“Momma, Momma. Can we talk about Christmas gifts now?” nine-year-old Dylan asked, as he took the last bite of his piece of pumpkin pie.

Allison gazed at her youngest, sitting at the Thanksgiving table in a powder blue shirt, a burgundy tie, and his blond hair slicked back. “Yes, honey. We can talk now.”

Dylan kicked his older brother’s leg under the table as a signal for him to start their conversation about presents. Twelve-year-old Parker cleared his throat and flapped his tie with his right hand. “Momma, we want one more Christmas gift this year.”

“Every Christmas, y’all always get three gifts.” Allison said, pushing her blond hair behind her ear. “One from Daddy, one from me, and one from Santa. “Are y’all asking for another gift from us or another gift from Santa?”

Parker said, “Momma, we want another gift from Santa.”

“Why Santa?”

“When you and Daddy give us gifts, they’re usually clothes,” Parker said, as he looked at Dylan. “Santa gives us good gifts.”

“What do you consider a ‘good’ gift?”

“Santa gives us video games or computer stuff—nice presents.”

Their dad, Eric, leaned on the table from his chair, pushing his horn-rimmed glasses up his nose. He had listened to the conversation going on among his wife and two children. He thought, “The Satterfield household is about to have a crisis.”

After the children presented their case, Eric paused, scratched his head, and made eye contact with Allison. “I don’t know if Santa can bring more gifts to y’all. Momma and I can buy you the extra gift, but I would have to look for a weekend job at Lowe’s or Home Depot so we can afford them.”

Eric worked long hours during the week as a computer programmer. His weekends were packed with baseball, football, or fishing–something he and the boys looked forward to all week long.

“Daddy, if you had a weekend job, would you have to work the whole day?” asked Dylan.

“Yes. I believe so.”

“Daddy, how many Saturdays would you need to work?”

“I’m not sure, but probably every Saturday from now until Christmas and maybe a few Saturdays after that.”

Dylan looked down at the table and rubbed his eyes. He didn’t say a word. After a minute or so with his head in his hands, he said, “But, Daddy, you won’t be able to play with us or go fishing for two whole months if you get another job.”

“Well Son, if you want the extra gifts, I’ll have to earn some extra money.”

“But Daddy, you don’t have to buy the gifts that Santa brings.”

“Now Dylan, you know better than that.”

Parker chimed in. “That’s okay Daddy; if you want to work on Saturdays, we’ll all go fishing in the spring.”

*****

Later that evening when the kids were asleep, Allison asked Eric why he had told the boys about getting another job. Eric said, “Although you ‘home school’ them and you do a great job, there are lessons they need to learn that they can’t learn from books. I think they’re getting a little greedy and we need to teach them a lesson.”

Allison smiled and shook her head up and down. “I understand. This is what I think we should do …”

*****

The next morning during breakfast, in earshot of the children, Eric said to Allison, “I’m going to Lowe’s and Home Depot this morning to fill out applications for that weekend job.”

She said, “Okay. Will you be back for lunch?”

“Probably not. I may be gone the whole day.”

“But Daddy,” Dylan said, “We’re supposed to go look for a Christmas tree this morning.”

“I know son, the Christmas tree will have to wait. I have to work so that we can afford those extra Christmas gifts.”

“Daddy, I don’t think I need that other video game. Maybe I’d like you to stay home with us so we can go and find a tree.”

Parker said, “It’s okay for Daddy to look for a job, we can look for a tree some evening during the week.”

Dylan started to cry. “I don’t want that rotten old video game; I want my father.”

Eric motioned to the boys to come in close. He put his arms around them and said, “Okay, these are your choices: I can stay home and we’ll buy two gifts, one for each of you, or I can go to work and we’ll buy the extra gifts. You’ll both have to agree. What’s it going to be?”

Dylan turned to Parker with his sad, pitiful eyes and said, “Getting extra gifts was your idea. See what you did? What’s more important–a gift or Daddy?”

Parker put his arm around Dylan and hugged him. Parker said, “We don’t need any more gifts. Let’s go get that tree!”