The Christmas Dinner Party Narnians are the denizens of Narnia whom the White Witch discovers enjoying a Christmas meal, provided by Father Christmas, during her pursuit of the Pevensie siblings and the Beavers. The attendants of that affair are a family of Squirrels, Satyrs, a Dwarf, and a Fox.
Their punishment by the vindictively evil Queen before the eyes of Edmund Pevensie is the key event that turns him against the White Witch.
Incident[]
The White Witch is in pursuit of the Pevensies, with Edmund Pevensie accompanying her, but eventually sees an opulent dinner party with various Narnians feasting joyously.
When the Witch demands an explanation, a fox nervously tries to pass it off as a toast to the Queen herself. However, the Queen presses the issue until the Fox admits the spread was provided by Father Christmas.
The Queen, enraged at this clear sign of her waning power, demands that the Fox claim that he was lying, but unfortunately, before the Fox can placate the tyrant, a child squirrel defiantly proclaims that the meal was indeed provided by Father Christmas.
In a rage at such impudence, the White Witch immediately turns all the partygoers into stone, despite the protests of Edmund. At his own resistance, the Queen strikes Edmund in the face with a warning that those Narnians' fate should be a lesson to him.
Helplessly, Edmund departs with the Queen and has a horrible imagining of those Narnians' fates as their stone forms eventually decay from the passage of time and the elements. At that moment, Edmund feels compassion for others for the first time and repents his own misdeeds that inadvertently and indirectly made that atrocity possible.
Presumably, Edmund mentions this incident to Aslan later and the great lion restores the Narnians.
Adaptation differences[]
- In the 1979 animated adaptation, the Beavers and most of the Pevensie siblings meet the partygoers on their way to the Stone Table. After a momentary pause with Mr. Beaver sharing a celebratory drink with a Fox there, the fugitives continue on their way. Unfortunately, those fugitives see the resulting confrontation with the White Witch in the distance, and helpless to save the partygoers, continue their flight to Aslan with all possible haste.
Trivia[]
- The dinner party could be an analogy for the martyrs of Christ who refused to deny their faith even in the face of suffering and death.
- A young girl wrote a letter to C.S. Lewis expressing her concern at the fate of the Christmas party goers and how it seemed that nothing was done to save them by the end of the book. Lewis immediately sent a reply with his assurances that Aslan, presumably after being told of the incident by Edmund, restored them at his first opportunity, and apologized for not making that clear.