Christmas Story

The teacher asked young Patrick Murphy, “What do you do at Christmas time?”

Patrick addressed the class, “Well, Ms. Jones, me and my twelve brothers and sisters go to midnight mass and we sing hymns. Then we come home very late and we put mince pies by the back door and hang up our stockings. Then all excited, we go to bed and wait for Father Christmas to come with all our toys.” “Very nice Patrick,” she said.

“Now Jimmy Brown, what do you do at Christmas?”

“Well, Ms. Jones, me and my sister also go to church with Mom and Dad and we sing carols and we get home ever so late. We put cookies and milk by the chimney and we hang up our stockings. We hardly sleep, waiting for Santa Claus to bring our presents.”

Realizing there was a Jewish boy in the class and not wanting to leave him out of the discussion, she asked, “Now, Isaac Cohen, what do you do at Christmas?”

Isaac said, “Well, it's the same thing every year.... Dad comes home from the office and we all pile into the Rolls Royce. Then we drive to Dad's toy factory. When we get inside, we look at all the empty shelves...and begin to sing, ‘What A Friend We Have in Jesus’. Then we all go to the Bahamas.”