Christmas Gifts

I never believed in Santa Claus. None of us kids did. Mom and Dad refused to let us.

我从不相信圣诞老人，我们这些孩子都不相信。爸爸和妈妈不允许我们这么做。

They couldn’t afford expensive presents and they didn’t want us to think we weren’t as good as other kids who, on Christmas morning, found all sorts of fancy toys under the tree that were supposedly left by Santa Claus.

他们不能承受这昂贵的圣诞礼物,但也不想我们认为自己不如那些在圣诞节早晨可以在圣诞树下找到各种时髦的礼物的孩子，那些礼物被认为是来自圣诞老人。

Dad had lost his job, and when Christmas came that year, we had no money at all. On Christmas Eve, Dad took each one of us kids out into the desert night one by one.

那年圣诞夜时，爸爸失去了他的工作，我们一分钱也没有了。在圣诞夜前夕，爸爸带我们我们这些孩子一个接一个的来到一个荒野。

“Pick out your favorite star,” Dad said.

“挑选一个你们最喜欢的星星”，爸爸说。

“I like that one!” I said.

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“我喜欢那一个”，我叫喊着。

Dad grinned, “that’s Venus”, he said. He explained to me that planets glowed because reflected light was constant and stars twinkled because their light pulsed.

爸爸笑着说“那是金星”。他向我解释由于不变的反射光使那个星星发红光，由于他们光线的跳动使得星星一闪一闪。

“I like it anyway,” I said.

”无论如何我都喜欢它”，我说。

“What the hell,” Dad said. “It’s Christmas. You can have a planet if you want.”And he gave me Venus.

“管他呢”爸爸说，”今天是圣诞节。如果你们愿意，你们可以拥有一个星星。”
于是他把金星给了我。

Venus didn’t have any moons or satellites or even a magnetic field, but it did have an atmosphere sort of similar to Earth’s, except it was super hot—about 500 degrees or more. “So,” Dad said, “when the sun starts to burn out and Earth turns cold, everyone might want to move to Venus to get warm. And they’ll have to get permission from your descendants first.”

金星没有任何的卫星或者人造卫星，甚至没有磁场，但是它有有一层和地球类似的大气层。另外，它的温度最高超过500℃，爸爸说“因此，当太阳燃尽地球变得寒冷时，所有人都想搬到金星上取暖，并且所有人都要先得到你金星的后裔的批准。”

We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa myth and got nothing for Christmas but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. “

我们因为想到其他相信圣诞老人传说的孩子在圣诞节那天除了一堆廉价的塑料玩具外什么也得不到而感到可笑。

Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten,” Dad said, “you’ll still have your stars.”

爸爸说“从今年开始，当他们的所有礼物都废弃并遗忘时，你们仍然拥有自己的星星。”