Narrator and point of view

The short story “Noel” by Michael Plemmons is a third person account of a narrator external to the action.

The first impression we get is that the narrator does not employ any of the characters’ point of view and simply acts as an outside, invisible observer of the action: “Mrs. Hathaway brought the children downstairs single file and seated them on straight-back chairs around the reception room, boy-girl-boy-girl, seventeen in all. In the corner stood a robust Christmas tree...” (p. 57, ll. 1-4)

But as the story progress, the narrator starts using the point of view of Mrs. Overton, the owner or...