Skip to main content

Town Christmas tree

Jack didn't mind that the town called him 'Frosty.' He'd gotten this nickname about a decade ago at the town's first annual Christmas tree lighting. It was a shame that the tradition only started 10 years ago as it was now the most beloved town even. Over the years, the simple countdown to lighting the large town tree had grown to include the elementary school choir performing Christmas songs, hot cocoa and snacks being sold to benefit the town's less fortunate, a toy drive for kids in the town who may otherwise go without presents, a snowman making contest, a town-wide snowball fight, a Santa lookalike contest, ice sculptures, and a large bonfire for the town to roast marshmallows on.

That first year though, when it had just been lighting the tree, Jack had been assigned as the lighting operator. Wanting to be a bit festive, he had worn a snowman sweater. After turning on the lights, Jack realized he was standing a bit too close and everyone in town saw his dorky Christmas sweater. Slightly embarrassed, he'd tried to back out of the line of sight, but had tripped and fallen in the snow. From then on, he was the town's Frosty the Snowman. In the moment he fell, Jack had been embarrassed and wished he could just cover himself with the snow, but soon he realized that the town loved and appreciated his help in starting the town's tradition. Frosty, in addition to remaining the lighting operator, was now the head judge of the snowman making contest and was the one to announce the starting of the snowball fight.

And so, it was the night of the big tree lighting and Frosty was hard at work. He was checking that everything was in place for the tree (which seemed to get bigger every year) when he saw a young kid sitting sadly on a bench holding a cup of cocoa. The kid was in the school's choir uniform, but she was sitting far from the rest of the choir and looked far more down-trodden than any kid with hot chocolate should look.

Frosty started to walk towards her and, as he did, he realized it was his own niece, Samantha. He had been at her house just a few days ago and Sam was chattering on about how excited she was to perform for the first time.

When Frosty reached the bench, he took a seat next to her. "Hey, Sam. Why aren't you with the choir?"

Sam looked up at him with huge, watery, green eyes. She then took her phone out of her pocket and sent him a text.

Perplexed, Frosty pulled out his phone and saw that she'd said:
I got sick and lost my voice

Frosty frowned, "I'm sorry, kiddo." He then tried to smile as big as he could without looking odd, "But there's a lot more to the festival than that. You can build a snowman or fight in the snowball fight."

Sam's eyes somehow got sadder and she sent him another text:
Mom and dad say i can't do those cause it's too cold and i'll get sicker

"Oh, well maybe after the tree lighting we can go look at the ice sculptures or go to the Santa lookalike contest together?" Frosty loved spending time with his niece and he really wanted to cheer her up.

Another text came up quickly though:
Mom and dad said I have to go home and rest after the lighting

Frosty looked at his sad niece, sipping cocoa slowly since it was still steaming and had an idea. He sent a quick text to his sister, Sam's mom, and then held out his hand to Sam. "Come with me, kiddo."

The two of them walked back to the lighting operation and Frosty took time to show her all of the switches (after quickly putting her hot cocoa far away from the equipment). When the town had gathered around the tree, Frosty showed Sam a special switch.

The town began to count down:

"5, 4..."

"Flick the switch, Sam"

"2, 1..."

Sam flicked the switch and the tree lit up the town. The wonder in Sam's eye's warmed Frosty's heart. After seeing what she'd done, Sam turned to Frosty and hugged him harder than he'd thought, sending them both careening backwards into the snow.

And that is how the final addition to the town's tree lighting began:
Snow angel marathon

(Prompt by Kimisha Cassidy)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

15 facts about my dad

Just been thinking about some lighthearted facts I know about my dad lately. When he was young, he had a goldfish named Lysander He introduced me to Star Trek At Christmas, he would tear up at It's a Wonderful Life He used to send me articles from his Yahoo email account that he thought I'd like We used to play a game called "Nightmare" where he would lie down and we'd jump around (and sometimes on) him He would clip possible recipes for us to try out of newspapers and magazines We bought him a Paddington Bear to take on trips because we feared he'd be lonely and he always took it He had teddy bears for three different holidays We once had such a hilariously difficult time building a gingerbread house that when some frosting ended up on the counter, I plopped a gumdrop on it and we laughed until we cried He and his sister were born about 11 months apart We would try recipes from Top Chef He kept gifts I made him, even when they weren't great At Christmas, ...

15 things you'll think about during your dad's latest hospital stay

This is meant to be a related piece to "15 things to do in your dad's hospital room," "15 Things You Find in Your Dad's Hospice Room," and "15 Things You Find When You Clean Out Your Dad’s Apartment" .  The Christmas lights at the nurse's station that should really have been switched for saccharine cupids by now What team decided to hang up a clearly labeled DRAFT safety sign Who comes up with the aliases they seem to use for trauma patients and how they decided on Redstone for your dad That his skin either looks like a bruised elephant or like sickeningly conflicting colors of thin paper mache Where you can possibly get food--you're shaky The patient in the ER somewhere with a lot of ammo, but no gun, or so they say Why the staff is being so happily loud and swearing...it feels discordant The used bandaid and gauze that are left on the floor of his ER room as he moves to his hospital room...the last proof he was there Having to do this a...

15 things I'm looking forward to for summer 2024

It'll be here so soon!  Whale watching with a friend Bookstore crawl with a friend 57th Street Art Fair Beach days Movies in the park Swapping out my wardrobe Being done with egg retrievals (hopefully) Helping a friend plan her wedding Going to Galena Taking other trips with friends Doing more sessions of my D&D one shot Eating ice cream on hot days Dining at the Point Trying to find an agent for my picture book ideas (hopefully) Reading more (hopefully) (Prompts by me) "Sperm Whale diving" by Bernard Spragg. NZ