An illustration from “The Special Guest: A Christmas Story”
What would you do if, in a Carytown supermarket parking lot on a wintry day, you came upon a man in a homburg hat sitting stranded in a sky-blue vintage “bathtub” Packard, needing help to get the big vehicle started?
This is the opening of Lee and Donna Campbell Allen’s “The Special Guest: A Christmas Story,” which Lee wrote and Donna illustrated in 1992. In the story, the Reid family, including young grocery clerk Scott, is marking the anniversary of a family tragedy. They take in the temporarily marooned stranger, named Zachery. His presence seems to cause an accumulation of curious events that parents Max and Ellen Reid cannot dismiss as coincidences. The Reids receive lessons about the meaning of family and forgiveness.
The Allens cite as inspiration one of their favorite films, Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Zachery resembles that film’s bumbling but sincere Clarence Odbody (Angel Second Class), in that he travels around arranging satisfactory outcomes. Perhaps there’s a dash of Doctor Who mixed in, too, because the Packard seems bigger on the inside.
As Lee told Richmond Times-Dispatch writer Alberta Lindsey in 1995, “It has what we are about — restitution, reconciliation and forgiveness. And it brings out the real meaning of Christmas.”
Donna and Lee Allen
The Allens met at church in 1990. Donna had arrived late and couldn’t find a seat; Lee offered her one. Lee, a former captain in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, is an entrepreneur. Donna worked as a fashion illustrator for Miller & Rhoads and Thalhimers department stores in the late 1980s and early ’90s and is now an artist and art teacher.
The couple participated in the Christian nonprofit Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program through West End Assembly of God in Henrico County, shopping together for gifts for children of incarcerated parents. “We picked our angels off the tree,” Donna says. “On this little printed angel card was the name and age of the child. We picked out three things for a child, a boy and a girl, and we did that for many years. We were delighted to participate in that program.” They later included the Angel Tree project in “The Special Guest” storyline and promotions for the book. Donna says the connections weren’t preplanned but “fit.”
Lee and Donna originally created the fable as a holiday gift for their children, although they later decided to share the story beyond the family by self-publishing a small edition. Lee didn’t consider himself a writer at the time, but he enjoys stories and says his kids wanted him to tell them.
Donna’s original sketch of the illustration above, based on a staged photograph of Lee’s father
Donna drew on her fashion background to create the illustrations, using numerous photographs of the Richmond area as well as family, friends and her own likeness as models. Locals will recognize Carytown bustling at Christmas, and those of a certain vintage will clock “Food-Krops” as well.
According to Lee, his story mentioned Ukrop’s, the Richmond-centric supermarket chain. Bobby Ukrop, then the store’s chief executive officer, taught the Allens’ children Sunday school at First Baptist Church. “I sent him a copy, and he told me, ‘Just make Ukrop’s fictional,’” Lee says. “So that’s how [“Food-Krops”] happened. If you’re from Richmond, you know what it is.”
Despite the reference, getting space in the store wasn’t assured when the Allens debuted the book’s first edition in 1995. They say Ukrop’s merchandise manager at the time, Harvey Sutton, brought them in and agreed to let them supply their own floor display and donate a dollar from each $6.95 book sale to the Angel Tree program, which helped bring a bit of Christmas to some 1,500 area children.
The Allens sign copies of “The Special Guest” at Ukrop’s in 1995.
The book’s local success served as a springboard for a national edition the following year with New York’s Kensington Publishing Corp. The company printed 300,000 copies, supporting it with ads in The New York Times Book Review and USA Today. The Allens went on a national tour and kept their tradition of donating a portion of the proceeds to the Angel Tree program (a tradition that continues today).
At the time there was also interest in a film adaptation — an idea that remains a dream, Lee says. He’s written a treatment to get them closer to that goal. “We want to make this as a modern-day ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’”
To commemorate the original edition of “The Special Guest,” the Allens have created a 30th anniversary edition with expanded text and new illustrations; an audiobook version is available as well. They also recently wrote a sequel, “Legend of the Wooden Star.” In that tale, Zachery narrates the story of Micah, a shepherd who meets the three magi, assists Mary and Joseph in their escape to Egypt, and has a role to play toward the end of Jesus’ ministry.
Like many holiday tales, “The Special Guest” is suffused with a nostalgic feel, and it’s been enhanced by the passage of time. Nobody in the story has a hand-held device connected to a worldwide web, and Ukrop’s closed in 2010 (though the name lives on via prepared foods, the West End market hall and continuing community engagement).
The Allens have five children and six grandchildren, with a seventh due in January. Donna hopes “The Special Guest” will inspire families to share experiences, meals and conversation. “The message of the book is forgiveness, and we think that’s really easy; all we have to do is will it, but it can be challenging,” she says. She cites the well-known line from the 18th-century poet Alexander Pope, which the couple used as the epigram for “The Special Guest”: “To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
“The Special Guest” and its sequel, “Legend of the Wooden Star,” are available wherever books are sold and at specialguestchristmas.com. For more on the Allens and their books, follow them on Instagram.
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