Christmas was lost;

it just wasn't there. The Cathedral cats could not find it. They could not see it. They could not hear it. They could not smell it. They were feeling very upset, indeed downright miserable about it. How could there not be Christmas? There was Christmas every year!

Decani, who knew even more than the other cats about such things, had looked at the calendar on the wall of the cathedral library. Yes, there was the date in thick black lines. It said "25" and Christmas Day in three different sorts of writing so he knew that was right.  But Father Mark, who was the chief librarian, had already marked off some of the days of December and there was no sign of Christmas at all. You had to do all sorts of things to be ready for Christmas!

The Cathedral cats thought Christmas was one of the best times of the year. They all had to work hard of course. There was a lot of cleaning to be done. It was the sort of cleaning humans could not do. It was done with whiskers and paws and claws. There were difficult places that only the cats or the Cathedral mice could reach.

Decani had been given Christmas sort of work in the library but Father Mark had not said it was for Christmas. He had not said anything about Christmas. Decani wondered why was he doing the special Christmas sort of work if they were not going to have Christmas? It needed to be done of course but there were many other things that needed doing as well.

Bach had seen to it that the other cats had all done their usual Christmas tasks too. He knew what was expected of them and that they were still expected to do all the things they usually did at Christmastime. He had even sent Matins and Vespers to clear up every bit of dirt between the great stone blocks in the cloisters. That had been a cold miserable task but he had told them how pleased he was with them. The Cathedral and every place around it was as clean as they could possibly make it!

Were they not doing their jobs as well as they could? Was Christmas not coming because they had missed doing something? It was one of the things that worried Bach. The Cathedral cats took their work very seriously.

Decani thought he knew what had happened to Christmas but only because he had been listening to the Bishop talking to Father Mark. "Father Mark has not said anything to me," Decani miaoued seriously when asked. It was not a lie. Very often Father Mark would tell him all sorts of things but this time Father Mark had not said anything. The Bishop had not actually said there was not going to be Christmas. Decani wanted to believe there would be Christmas because he did not like the cats or the mice or the people to be disappointed.

But there was no Christmas tree...and no decorations for the new kittens to try and pull from the tree or anywhere else. That was unheard of and did not seem right in the least. The humans were not wrapping paper around the things they called "presents" so the kittens could not play with the paper or string or the strange sticky stuff which clung to their fur. (Cadenza was happy about that because they always came crying to her when a human pulled the sticky stuff from their fur.) 

The choir was not singing any of the usual Christmas music. Tom-the-organist was not even playing any Christmas music. Mouse, the organist's cat, had not been to visit. The cats had not been asked to practice their very own carol,  "Purring Carol".

The kitchens in the Cathedral Close had none of the interesting smells. The cats might not like the taste of Christmas pudding but they thought nobody had made puddings this year. There were nothing being mixed or stirred or stuffed. Nobody had thought about trifle either and there was always the chance of a lick of cream when trifle was being made.  

Somehow though those things did not seem important. All the cats just wanted Christmas to be there. Christmas was a comforting sort of idea. They thought it was about doing extra little things for each other and for the humans they looked after and who looked after them. It was supposed to be a happy time.

The really strange thing was that there was no little straw bed in the Cathedral. The cats looked for that. They looked for the special wooden box filled with straw and the people and animals which Decani said were "statues" and which did not move and did not talk.

"What will happen if the baby doesn't come?" the young cats asked Bach. 

 "Nothing will happen," he told them,  "There won't be Christmas."

"But we like Christmas!" the young cats complained. Matins and Vespers and Purrgolesi swished their tails. Cantori and Palestrina and Allegro swished their tails back. There might have been a bit of trouble but Bach growled and sent them off in opposite directions with more work to do. This was not doing anyone any good.

He went off to have a good miaou with Cadenza. Cadenza thought she knew what the problem was and told him, "Decani knows too. We had a good miaou together last night. He asked me if I thought he might be right."

"And what was he thinking?" Bach asked. He was beginning to think he knew the answer but he had not heard any of the conversations Decani had heard. 

"That it is important to work out the reason we have Christmas for yourself," Cadenza said as she stopped one of the newest kittens climbing out of their play pen box, "That's what the Bishop wants the humans to do. He isn't telling them they can't have Christmas. He is just telling them they need to really have Christmas. I heard him talking to the Dean."

Bach wondered if she was talking in what the humans called riddles but she looked very serious. Although he could have done without the fuss Bach knew the kittens liked it and he had to admit he was missing it too.

Cadenza refused to say any more. Bach knew it was no good asking her. He padded off and spent a long time sitting very still staring at the place where the box with the straw should have been. He thought he might know the answer. Then he went to find Decani. He knew he relied too heavily on Decani to know things but he asked Decani anyway.

"What do you think the Bishop is doing?"

Decani had been very carefully polishing a corner of a leather bound book of Christmas music. It had not been used this year but he thought they might still need it. He stopped work. He looked at Bach. Then he answered his father by asking a question.

"What is the purpose of Christmas?"

It was a very annoying sort of question. Bach thought Decani was just trying to be clever. He growled.

"It's a sort of big birthday party for someone who isn't here any more...and then he grows up and dies and we have Easter and he is alive again. We do the same thing every year. You know that. The humans usually make a huge fuss about it."

Decani sighed. He thought it was much more complicated than that but he did not know how to explain so he gave a small miaou and told Bach, "It is supposed to remind us about the birthday of a very special baby, the most special baby of all. The Bishop thinks humans forget that. They think it is a party for themselves and that lots of food and all the other things they do for Christmas Day is more important than the birthday part. The Bishop wants them to think about what Christmas is supposed to be about."

Decani knew he wasn't explaining it as well as he would like but there were a lot of things he did not understand. He thought he understood this much but explaining it was very hard. He had thought about it a lot and decided that the baby was the most important thing about Christmas and he was also quite certain that was what the Bishop wanted people to think.

Bach twitched his whiskers and flicked his ears back. Decani felt frustrated and impatient but he went back to polishing. 

"Maybe nobody will remember to have Christmas if the baby isn't there," Bach told him. 

"Yes, they will remember. But in here they might remember the right way.  I had a thought," Decani told him, "And I asked Monteverdi about it."

Monteverdi was the Chief Mouse and in charge of cleaning the inside of the organ pipes. Bach bristled a little at the idea of Decani talking to Monteverdi. He thought Decani should talk to him first but Decani said, "He was there and I didn't want you to think it was a silly idea."

Bach looked at him. Decani sometimes had strange ideas. Bach did not always understand them. 

"Tomorrow is Christmas Eve...the day before Christmas."

"So, it will be too late to do anything," Bach told him crossly.

"No, it won't. It is just the right time. We can get the little box - the one they call the manger  - tonight. Monteverdi knows how to open the cupboard door from inside. He can go in the hole at the back. We can get the manger out and put it where it always goes...but not the baby. It is important not to put the baby there. The baby has to be there on his birthday, not before. If we put the manger there then the Bishop will make sure the baby is there." Decani was absolutely certain of that.

Bach thought about this. Decani went on polishing.

"All right. We can try I suppose - but it will be hard work."  Bach padded off to find Monteverdi and discuss it.

And that night they did work hard. Monteverdi opened the cupboard door from inside. They pulled out the little manger. Bach was worried they might damage it but Monteverdi had solved that problem with a towel from the place where they made cups of tea. They rolled the manger on to the towel and then all of them pulled it by holding the towel in their mouths as if the manger was a kitten. It took quite a long time to do it because it was heavy and they had to keep stopping.

Bach thought some they were sure to have done some damage but Monteverdi was right. The moonlight showed no damage. Finally the manger was in the place where it was always put. There was no hay for the manger but Bach thought this was not a problem. The humans could find some. The cats had done all the other work.  All of them were feeling very tired by then and went off to sleep for the rest of the night.

In the morning they all went about their usual jobs and tried not to keep wondering what was going on. The Bishop was late into the Cathedral that morning. Father Anselm was already there and so was Father Mark and Tom-the-organist. Bach could see them looking at the box they called a manger. The other cats crept in behind the Bishop.

"How did that get there?" Father Anselm asked the Bishop, "Who unlocked the cupboard? I put the key in the safe. Is this a miracle or does someone have another key?"

 He was puzzled but he seemed to be very happy about something. Tom-the-organist just smiled and went off to play Christmas carols. Father Mark smiled went to find the paper hay that had come around a new library book. It would not be real hay but he thought it would do. Decani followed him ready to start work. He knew they would have Christmas now.

 The choristers came in to practice but rushed over to the manger when they heard the Christmas carols being played.

"It's all right! The manger is here!" the youngest one called out. He was just seven years old. "We can have Christmas!"

"Can we go and get the other things?" the youngest choristers asked the Bishop.

The Bishop looked at them all and said quietly, "Yes, you may. You can get the other things now - but not the baby just yet. The baby will be here tomorrow so make sure you do it very carefully won't you?"

Oh yes, they would do it very carefully indeed. It made them all feel happier than they had felt for days. They put everything out ready for the baby and went to sing their carols. The cats joined in by purring as they went about their usual work.

That night the Bishop came in with Father Mark and Father Anselm. They filled the manger with the paper hay and they put the baby Jesus in. Then they stood there looking. 

The Bishop was sure the baby Jesus smiled at him. He looked out into the Cathedral and saw all the cats sitting there watching. He had his suspicions because there was an extra-long, strong whisker in the manger. How they had done it was a mystery but he was sure they had something to do with it. It was not quite what he had planned but it didn't matter because people were talking about the real Christmas now.

And after the cheerful morning service with the cats purring the hymns along with the choir everyone went off to Christmas dinner. Somehow all the cooks had found all the things that made it feel even more like Christmas and that made everyone even happier. The cats settled down to small tins of salmon - one each...and a lick of cream from the trifle later in the day. They thought Christmas had been purrfect.