A Christmas Mystery

We all love a good mystery.

One evening, early in December, Mike and I were home decorating for Christmas when the doorbell rang. Mike got there first. When I came up from downstairs he said, “Come and see what was left at the front door.”

Spread across the kitchen counter was a pile of goodies, including several Christmas cellophane bags full of treats, and a tin filled with a variety cookies.  Somebody had done a lot of baking!

“Who are they from?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but here’s the note.”

The words were handwritten in cursive using Santa Claus red. It started out: To whom it may concern—and then it described the goodies and what was in them and wished a blessing on our home. It was signed “a neighbor” (in quotes).

“So, who was at the door?” I asked.

“I didn’t see them. They must have rang the doorbell and ran.”

Hmm.

I turned back to the note to find a clue. If it was somebody we knew, why was it addressed: To whom it may concern? The quotes around “a neighbor” seemed to suggest it wasn’t really a neighbor.

Was somebody in our neighborhood trying to be nice, or were we targets of something far more sinister?

The goodies had been freshly baked and were still warm. They smelled so delicious we both wanted to dive right in and start eating, but I forced myself to resist. Without knowing who they were from, I didn’t dare.

I went outside and looked up and down the street. All was quiet. Not a person in sight.

Back inside, I considered calling the neighbors to see if they, too, had received a mysterious delivery. While I was contemplating what to do next, I got a text from my daughter who lives a half hour away. “Mom, look at the goodies left on our doorstep. I don’t know who they are from. Should we eat them?”

Ah hah! The treat elves had struck again, only this time they’d hit Forest Grove.

I immediately called Lesanna and we exchanged stories, speculating about who had left them. We had a real Christmas candy caper on our hands!

Since we’d both received the gift, we decided it wasn’t random and had to be someone we both knew. The picture she texted me was of the same mysterious batch of baked treats with a similar handwritten note. Hers had also been dropped off at her doorstep by a sneaky doorbell ringer who managed to disappear without being seen. It had to have been the same door-dashing deliverer.

But who was it?

Lesanna and I began to text the rest of the family to get their take on the situation. They all had different ideas about what the note meant and how it should be handled.

I’d eat them.

Don’t eat them. They might be laced with fentanyl.

I hope some get delivered to our door.

Check with your neighbors.

While we were debating the situation by text, Mike was rummaging through the tin in the kitchen. “I’m eating a cookie.”

“No!” I said in a panic. “I don’t want to lose my husband to a tainted snickerdoodle!”

“I’m sure they’re fine. Look how fresh they are.”

“Of course, they’re fresh! If you wanted to poison someone, you wouldn’t do it with a stale cookie!”

“And you know this, how?”

Wait, my doorbell just rang. Andrew texted, then took off to his front door.

Within minutes, another picture appeared on our group chat. Andrew had just received a batch of the same treats. I just got some too, his message said. I chased them down the street, but couldn’t see who it was.

A short time later, Christopher and Hannah sent a similar picture. They sure smell good, Hannah texted. I tried to get a video of who it was, but my phone was stuck in selfie mode, she wrote. Then she sent a video of Christopher eating a gingersnap.

Let’s all eat them and die together, Christopher texted, jokingly.

At that point, I became suspicious that someone among us knew more than they were letting on. It was just too convenient that we had all received the treats, but nobody knew who made them, and nobody had caught the culprits at their front door. And we had some very eager eaters, who weren’t at all fearful that a random Christmas cookie killer was on the loose.

I suspected an inside job.

Our elf most assuredly had also been a recipient of the mysterious yuletide goodie-giver, but which one of us was it?

In order to crack the case, I turned back to the original note to do some handwriting analysis. I grabbed the birthday cards Mike had recently received from the family and began comparing handwriting samples to the note attached to the goodies. Before long, it all became very clear. The writing looked suspiciously like that of . . . the newest member of our family:  Christopher’s lovely wife, Hannah. It was just like the creative newlyweds to serve up a delightful (and delicious) evening of mystery. I figured that Hannah had done the baking and Christopher had driven the get-away car. Having drawn that conclusion, one more hint came to light that none of us had noticed before. Earlier in the day, Christopher had changed his name on the family group chat to none other than . . . Chris Kringle.

Bingo!

Mystery solved.

Knowing the cookies were indeed safe, I popped a cute little frosted snowman into my mouth, and he melted right away. Mmm. Peppermint.

Delicious! 

Christmas is full of all kinds of mysteries.

What is in that shiny package under the tree?

What is figgy pudding, anyway?

Who is that baby in the manger?

Every year I look forward to setting up my Christmas nativity sets. There is one that my grandkids (just like their parents before them) love to play with that have plastic characters. The kids move Mary and Joseph around—in and out of the wooden stable—along with the sheep, donkeys, and shepherds. They line the three wisemen up with their gifts to look over the manger filled with hay cradling the baby Jesus.

The Christmas story never gets old.

The prophet, Isaiah, calls him Immanuel, which means “God with us.”

Imagine God, the Creator of all things, taking on the flesh of his own creation to dwell among the people he came to save. As a man, he experienced our human condition with all of its frailties, pain, and sorrow, and yet he was without sin. In so doing, he became the perfect lamb of God, taking on the sins of the world, shedding his own blood for our redemption. Bringing peace between God and man. And offering hope for all who believe.

It is a love beyond our comprehension.

The greatest Christmas mystery of all.

Jen♡