Christmas

I love Christmas stories, especially the ones that make me think or promote feelings of gratitude.  I have a collection of stories.  I wanted to share this one with you.

A Christmas Train

By Thomas S. Monson

He recalled a Christmas, probably in his tenth year; when he wanted an electric train more than

anything else. He did not want the less expensive and easier-to-find wind-up train. He wanted a train

that could be plugged into a socket and run by the wonder of electrical power.

The economy was still depressed at that time and asking for an electric train was asking for a lot—

probably even requiring financial sacrifice by his parents. Nevertheless, Tommy hoped and dreamed

and, much to his surprise, found an electric train under the tree on Christmas morning. He immediately

put the train together and operated the electric transformer. He loved watching the train go forward,

then backward, and all around the track.

Hours later, his mother interrupted Tommy at play by showing him a wind-up she had purchased for

a boy named Mark Hansen who lived down the street. The train for Mark was not as sleek or as long as

his train, but Tommy noticed an oil tanker car in Mark’s set that was unlike anything he had. Even

though he had a better train set, Tommy began to feel envious of Mark’s oil tanker. Tommy pled with

his mother to let him keep the tanker. She responded to his fussing: “If you need it more than Mark,

you take it.”

President Monson recalled how he added the tanker to his set and felt very satisfied---at least for a

little while. Later, he walked with his mother over to Mark’s home and presented him with the wind-up

train, minus the oil tanker. Mark was thrilled with the generous gift. He put the train cars together and

began playing with them. Then Tommy’s mother wisely asked, “What do you think of Mark’s train,

Tommy?”

Tommy began to feel guilty about the tanker he had confiscated. He asked his mother to excuse him

for a moment, and ran home as fast as his legs could carry him. He detached the oil tanker from his set,

along with another car from his own set, and ran back to Mark’s home.

Beginning to feel the joy of giving, Tommy burst through the door and said to Mark, “We forgot to

bring two cars that belong to your train.” He gave Mark the oil tanker and another of his own cars and

helped attach them to Mark’s set. President Monson remembers how he watched the trains go around

the track and “felt a supreme joy, difficult to describe and impossible to forget. The spirit
of Christmas had filled my very soul.”