In depicting Buddy and his friend’s Christmas rituals, “A Christmas Memory” celebrates the humble, overlooked, and rejected. With little money and no support from their relatives, Buddy and his friend’s ability to produce 31 decadent fruitcakes and an enormous, extravagantly decorated Christmas tree that looks “good enough to eat” (22) at first seems like a Christmas miracle. However, these achievements are not miraculous; they spring from Buddy and his friend’s insight into the potential of materials that others reject. Though they have few resources of their own, they recognize hidden value in even humble objects and employ perseverance and creativity to transform the unwanted into sources of beauty and pleasure. This special ability is first established through the description of Buddy’s baby carriage; like everything the pair owns, the carriage is “dilapidated” and “rather unraveled.” However, Buddy and his friend appreciate the carriage for its endurance and even personify it as an affectionate friend, noting that it is “a faithful object” (6).

In winter, the carriage provides the means to collect the “windfall pecans” for the Christmas fruitcakes, another symbol of Buddy and his friend’s ability to transform the leftover and rejected into something sustaining and pleasurable.