Packing up the Christmas Tree
Sometimes you just never want Christmas to end...
Happy New Year! Is it too late to still be saying that?
I hope you all enjoyed a nice holiday season with family and friends.
It’s funny just how far away next Christmas feels around this time of year. For a kid, it may as well be a thousand years away. Today’s story is a standalone piece that focuses on that feeling.
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Christmas songs and time with family. Presents to give and presents to receive. Snowmen and snow angels. Wonderful food and bright decorations to set the mood. Christmas is the best time of year there is.
And also, of course, last but not least, there is the Christmas tree. The gorgeous, delightful, colourful, thrilling, perfect Christmas tree. The constant reminder at the heart of the home that the special season is here upon us. The Christmas tree is a magnet that draws the whole family in. It is also a promise of sweet, sweet presents!
For Liddy it had been the best Christmas ever.
Liddy was a young brown bear who lived in a lovely, cosy little cabin in the forest with her mum and dad and her brother and sister. Liddy was the youngest of her siblings and this recent Christmas had totally transformed her. For the rest of her life, she wanted every night to feel like Christmas Eve and every morning to feel like Christmas morning. She was absolutely hooked.
Days after Christmas, she was still buzzing with energy and joy. She was eating leftovers and lounging around the house with her family, having the time of her life. She was still overwhelmed with excitement to have everyone at home and spending so much time together.
Eventually, though, there were no more leftovers to eat and New Year's Eve had arrived. Liddy's family all stayed up late together to see the new year in, enjoying the warm fire and drinking hot chocolate.
Liddy then woke up the next morning to a most distressing sight... her dad was taking down the Christmas tree.
She bolted straight over and pushed him away, jumping in front of the tree and shielding it away behind her.
"What are you doing?!" Liddy shouted.
Her dad looked very confused. "What do you mean? I'm taking down the Christmas tree."
"Why on earth would you do that?" Liddy asked, panic all over her face.
"It's New Year's Day," he said. "We always take down the Christmas tree on New Year's Day."
Liddy had never really thought about. It was true though. The tree always came down eventually. But why?
Liddy's mind was racing. Why not keep the tree up all year round? Why not have Christmas all year round? It didn't make any sense.
"I'm not letting you take the tree down," she said finally.
"Well, it can't stay in the middle of the living room," he replied.
Liddy thought it over. She had a plan.
Although her dad warned her that it would make a mess, Liddy took the tree and set it up in her room instead.
Days went by and Liddy continued to sing Christmas songs and sit and admire the Christmas tree. Since the tree didn't have any presents under it anymore, she wrapped up random things in wrapping paper instead and put them under the tree. A plate from the kitchen, some old shoes, a log from outside. She was fighting hard to keep the feeling of Christmas alive.
Eventually, the tree began to fall apart. It was losing its deep dark green colour, like an old man whose hair begins to turn grey. As the weeks went on, more and more pines fell out of the tree, piling up on the ground underneath it. Some of the decorations were struggling to stay up on the tree as well, slipping off as the tree got thinner.
Liddy was doing her best to keep the tree running. She watered it daily. She even gave it extra water, hoping that it might make a difference.
She eventually decided that some sunlight might help.
Liddy took the tree out to the garden and planted it where it would get some good sunlight.
Suddenly, her room felt a whole lot cleaner.
Even out in the warm sunlight, the tree was still struggling. As the snow melted away, so too did the pine needles of the Christmas tree. At one point, she caught a squirrel stealing a red Christmas bauble from it!
Liddy was devastated to see the Christmas tree getting worse and worse…
Time went on and school soon started back up. Christmas was slowly fading away from Liddy's thoughts. She didn't check on the tree as often and she found different non-Christmas songs to sing instead.
At school, Liddy was making new friends and playing new sports. She was learning new things and reading wonderful books about dragons and heists and misunderstood monsters.
Winter ended and then the flowers of Spring began to bloom. It was a hot Summer full of picnics, and then the leaves began to fall again for Fall. Once it was Winter again, Liddy celebrated the first snowy day with a snow angel.
She then noticed her Christmas tree out in the garden... She hadn’t thought about it in months. It was green again!
They took the tree back inside and decorated it again. The Christmas songs were back and, once again, the presents began to pile up under the tree.
Christmas was here again. It had come back around so much faster than Liddy could have ever imagined.
Just like the year before, it was a wonderful, magical Christmas season. This time, when New Year's Day arrived, Liddy happily helped her dad when it came time to pack up the Christmas tree. Together, they planted it again out in the garden.
Over the weeks that followed, as the pine needles began to fall, Liddy told herself that it was simply the tree's way of going to sleep. Soon enough, it would be next year's Christmas and the tree would blink awake once again.
Thanks so much for reading! This felt like a good way to wrap up the holiday season.
New stories coming soon!
