What was Christmas like for you when you were a kid?” Don asked.

“We didn’t celebrate Christmas. We didn’t believe in God,” I answered.

“Lots of people celebrate Christmas who don’t believe in God,” Don said. “You mean you didn’t do anything at all about Christmas?”

“No—oh, I remember once a girlfriend of one of my uncles gave me a present. It was a little bottle of hand lotion. I’d never had anything like that before. It seemed like such a grown-up gift, and I was so proud of it, that I decided not to use it so it would last forever.”

“Did it last forever?�...