Have you in mind "The Kid" by Charlie Chaplin? the scenes where they look at the window of a restaurant at the people eating? (Hope to remember well, cause I see it many year ago)... Jase, the main character of this short story is in a similar situation. He is twenty three years old and has nothing: he has lost his work as dishwater some days before Christmas, he lives in an old and cold one room flat and he has no family to spent Christmas with. And even if his family would be still around, his past Christmases are nothing to remember of.

So on Christmas Eve he is outside a big department store looking other people hurry to make their last Christmas shopping and he is fantasizing about how could be a very family Christmas. Then he sees an abandoned chart full of Christmas bag and he takes it: not to steal it, but only to pretend to be like all the other people around him. And in fact he follows the chart's owner till home and gives him back his bags. But Riley is a very cute and young guy, and Jase has not heart to tell him the truth, not when he has the chance to spend an entire day with him. He wants to steal another bit of that Christmas he has never had.

Jase is a good guy born in the wrong side of the town. Maybe If he had had a chance in his life he could be a better person, and instead he is only a poor guy who tries to pass the Christmas season without hunging himself for desperation. Riley is not in a better situation, living with his aunt after being abandoned by his mother and trying to make a perfect Christmas for his three nephews. But Riley has also a big heart and the naivete that only the very young and still innocent people has. He is sweet and warm.

I like this short story (50 pages) cause its tender and heartwarming, without being too sugary. There aren't "Christmas" miracle in it, but only the love of two men who find themself under the Christmas Tree...

http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=The+Spirit+of+Giving+by+Cat+Kane

Amazon Kindle: The Spirit Of Giving

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading+list&view=elisa.rolle