For those who were disappointed with the ending (SPOILERS obviously)

I always subconsciously blocked out the entire final scene , excising it from the whole story .

In reality , the book ‘s final paragraph was actually a last minute addition , inspired (dictated ?) by the publisher who thought that the story would be extremely farfetched. Creative interference is sometimes a bad thing but as far as the author of the book is concerned the book ‘s story ends with the Cathedral scene . Keep in mind that the Box of Delights is actually the SEQUEL and Kay ‘s guardian Caroline takes him under her custody after the resolution of the “Midnight Folk” .

Of course back in the 1930 ‘s this literary device was not as hackneyed as today and was not conceived as a cop-out . Charles Dickens applied more or less the same ending in his “Christmas Carol” with great success .

Even if we do take into account the final “bookend” scene , there is actually a perfectly good explanation . Not only does it seem inspired by “Christmas Carol” but the more I think of it , the more I see the similarities with (don ‘t laugh) “Click” (2006) with Adam Sandler .

********** SPOILERS for Box of Delights, Click and (God forbid) Christmas Carol **********

We can easily infer that the Magic Box reversed time back to Kay ‘s sleep state when he was in the train . (either the old man did it , or the Box had its own will just like the remote control)

This explains everything .

Adam Sandler in “Click” was being tested . Morty was REAL , evidenced by the final note he sends with the new remote control , tempting him with a “second chance” .

Much like Scrooge , Adam Sandler ‘s character was shown an ALTERNATE path in dream state . Both of them were guided by Angels of Death . This was a possible future which was eventually averted thanks to the warning visions they both had and the lessons they learned . Of course Scrooge visited his past life as well . Therefore Adam Sandler saw glimpses of his past . Both of them needed a recollection of the things that made them choose this life .

The note by Morty and the new “gift” confirm that everything was destined to happen.

Does this mean that Kay Harker was dreaming it the entire time ?

NO !

If the Box reversed time after the resolution , everyone would be given a second chance , even the bad guys . The Box made sure that Kay passed his test successfully and made him a runner for a future possession of the Box in case his old owner chose to leave it . Perhaps when Kay grew older he would own it permanently .

This resolves the controversy and answers every question . The thankful looks of the bad guys in the train station (they will have the opportunity to redeem themselves). They all took their lesson to leave the Box alone , the old man would keep it for a few more years until he “retired” . Everyone retained their memories .

Kay in his sleeping state was conveniently puzzled and easily discarded everything as a dream . Of course the Box was merely testing him . So it was not a dream , rather an alternate reality which was rewinded to the most befuddling point possible .

Surely one can argue that after the Cathedral scene Kay wouldn’t be able to hover without the Box and certainly not so high . This is actually the only dream he had . He incorporated a fantastic element in his memories : the feel-good ultimate Christmassy feeling after the chorus chanting and the triumphant message conveyed by the bells made him so happy that he felt uplifted . A powerful and symbolic scene which culminates the wonderful holiday theme of the story . So the last scene is Kay looking the Cathedral in awe hearing the chorus . Then time is reversed back in his journey with the second train . Although Kay dispelled his experiences as a fantasy , we know that magical incidents with the Box are down on the road for him and that sooner or later he will live some more fantastic adventures .