I’m not proud of what I have become.
I was born only a few weeks ago, you see, even though it felt like quite a familiar experience. I was joyous and boisterous, and every day felt like an adventure! It was my job to go from person to person, making sure everyone would share in my happiness, and day after day I helped them along with their singing, their good humor and their kindness.
I was the Spirit of Christmas, you see. Now I’m not sure what I am.
It all started a few days ago. As I was imbuing myself into the inhabitants of Lapland, something horrible happened… The centuries-old Christmas tree came crashing down over one of Santa’s toys’ warehouses! Not only were many of Santa’s Little Helpers injured, but it set back toy production and delivery severely! No one could say how many children would go by without any presents this Christmas.
As Santa and Mrs. Claus oversaw the recovery process, I sprang myself into the night air to try to get a glimpse of who might have done such a terrible thing. Whoever they were, they were quick to disappear back into the night, but I could still make out the faint angry ramblings of an old man, slipping away into the distance.
As I circled around the tree, I also spotted a streak of green, but it was the glitter of his grin that caught my attention. I didn’t know who the creature was, but why would anyone be smiling at such a thing?
It was then I realized, neither of them had done it; a large, muscular figure slowly moved away, a massive axe in his hand. If you could call it a hand. He was made of solid ice you see, and somehow seemed to be able to sense me. The creature waved his hand at me and blew me away in 50 different directions.
I am now a faint shadow of what I had been just days ago. Scattered across the cold winds of Lapland, I can’t fulfil my task, and the spirit of Christmas is dwindling away! Santa and his helpers are at a record low morale, and Christmas may not happen at all this year!
Can you help me? Yes, you! You, reading this. Christmas depends on you!
Billy loved playing outside. He was only 8 after all, and nothing ever beat playing in the snow with his friends. Unfortunately for Billy, all his friends had been taken away by their parents!
Too scared and angry after the tree was cut down, parents across Lapland refused to let their children play outside. Billy’s parents tried to keep him inside too, but he was too curious and wild to stay inside. He tried to build some snowmen and throw snowballs at them, but it just wasn’t the same.
Billy looked around him, and all he could see were the dim lights coming out of his friend’s windows. “I’ll get you all out!”, he thought to himself. “We’ll have fun this Christmas, whether they like it or not!”
Across 3 different locations in Lapland, the mood was quite different, however. Raucous laughter occured in turn with with the loudest churtling and guffowing you had ever heard.
Well, if you could call laughter at what, for Ebenezer Scrooge, passed for a demonstration of joy. Still the old crank was in his highest spirits in a long, long time. “This is it.”, he muttered.
The Grinch made no secret of his joy at the misery that now surrounded him. Seeing everyone’s sad little faces filled him with sheer delight! He grinned at his green minions and howled “This time I’ll do it!”
A similar feeling would fill the icy creature, if Jack Frost had feelings. The massive being contemplated his axe and looked down at the mess he had made of the poor Christmas tree from a nearby hill. “There is no escaping it”, he uttered.
Scrooge: I
Grinch: WILL
Jack Frost: RUIN
All 3: CHRISTMAS!!!