Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

The Christmas season is peopled with many visitors who make an annual appearance and warm the heart.

Jim and Della, from O. Henry’s short story “The Gift of the Magi,” never fail to make me remember the selflessness of real love. In case you are not familiar with this couple, Jim sells his one valuable possession, a handsome pocket watch, to buy his new wife a beautiful set of combs for her hair. She, at the same time, allows a hairdresser to cut her long tresses for the sum of twenty dollars, with which she purchases a worthy chain for her husband’s watch.

Then there is the fourth Magi. Tradition has it that there were originally four Wise Men who searched for the Infant long ago. But the fourth one became distracted with helping others along the way and arrived too late at the manger. He spent the rest of his life searching for Jesus, only to meet him on Calgary thirty-three years later.

The drummer boy also stops by to relay how his gift to the Infant was a tune on his drum.

My favorite visitor, however, is The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell. The littlest angel doesn’t even have a name, but he is famous for making heaven an unruly place. After all he is only “four years, six months, five days, seven hours, and forty-two minutes of age” when he arrives at his new celestial home. The balance of the story tells how the angel finally adjusts to Heaven and how he offers a unique gift when Jesus is born.

These characters may reveal themselves in story and song, but they are just as important as any real-life friend or family member who visit. I urge you to make their acquaintance.