John Cheever's “Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor” was initially published in the prestigious magazine The New Yorker on December 24, 1949. “Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor” is a short story which the Christmas season, those who celebrate it, and the traditions during the time period. Like many of Cheever's previous short stories and novels, “Christmas is a Sad Season” is a somber story. It tells the story of an elevator operator named Charlie who complains of how lonely he is to each person that enters his elevator. Each resident of Charlie's building, however, decides that they will give him a gift on Christmas day to cheer him up. But after making an off-color comment to a resident, Charlie gets fired. He takes the presents the people in the building he used to work at with him and gives them to his landlady, who doesn't have much money but is an extremely giving person. After all, for Charlie and his landlady, Christmas is a sad season (as the title of Cheever's story suggests).
Although “Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor” is an exceptionally short story, it is thematically complex and rich. It explores themes related to charity, the holiday season and holiday spirit, humanity and the human condition, negativity, and lying.
The story was also critically well-received by other magazines like The Atlantic and Esquire. Assessing the short story in the context of Cheever's career, biographer Patrick Meanor wrote that Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor is "longer, more reflective, and psychologically more probing and complex than in his earlier naturalistic stories." Meanor also wrote that Cheever's short stories (especially "Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor") were innovative in the short story genre.
