Christmas Day

Christmas Day turns a family holiday into the aftermath of a concealed crime. Allen’s return to Spring Street home exposes both the confusion surrounding the previous night and the family’s discovery of evidence linking him to roadside robberies; their response is to protect Billy Milligan by removing that evidence and changing his living arrangements.

A Holiday Begun in Confusion

On Christmas morning, Allen has no idea what happened the night before. Inside his head, he asks for an explanation but receives no answer, and the mix-up times leave him unable to make sense of the living room. He salvages the presents he can, rewraps the packages, and loads them into the car along with the painting Tommy made for Jim.

The ordinary work of preparing gifts for the family sits beside an unanswered question about the previous night. Danny, listening to the ensuing conversation, cannot understand what everyone is discussing and keeps waiting for the presents to be opened.

Accusation and Evidence

At Spring Street home, Allen quickly pieces together that the previous night has left Jim angry about a knife Allen threw. Kathy, Del Moore, and Dorothy Milligan also confront him about robberies. Allen denies knowing what they mean and stomps upstairs, but Del Moore searches his jacket and finds the car keys.

Del Moore, Kathy, Jim, and Dorothy Milligan then check the trunk of the car. They find credit cards, driver’s licenses, and a highway map marked with Xs at roadside-rest areas along Route 33. The map turns an accusation into a trail of specific locations, and the family’s attention shifts from what Allen remembers to what the car can prove.

Concealment and Aftermath

The confrontation sharpens when Del Moore points to the connection between the robberies and a car registered in his mother’s name. When the family sees panic replace Allen’s composure, the attempted denial no longer holds. The evidence has made the consequences immediate: Jim had called a man whose wallet had been stolen, and that man had seen Allen in town.

The family decides to help Billy Milligan by getting rid of the evidence. Jim is to take the Blue Pontiac Grand Prix back to Spokane and continue its payments, while Billy Milligan is to move from Somerford Square to a smaller apartment on Maywood Avenue. The plan converts discovery into concealment, with the car and the move serving as practical means of distancing Billy Milligan from the evidence.

The scene ends without resolving Danny’s confusion. While the adults deal with the robbery evidence and its fallout, he remains focused on when the family will open the presents. Christmas Day thus holds two incompatible realities at once: a child’s expectation of celebration and a family’s urgent effort to contain the consequences of the previous night.