Here we are on the cusp of Christmas and unless you are amongst the group of enviable superpeople who were well-organized and finished their shopping over the summer, you may be feeling frazzled or at your wits end right about now. As I’m feeling time-crunched myself and assuming you may not have a lot of spare time either, I’m hoping this brief “did you know” tidbit about a much-loved Christmas movie—whose uplifting message has become part of our culture’s lexicon—may be a welcome and inspiring respite.
The little tale that could
My husband, Andrea, is a classic Christmas movie… “nut” isn’t the right word…for the sake of marital household harmony let’s say “aficionado.” (Goodness, I accidentally typed “adicionado” and couldn’t figure out how it was misspelled until I realized my mind combined “addict” and “aficionado”!) Topping the list of his absolute must-be-viewed-during-the-season is a worldwide, all-time favorite holiday tradition, It’s a Wonderful Life, which is such an integral thread in our Christmas family fabric, our teenage son can recite lines in unison with Andrea.
The story's genesis—which inspired the 5-time Oscar-nominated film—came to a gentleman named Philip Van Doren Stern in a dream in the late 1930s. A Civil War historian and author, Mr. Stern wrote down his vision, and although he was not a fiction writer at the time, endeavored for several years to develop it into a story. When it finally coalesced into a 4,100-word short story (based loosely on the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol) in 1943, his agent was unsuccessful in multiple attempts to sell it to magazines and publishers. No one at all was interested in the little story.
Mr. Stern was undeterred and took it upon himself to self-publish the story as a 21-page booklet he used as an adjunct to his Christmas greeting card for 200 friends. The booklet was later published in 1944 as the book, “The Greatest Gift: A Christmas Tale,” with a second edition in 1996, and finally a third illustrated edition in 2014, which is an elegant keepsake replica of the original and published by the venerable Simon & Schuster.
Imagine: a story that absolutely no magazine or book publisher was interested in, that began as a humble pamphlet in a Christmas card, went on to become part of the who's who of books published by a multifaceted industry megalith. Furthermore—with no aspirations nor hard-sell persuasions—unbelievably, this little tale became what was destined to become arguably one of the most adored and inspirational films of all times. Considering that the film also had its own set of interesting and challenging twists and turns before cementing its place in cinema history, it’s hard not to see the providential hand guiding this classic story into our collective conscience.
In the inevitable times of discouragement, I’m going to remember the little-known story of this tale’s unlikely journey as the embodiment of “no’s” simply being delayed “yes’s.” And perhaps when God closes one door, he is saving us for something grander, more impactful, and greater than we could ever imagine.
The greatest gift
The essence of the story is that life is our greatest gift—not only for ourselves but for what our life has meant to others in our inextricably intertwined existence… although it is not something we will ever fully know, it is something worth contemplating. The movie has endured and flourished because the message grows more and more profound and grounding as our superficial and imperfect world spins faster and faster.
As I write this, my husband and I are dreadfully late this year with getting our tree (as our son reminded us this morning on his way to school), but it will be up and decorated before this is posted...in the nick of time for Christmas Eve. And there were a couple of more gifts I ran out of time to get…but c’est la vie. We have our health, our home, our pets, friends and neighbors, and each other. We’ve got firewood for our fireplace and DVDs of several Christmas classics just in case the internet goes down. Oh, and two unopened boxes of Pandoro…
It’s a wonderful life!
I wish you a very Merry Christmas.
And thank you for reading! Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Merry Christmas to you and your family (including your pets). Thank you for writing!