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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)

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