The Night of the Meek

"As to my drinking, this is indefensible and you have my abject apologies. I find of late that I have very little choice in the matter of expressing emotions."

Henry Corwin is a drunk and disheveled department store Santa who is about to learn something about the joy of giving when an ordinary looking bag he finds in an alley way becomes an endless supply of presents for those in need. Henry Corwin, a humble gentle soul is about to enter the Twilight Zone.

His last quest as a department store Santa before getting fired, has a drunken Henry sparring with an annoying self- centered customer. Santa pleads his case with the store manager,

"I can either drink, or I can weep, and drinking is so much more subtle. But as for my insubordination, I was not rude to that woman. Someone should remind her that Christmas is more than barging up and down department store aisles and pushing people out of the way. Someone has to tell her that Christmas is another thing finer than that. Richer, finer, truer, and it should come with patience and love, charity, compassion."

" I don't know how to tell you, Mr. Dundee. I don't know at all. All I know is that I'm an aging, purposeless, relic of another time, and I live in a dirty rooming house on a street filled with hungry kids and shabby people, where the only thing that comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve is more poverty. Do you know another reason why I drink, Mr. Dundee? So that when I walk down the tenements, I can really think it's the North Pole, and the children are elves, and that I'm really Santa Claus bringing a bag of wondrous gifts for all of them. I just wish, Mr. Dundee, on one Christmas, only one, that I could see some of the hopeless ones and the dreamless ones. Just on one Christmas, I'd like to see the meek inherit the Earth. And that's why I drink, Mr. Dundee, and that's why I weep."

Once this drunken Santa Claus on Christmas Eve enters the Twilight Zone, all of his deepest desires become true. That long lasting wish to be the greatest gift giver of all-time becomes a reality once he finds a sack full of presents there never seems to empty itself while he hands out gifts to homeless people, children on the street and even the boss who just fired him.

Henry Corwin, a simple man who just wanted to bring joy to those who are hurting at Christmas time, has an unforgettable Twilight Zone moment that lifts the spirits of not only himself, but those around him.

May all of us this holiday season experience the same joy as Henry Corwin did in bringing a little happiness to those less fortunate, thankfully we don't need to enter the Twilight Zone for that to happen.

Merry Christmas!