Story: The Miracle of the Two Christmas Trees
Il était une fois un enfant pauvre qui tentait, la veille de Christmas, de vendre deux petits sapins en frappant à chaque porte de son village. Invariablement, on lui répondait qu’il était trop tard pour cela puisque le sapin avait déjà été installé dans la maison. « Tu reviendras l’an prochain! », finissaient-ils par lui dire devant son air désolé.
Le garçon désespérait car il n’y avait plus qu’un pain comme nourriture à la maison. Sa mère était malade, son père se faisait trop vieux pour travailler et deux autres enfants espéraient de tout cœur que leur grand frère reviendrait avec une bonne nouvelle.
He was beginning to despair at his neighbors' indifferent responses when he knocked on the last house, at Jos the gardener's. The door opened, and the boy was dazzled by the magnificent fir tree in the living room, covered in all sorts of decorations and adorned with gifts at the base. A delicious aroma of roast turkey hung in the air.
"What do you want, little one?" asked Jos. "Your two little fir trees are so pitiful." The child had just realized that his last hope had vanished.
"The cold is coming into my house," the gardener continued. "Come in quickly and tell me what brings you here." He was a kind man. He glanced at the holey shoes worn by the boy who didn't even dare look up.
"I'm trying to sell these two little fir trees I found on the side of the road. It's to help my family. But I can see that yours is much more beautiful." Jos, moved, returned with a handful of coins that he offered to the destitute. Then, the gardener's children invited this young man their age to come and share their meal and warm his hands, reddened by the cold. The child preferred to keep most of the contents of his well-stocked plate to share with his family. When he left, the gardener offered him a few more loaves of bread.
The child, filled with joy, returned home and, on the way, planted the two small fir trees in front of the village church, thinking that this would be his most beautiful Christmas.
But the next day, a miracle occurred: when the parishioners left Mass, they were amazed by the two fir trees, as tall as the bell tower, which framed the church square, covered in ice crystals that shone brightly. It was even claimed that two doves had emerged from the stained-glass windows to land on the top of each of them.