The Gift by Ray Bradbury (Esquire, December 1952) opens with a couple and their son boarding an emigration rocket on Xmas Eve. As they only have a limited baggage allowance, the parents have to leave behind a little Xmas tree with candles, and the present they have for their son.
After they take off the boy asks to go and look out the one porthole on the ship, but his father says no, before adding that it will soon be Xmas: the boy asks if he’ll get his present and his tree, and his father says yes (much to the dismay of the mother). Then the father leaves their cabin on a short errand.
The story closes with the father taking the family up to the porthole. They enter a dark cabin and see the porthole before a number of unseen people start singing carols. Through the porthole the boy can see “the burning of ten billion billion white and lovely candles. . . .”
This is okay, but it’s minor Bradbury. And the idea of non-flickering stars in space resembling candles on a Xmas tree is a bit of a stretch.
** (Average). 780 words.