The Christmas Eve hunt

Text 1: A Doll for Lucy, by George Ellerby

An original letter written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

My dear Robert, I write in a state of triumph, though it has been dearly won. Lucy, as you know, had set her heart upon a wax doll with real hair, having seen one in a window in October, and I, like a fool, left the purchase until Christmas Eve. I have since learnt that every father in the city did the same.

The crowd in the toy shop was such that I could not raise my arm to remove my hat. Mothers, nursemaids and red-faced gentlemen like myself were pressed against the counter, all holding out money and all crying “A wax doll, if you please!” at the one exhausted young woman who served. I was told twice that there were none left, and I believe I said something to the second shopman that I shall not repeat to you.

At length a doll was found, a little crushed about the bonnet, at a price I shall not confess to Margaret. I carried her home under my coat through the snow like a stolen treasure. When I think of Lucy’s face tomorrow morning, I count my bruises and my empty purse as nothing at all.

Text 2: The Last Unicorn in Town, by Hannah Brierley

An original contemporary article.

Every year I promise myself I will finish the Christmas shopping by December, and every year I find myself on the high street at four o’clock on Christmas Eve. This year my daughter Maisie wanted one thing, a talking unicorn that sings when you stroke its mane, and by the twenty-fourth every website said “out of stock”.

So I joined the crush. The toy shop had a queue out of the door and a security guard letting people in six at a time. Inside, parents with frazzled faces were waving their phones at a teenage assistant, showing her photos of the same unicorn. She told me there were none left. I may have said a word I will not be teaching Maisie.

Then, behind a display of board games, I found one. The box was dented and the price was frankly criminal, but I clutched it to my chest all the way home on the bus as if somebody might mug me for it. Tomorrow morning she will open it and sing along with it, badly, and the queue and the bill will not matter one bit.

Both writers describe shopping for a Christmas present.

What are the similarities between the writers’ experiences of buying the present?

Draw on evidence from both texts to support your answer.