The Best Christmas Present

The Best Christmas Present in the World is one of Morpurgo’s stories with a backdrop of the World War I. In this story, the main character describes his experiences at the war camp to his wife through a letter. The narrator buys an old desk and finds in it, a letter that was written by an English soldier by the name of Jim Macpherson to his wife Connie. The letter has a wonderful account of how the English and German soldiers wished each on the Christmas Eve. Men in both the armies celebrated the festival with a real Christmas spirit where there was no place for conflict, hatred, or violence.   Jim wrote in his letter that he would be back by the next Christmas as the incident between the two armies showed how the soldiers from both sides wanted peace. The narrator went to visit Connie who was now 101 years old. She mistook the narrator for Jim and talked to him about her happiness on Jim’s arrival. He had thus, given her the best Christmas present in the world just by being there for her.

Meanings of words and phrases

• Junkshop: A shop selling miscellaneous second hand or old out of use materials.
• Roll-top Desk: A desk with a flexible sliding cover
• Spotted it: found it
• Scorch marks: Burn Marks
• Clumsily mended: without skill repaired
• Veneer: A thin layer of plastic or decorative wood on furniture of cheap wood
• Brute: Violent
• No man’s land – A piece of land which falls in the middle of the borders of two countries.
• Parapet – A low protective wall at the edge of the trench.
• Marzipan: A sweet covering on a cake made from sugar, eggs and almonds
• Bathsheba – Bathsheba Everdene, beautiful young heroine of ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’
• Gabriel oak- a farmer, shepherd Gabriel oak is the hero of ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’
• Sergeant troy – Sergeant Francis Troy, the villain of ‘far from the Madding Crowd’
• Conservatory – A room having glass roof and walls typically attached to a house on only one side.
• Wicker chair – A chair made of wicker and is thus ventilated and useful under hot or humid condition