, said Bobby, “S’pose so.”

Mum put her cake into the oven thinking over what she had just said to Bobby. Our time IS the best thing we can give to other people such as to our grandparents when they come to visit, she thought. After all, we can play any other time during the week, but we don’t always have them to come to visit.

Bobby went off to his room with his mind on what he was going to get on Christmas Day. He knew what he wanted and he hoped that Dad would get it for him. After all, he had given enough hints about it. But just in case he had forgotten, he would write a list for him.

He got out his pencil and started to write. He was right into toy trains, and he wanted to have  a set of railway lines for it to run on. Oh, yes, and a little station for the side of the rails, and a bridge too. His train was quite fun to play with just on the floor, but it would be so much better with these extra things. Another carriage would be good too. Oh, and he would need a whistle as well. So his list got longer and longer.

That evening, he sidled up to Dad and said, “Dad, I’ve made a list of what I want for Christmas.”

“Let’s have a look at it, Bobby,” Dad said as he took it from him. “Hmm, it’s quite long.”

He read it carefully. “You know Bobby, it’ll cost me a lot of money to get all these things.”  He kept looking at it some more.

“Tell you what Bobby,”  he said at last, “I’ll give you a choice. If I get all these things for you, it’ll have to do for your birthday next year as well, and there won’t be any party or presents either. But then I could get you just the rails this year, and we could still have the birthday party later.”

This wasn’t exactly what Bobby was wanting to hear. So he picked up the list again, and went off to his room to think it over. Half an hour later he came out to Dad again with a big grin on his face. “I’ve made up my mind Dad,” he said, “I’ll take just the rails for Christmas, and may be some of the other things can be for my birthday next year. I CAN have a birthday if I just have the rails Dad?” anxiously.

“I think you’ve made a good choice son,” said Dad, “and yes, we’ll wait and see about next year when the time comes!”

Bobby went off happy with his choice, and Dad smiled to himself. He knew that Bobby had learned a valuable lesson that we can’t always have what we want right now, and that we sometimes have to wait for the whole thing to happen. It doesn’t do us any good to always get what we want WHEN we want it…if we have to wait a while, we will value it more and appreciate it better.