Kelly’s Christmas Shop

This was a story I collected from the internet more than 10 years ago.  It’s been around a long time.  Author is unknown.

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It was three nights before Christmas and Daddy was very busy wrapping presents. Six-year-old Alice stood at the table and asked Daddy for a box – a big box for a special gift. He hardly glanced at her through his busy eyes, but he did manage to pull a good sized box from his wrapping pile. “No,” Alice said, “that’s not big enough, I want the biggest box you have.”

“Why do you want that box?”

“Because it’s the biggest, and this is a special person.”

Okay,” Daddy muttered, “I hope this is important.”

“Oh, it is,” Alice replied. “But now I need some paper.” Daddy reached for the least expensive roll, the tattered tissue used for stocking-stuffer gifts.

“Uh-uh,” Alice insisted, “I need that pretty gold stuff.”

“Uh-uh,” Daddy replied. “That ‘pretty gold stuff’ cost $8 a roll. The only reason we got it was to help the little boy next door with his school fund-raiser.”

“I don’t care,” Alice responded. “I want the nicest paper you have for this present. It’s important.”

“Well, who’s it for?” Daddy asked.

“It’s a surprise, a very important surprise,” she added.

Daddy finally gave in, muttering that he’s never paid $8 a roll for Christmas wrapping paper in all his life.

Alice disappeared into her room for almost three hours. When she returned to Daddy’s table, she handed him her ‘biggest box’ covered with wrinkled, wadded, and mashed gold paper help clumsily tight by enough Scotch tape to wrap the whole house!

“Open it now, Daddy. Open it now.”

“But, it’s not Christmas for three more days, Alice. Why open it now?”

“Because I’m too excited to wait. It’s really special.”

Daddy tore away the expensive paper and opened the “biggest box”. It was empty. Absolutely empty!

“Alice, Daddy said, “why did you use this box and all this fancy paper to wrap a box with nothing in it?”

Alice said, ” That box isn’t empty, Daddy. I spent all afternoon blowing kisses into it for you. That box is full of how much I love you.”