All I Want for Christmas, by Izzy Van Swelm

[Ulysses]

All I want for Christmas
By Izzy Van Swelm
Five stars

OK, this is a short piece, with a Christmas theme, but since I didn’t read the blurb (being sort of a friend of the author), I was taken by surprise by the beautiful, achingly poignant story it tells.

It’s Christmas Eve, and Stuart is in a pretty English country church for its Christmas pageant. He hasn’t been to this church for a long time, and as the story develops, we are taken back to an earlier Christmas pageant in the same church. The alternating timeframe gradually reveals the significance of Stuart’s presence on this particular Christmas Eve as the story of his life with Oliver is brought to light detail by detail.

As it began to dawn on me what was happening, I could feel the tears start to burn at the back of my eyes (this is an m/m trope that is true; that’s what it feels like). Izzy Van Swelm has painted a loving, bittersweet portrait of a couple who have experienced the changing tide of attitudes toward gay marriage and same-sex parents. She presents us with images that seem to require some sort of religious belief, but in fact do not. What she actually does is tap into some of the deepest human yearnings there are, and by the end of the morning commute (and in fact, even as I type this), it was all I could do to control my tears.

And yet, this is a story about the transcendent joy of love. My tears were strangely happy ones. See for yourself.