The Writing Forum Member’s Christmas Short Stories Click on any title below to be linked to that story. To access the author’s home page, click on their name at the bottom of the story:   “A Christmas Gift Puppet Play” by Bill Cottringer "Yes Dear, There Is A Santa" by Rose Marie Rideout “from Lapland, love to you...” by richard lloyd cederberg   “A Christmas Gift Puppet Play” Short Story of Tall Thoughts By Bill Cottringer (aka GPB)   Opening Narration by Puppeteer’s Mother (living near one of these forests listed below, in conjunction with the puppeteers of course, but 2000 miles away from her own mom):      This is a small, short story of three towering, tall thoughts. It takes place somewhere in the forest near North Bend, Washington or maybe even Lawrence, Kansas where all the Jayhawks are, or Metropolis, Illinois, the home of Superman. Who ever really knows about these things? We’ll leave that to your imagination, which is an important part of good story-telling.      Here’s the setting in addition to the forest scenery: There are three animal ‘brothers’ who meet every Monday morning in their independently and cleverly invented “work, play and relationship” focus group. The group leader was Frederick Fox, the self-anointed leader for reasons that should be self-evident as we proceed (first puppet above). More in the next too long paragraph.      The stated purpose of the group (always good to do by any group) is to explore animal best practices in the important areas of work, play and relationships, most likely for broader application which they all hadn’t yet quite figured out. By the way, the other two group members were Marley Monkey (second puppet above) and Chucky Chipmunk (third puppet above), the latter of which really had a mixture of a busy beaver and aunt complex. At least that is what his animal psychotherapist said during his very brief treatment for identity crisis that was highly successful, despite the fact that his psychotherapist was his aunt, no pun intended. Actually she had a squirrel complex herself. This was probably to compensate her unusual tiny size which often rendered her invisible, or so it would seem, by larger forest animals, especially high up in trees when she was on the ground. But that was probably good for the eagle-eye hawks!      This particular Monday morning meeting was a very special one because it was the week before Christmas and even forest animals were into a generous holiday giving spirit of love, peace and understanding.  Actually, in the animal world, Christmas was a universal holiday for all varieties of denominations, I mean animals. They thought the human habit of having so many different ways of describing the exact same thing was kind of stupid and silly and very needless, not to mention confusing and inconvenient and destructively exclusive. Why bother adding something that didn’t need to be added and making the same thing look like a hundred different things, which it wasn’t? What is the purpose of that? Or more importantly, be bold enough to ask the Doctor Phil question, “How is that working out for you?” Most likely “not very well,” according to Frederick, Marley and Chucky, in carefully choreographed musical and visual unison.      This horrible human habit is something that bothered the animals in the forest when occasionally observing the human world (they snuck out at night for safe glimpses and nibbles of tempting left-overs in the trash cans)—why couldn’t humans just see things the way they are and do things the way they should be done, like we do without a whole lot of noisy huffing and puffing and egotistical editorializing.    The above was a great definition of “common sense,” oddly coming from a humorous human named Mark Twain, or at least as the books in the human world said. And yes animals can read, think and talk, contrary to what humans think they know about the animals they were supposed to be taking care of. You see, in reality, the animals were too busy otherwise experiencing the things that books usually try to talk about, or should I say write about in words. They were way too busy enjoying living, not thinking of ways to increase their enjoyment or worse yet, why there wasn’t any enjoyment to be had.      Okay, enough of this long introduction to our short story of tall thoughts, because Frederick, Marley and Chucky wouldn’t have it any other way. They were quite anxious to get on with this important meeting. There mantra was: “More action, less talk.” (also in separate unison).      Frederick Fox, the group leader, spoke first and softly as usual. He just came out with the bottom line to this meeting, speaking in great clarity and eloquence, “Well, I guess you are wondering why I called you a few minutes early for this weekly meeting?” Without giving the other two animals a chance to respond to his rhetorical question, he quickly continued without missing a beat, “Today we are going to examine our lives and purpose in the areas of work, play and relationships.” Then he added the qualifier, “This is because we animals need to teach the humans about these most important things. It is what matters most—being successful and happy in work, play and relationships.” They don’t seem to know what we know. Don’t you think that is odd?”      Freddie, the nickname of which only his closest buddies were able to address him, explained the problem in sufficiently interesting and descriptive detail, “Our best practices in work, play and relationships are what we need to teach the humans because the human world is a total mess with crazy and nutso things like pre-school and work bullying, so many broken families from divorce and other strange domestic arrangements, terrible miscommunication and misunderstanding with words and feelings, instant need gratification…”  Opps, Marley Monkey couldn’t resist his uncontrollable impulse to interrupt the leader, to ask, “What the heck is this ‘ING’ thing, fearless leader?”      “Well,” responded Frederick, getting back his highly needed formality for this particular situation, ‘Instant need gratification’ is caused by television, which we don’t have. All the humans see things they want right now, but can’t wait until they finish school, work, make what they call money and can afford to buy these things they see and want right now without waiting. They are completely missing impatience—zero, zippo, nada. That explanation wasn’t exactly satisfying to either Marley or Chucky, because they thought to themselves, “Boy that sure is strange, with so many free ways to have fun like working hard, having fun playing and making good friends by just being friendly. There is so much of it and it is free and available right now all the time. What’s the shortage?”      So, despite the brief interruption, which wasn’t really needed and barely acknowledged, Freddie, now back to a little more flexible and amicable informality mode, continued elaborating on the problem list for humans… “crime, substance abuse, unemployment, financial woes, violence, tax cheating and anger management and all the many other social problems the animal world seemed to be able to avoid without much effort. Of course, the absence of words in their vocabulary sure helped in this regard. How they were able to conclude this important insight will have to remain uncertain. Besides that, it would be much too difficult to try to explain with words, when words were the main problem.      All this really didn’t concern either Marley or Chucky, so they just both let it slide under the table where they weren’t sitting. That was actually Marley’s specialty. Not tables. He was born as a successful “people person” chipmunk because he always practiced his likeability with his congenial agreeability. If he disagreed with something somebody else said, he would just bite his little monkey tongue and find something he could agree on. That saved lots of arguments, let alone friendships.      But of course all this didn’t apply to dealing with Chucky’s main nemeses in life, the transplanted Air Force Alaskan Cat named Murphy. We can’t do any bad-mouthing here because old Murph-cat with a dog complex is gone and that wouldn’t be very respectful. So rest in chipmunk peace Murphy! Plus this famous and much-loved  deceased  cat has a red, white and blue VFW star flag flying in his second North Bend household after being relocated by his first human parent who is honorably serving his country in the Middle East. Hopefully, that will be over right after Christmas. Now back to our Monday morning meeting and ensuing dialogue.      Fredrick, always aware that his leadership was enhanced when he displayed his best role model behavior for others to see and not have to be told about, thought of a way to really get this Monday morning meeting rolling. “Okay group,” he began excitedly and almost out of breath for eating his breakfast too hastily in anticipation, “let’s look at three tall thoughts we can each come up with for this short story, that will help the humans get rid of some of these troublesome problems in work, play and relationships. This will be a wonderful Christmas gift—our legacy, or contribution to be remembered by despite the dangling participle in which it is packaged improperly. Sorry, grammar is a human problem outside the scope of this story.      Practicing what he preached, Freddie now back in the appropriate informally friendly mode, gave the first example, “Take me for example, I am the knower of knowledge (from the college of life), especially regarding the wisdom about how to be successful and happy in work, play and relationships.” He explained further, giving the other two ‘brother’ animals their cue to get on stage, “You see, every bit of success and happiness begins with knowing your purpose—why you are here and what it is you are supposed to be doing.”      “My main purpose,” he continued, “Is to demonstrate my knowledge and wisdom about being successful and happy in work, play and relationships, for others to see, including the humans. That way they will learn what I know from what I learned and now know.” “Makes perfect sense to me,” sang the blue bird of happiness flying by overhead.      “Hmmm,” Chucky Chipmunk with a busy beaver and ant complex ruminatively thought, “Well then, according to this tall thought of knowing your purpose, I think I can add another important “P” word—‘Perspective.’ He knew Frederick would grasp this instantly, even without any instant need gratification, but that it might present problems for the other group member Marley who was the wonderfully thoughtless playster of the group. So he avoided that potential conundrum (that was one of the few human words he liked and always worked it into a conversation) by quickly saying, “By perspective, I just simply mean getting to the best viewpoint to see what you need to see to be successful and happy carrying out your main purpose…and with me my main purpose is to work hard to contribute to a better quality of life for my family and friends.” The same blue bird agreed on the way back.      Frederick didn’t feel any need to add anything to that, as he was very proud of Chuck’s rendition all on his own. But of course he already knew that life in the forest was mainly about solving problems and to do that, you had to get to the best location in the forest and time, in order to best see what the problem was all about in gradually becoming an expert problem-solver from the best perspective of the problem and solution. He did however, mutter under his breath in a very intellectual way, “The correct solution is always the quickest and easiest action that would most likely get the best results and cause the least heartburn afterwards.” The truth of that general principle was the main law of the forest which all the animals knew about and it certainly didn’t needlessly need to be re-iterated or require any erudite or redundant response.      All three animals simultaneously but not all at once, thought about other interesting examples concerning the importance of this thing Chucky called ‘perspective.’ They all saw many different applications of the very tall thought in this short story. Marley thought of his animal grade school experience of looking at an elephant in a large box from four different sides. Each side had a different shape like a circle, square, triangle and thin line, to look through and see what you were looking at. When four monkeys looked at the four different views of the four different sides of the elephant through four different openings in the box, guess what? They all saw four much different things, and none of them resembled the whole elephant. Not even close!    Chucky remembered first thinking work would be un-enjoyable, un-fun hard work, just something that had to be done and you had to hurry getting it done; but later, without thinking much about it, he began to experience his work more as play and fun than work and dread. That slight shift in perspective lead him to enjoy much more happiness and success in his work that he now enjoyed more as fun play, and also ended up with more free time to do with as he pleased. This translated to an abundance of success and happiness and was the treasure everyone else is looking for in hidden far off places when it is right under your nose in plain sight.      For Frederick, his enlightenment about ‘perspective,’ or point of view, was a little more astounding. He first thought his main purpose in the forest was to be ‘king’ because he was so smart in knowing so much. But a visiting Lion professor at his animal college had reminded him about the re-release of the great Disney 3-D Blue ray DVD “Lion King,” and so that ego delusion was quickly deleted from his brain. No more king status for Frederick, but what was left was much more important—he would act his king-like characteristics, especially his knowledge about how to be successful and happy in life, for others to see and copy. That way he could still be king of the forest and let the lion have his jungle kingdom. Good idea! Win-win.      Another lesson Frederick learned the hard way was in being told by his father the famous Aesop fable about the fox and hedgehog. He humbly shared his lesson with Marley and Chucky, “Be it widely known and universally accepted that ‘the fox knows many things but the hedgehog, one really important one.’” “This had something to do with a certain Mr. Darwin’s ‘theory of survival of the fittest’,” was his denouement explanation for Marley in particular, fitting as it was and still believing in the Bible and Evolution both being true in their own ways.      After this bit of humility, Marley, not to be outdone by Chucky or Frederick, chimed in with some good examples of both the ‘purpose’ and ‘perspective’ tall ideas in this short story. He said in his typical animated manner, “We all know my main purpose here is to play and have fun with all my antics, especially in the forest for baby monkeys to enjoy and learn from, and also in the Zoo for human kids to laugh at.” After a second or two, he applied this to the idea of perspective more practically by adding, “You have to get to the right place that has more fun and more opportunities for play…it is like the famous human picture-taker Ansel Adams used to say, ‘the quality of a photo depends mostly on where you were standing.’”      Fredrick then applied an earlier thought posed by Marley about biting your tongue, because he knew, from being a fair photographer himself with a Canon 5-D mark II camera with a 1.2 50 mm lens and 82 mm HRT filter, sitting on the ground, lying up-side down and even hanging over a rhinoceros pit or ocean cliff could all lend themselves to pretty darn good pictures. But he held that thought in abeyance. There would be time to share that wisdom later on. Maybe or maybe not. It didn’t matter.    Now since Marley was still fresh from an earlier roll with momentum, he thought he would playfully announce his third “P” word as the third tall thought in this short story. So without hesitation he boldly said, “Being successful and happy in work, play and relationships is all about ‘personality.’” “And by ‘personality’ I mean increasing your likeability to get along with others better.”      You see, Marley had learned a few things from the research his human friend, Doctor Bill (also known as ‘GPB,’ or Grandpa Bill by his many grandkids, Hannah, Hank, George, Willie, Isabella and the two Joshua’s in Kansas, Illinois and Hawaii) had done earlier with his psychology students. They were given the assignment of asking others what affected them most in perceiving somebody as either likeable or unlikeable. Their answers made for a great self-help book published by GPB—“You Can have Your Cheese & Eat It Too.”      He did know all this stuff was very relevant because there was an earlier connection well-proven between this likeability factor and success in general. “Of course,” he thought but didn’t speak, “past perceptions are what lead you to your present perspective.” He thought he better keep this idea to himself because it would provoke too much thought and discussion. And these Monday morning group meetings were more about actions that words. His fingers did the zipping on his usually lose mouth of a very rare intellectual thought. Thinking wasn’t his forte. He was more on impulse and instinct and intuition. He heard Opra say on TV one day when he snuck into catch a day episode, that intuition was the place where the head and heart came together. Hid did share that one earlier during a previous Monday morning group meeting.      At any rate, the good things about ‘personality’ as in having a likeable one, that lead to the most success and happiness in work, play and relationships, that Marley had found out about through his human friend, was that it included some important sub-stuff. Marley, enumerated, “sub-stuff like agreeing with people instead of arguing, being positive instead of negative, being honest instead of lying, being funny and spontaneous rather than too serious or strategic, being modest and humble rather than bragging, and being real instead of phony. He knew he was using some big words, but not to worry. Everyone else would get it sooner or later, because he had what it takes in living his great personality of agreement, optimism, honesty, humor, humility, realness and also something else he just learned about yesterday—empathy.      Marley did feel a need to explain this last one, as he caught a rather quizzical look from Fredrick. So he defined ‘empathy’ as, “just having a lot of life experiences, especially about problems and failures, so you understand what it is like to walk in another animal’s snow shoes or rain boots.” And a lot of people he knew, including the puppeteer’s mom and GPB, were really big on learning more about this empathy thing, because they intuitively knew it was an essential ingredient in being successful helping others become happier and more successful. In a brilliant flash, Frederick quickly summed up things, “Well then, you might have just uncovered the main purpose ALL the animals and humans have—to learn how to be happier and more successful in whatever they are doing, mainly solving problems in life, so that they can share what they’ve learned with others who may need to know. And then there was a long pause in silence.      And so after about 15 minutes of digesting all these tall ideas and great action plan for their Christmas gift for humans, the group left the meeting to carry out their specific mission to make life better for people in the human world. Frederick would continue living out his tall thought about purpose to show everyone how important it is to know your general purpose in life and specific purpose in what you are trying to do now . Chuck would continue working smart in school and work with the right perspective to get things done, that just happened to not be as much work as fun and very effective in understanding problems and seeing their solutions. And Marley would just continue using his personality in having a lot of fun playing, without thinking much about working, and amusing anyone who cared to watch. Smiles and laughs were his thing and they really worked because he was unanimously voted Mr. Popular in the forest.      The only thing that puzzled the three animals and remained as a mystery, was this lingering question—why would anyone have to try to figure out something like this that is so simple and so obvious. “I guess it just takes a little time” answered the puppeteer’s mom. GPB added in long distance absentia from North Bend, Washington, “Yes time is nature’s way of keeping all the good things in life from happening all at once.” He once had a rough cedar-paneled rest room that allowed for people to write witty little aphorisms like that on the walls while they were “resting” and he remembered his good friend Bob writing that one, as well as giving him a saying in stone that he is looking at right now, which says. “The only difficulty in life is the choice.” ©Bill Cottringer   "Yes Dear, There Is A Santa" by Rose Marie Rideout   "Okay Bill, I can tell something is playing heavy on your mind, talk to me, tell me what's bothering you." "Linda, it’s Christmas time and so many are out there cold and hungry. So many little children will wake to what? The disappointment that Santa has forgotten them. It won’t happen this year, I tell you. There has to be something we can do to help so many. These people live right here, yet pride won’t let them ask for help." "Bill, I know what you are saying dear, but what is it we can possibly do? If they don’t ask, maybe it isn’t right for us to bother them. You have a Santa suit but you aren’t really Santa." "Yes, but when I put it on I feel different Linda. It's hard to explain. I feel as though my heart is pounding, as though I am Santa and I have to make my rounds. I have to make sure everyone is taken care of." "Bill, what are you thinking of doing? I see that look in your eyes. You have something on your mind." "Well dear, I am going up to the grocery store and to the department stores and see what they can do to help me out. I’ll see the Priest and whoever it takes to find out who is in need of a visit from Old St. Nick, and I will go to them in my suit and they will never know but that Santa delivered Christmas to them. What would you say if I wanted to take a thousand dollars from our savings account to buy extra food and toys for those in need?" "Bill you know I think that is a wonderful thing for you to do. I can tell this will be the greatest Christmas ever. Another reason why I married you and love you as I do." "So Bill, what did they think of your idea Darling? Are they willing to help you out in any way? Honey why are you crying? Tell me, what is it?" "Linda the stores will double whatever I spend out of my pocket. Isn’t that wonderful to know so many are willing to help out the needy? I spoke to our priest, he gave me a list of a few names of folks who are really desperate and then he told me of this one family', the gentleman is off work, sick. He got paid under the table and has no insurance, no UI, can’t even afford his medicines. His wife is ill but does what she can to nurse him back to health. They have three little children, a boy three and two girls seven and eight years old, and nothing for Christmas, nothing at all. They don’t know if they have any heat let alone food. I’ll be going there first. I have to make sure I have all the food needed to keep them going for a week of this blessed season." "We’ll wrap gifts and mark them from Santa. I’ll help you dear and they will have Christmas because Santa will make sure of it. There will be smiles on their little faces come Christmas morning." "The car is loaded and I’m headed off, I hope they accept what I can offer. I have a plan which I think will work." After arriving back home Bill told his wife of how the night went as he continued to wipe falling tears from his eyes. How it broke his heart to know people are out there hurting, but if he could make the difference for just one person, it would be his Christmas. "I started off by making a few quick stops along the way to drop off a few hampers to those who needed a little help to pull them through and I was eager to get to this one family on this snowy cold night, knowing they were in desperate need. I arrived at their home around eight o’clock, I had parked the truck around the trees so no one would know what I was driving. The house appeared to be dark and gloomy as I walked up and gently tapped on the door. The door opened and there was this lady and three little darlings, they all threw their arms around me and were more then happy to have me visit them as they told me they understood from their Momma that I couldn’t bring them gifts this year due to their Daddy being sick but it was okay because I came to visit them personally and that was enough for them. “I asked the lady if I could step in for a moment. With no tree or any sign of Christmas in sight, I told her I'd heard her husband needed medications and I could help them if I knew what the medications were. She handed me the prescriptions and whispered that she had no money. I put my finger to my lips and told her not to worry, Santa will take care of it. I asked her what time the children would be in bed and that is when I would return. She told me they were heading off to bed when I arrived. I hugged them and told them to go straight to sleep or I couldn’t bring them gifts. The lady looked at me with tears as she tried once again to tell me they had no money and again I put my finger up to my lips and whispered, "It’s okay for I am Santa.” Bill continued, "I found Bob, the pharmacist, and showed him the prescriptions, I told him the story and without me begging he agreed to fill the medications for me as long as I never paid him for them as he said, “Merry Christmas Santa,” and handed me the pills along with a large bag of decorations. "I left there happier then I ever thought was possible. On my way, I stopped at the truck stop and got three coffees with sugars and creamers on the side. I called up Mark, the guy who delivers our oil and told him what was happening.” He was quick to say, “Bill, I’m on my way once you give me the address.” "Thank you Mark just bill me, you know I’ll take care of it." "Don’t you worry about it Bill, this is my contribution to help Santa deliver," Mark replied. "I put $500.00 in a Christmas card and signed it from Santa and Mrs. Claus, and I arrived back at their house within the hour and went to the door with my sleigh loaded down with all the food and gifts it could carry along with a beautiful Christmas tree someone had tossed at the roadside. Mark was just leaving, he told me the lady came out and said she never ordered oil and she had no money, but he told her Santa had sent him. She opened the door and with tears in both our eyes I handed her the medications, she put her arms around me and couldn’t believe what come through the door as I started to unload boxes of food and fresh fruit along with this huge turkey and all the trimmings to go with it.” Her husband, Howard, sat up and took his pills, far too sick to really be able to talk to me. I said, "You rest and I’ll help Mary as we have a lot of work to do. The next thing Mary saw was the tree and all the decorations. I said, "You put the food away while I get the fireplace going and I’ll start on the tree as we drink our coffee." Once the food was put away and the tree was trimmed I said, "Now Santa has some more work to do," as I brought in the many gifts we had wrapped and placed them beneath the tree. She sat at the table and cried, she asked for my name and I told her, “I’m Santa Claus, and you must keep BELIEVING Mary.” As I was leaving she hugged me again ever so thankful for all and said, "Santa I had stopped believing for so many years until tonight." I turned to her and repeated, ”Yes dear Mary, there is a Santa and all will be fine from now on. There is help on the way dear and it’s okay to accept it. God is watching over you and your family." "I tell you Linda if I get nothing for Christmas, I had my heart filled tonight as I felt the love and thankfulness from this family. I can now enjoy Christmas dinner knowing so many were taken care of tonight. I pray that all families are looked after this night of all nights." "It has been a long night dear Santa, it is time for you to rest for tomorrow is a big day." As I snuggled down in my warm cozy bed beside Mrs. Claus, I turned to her and said, ".....and to all a good night." A few weeks later Linda was reading the newspaper and there was a Thank You Notice to Santa Claus and she recognized the name of the family. The note read, “Thank you Santa for making me believe.” © Rose Marie Rideout   “from Lapland, love to you…” (flash fiction) by richard lloyd cederberg   Following a satisfying midday meal, after dishes were done and the Pachisi club had returned home, I was sipping a warm mug of Canneberge Grenade, pondering, in the sunroom, whether or not I wanted to read again ‘The Evil Eye’ by Theophile Gautier, as the melodic inventions of Edvard Grieg’s ‘Peer Gynt Suite’ wafted pleasantly through my brain… Of a sudden I was startled by a raucous knocking…  “PACKAGE…” a gruff voice proclaimed. A moment later the swishing sound of something deposited through the mail slot hastened me from my reverie and towards the door. I could see it was quite weatherworn, as I bent to pick it up, and noticed, too, that it was smudged and torn in several places. The return address baffled me; remembering Mrs. Smatterman’s geography class, where I'd learned that such an address had to originate up within the Arctic Circle somewhere; where exactly, though, remained a mystery to me for my mind, regrettably, was not as sharp as it once had been. After turning it over several times, I was convinced that its journey to me had taken some time, and, when I'd cleaned my glasses and scrutinized it closer, I could see that the sender was trying to convey some degree of humor and good will to the recipient. Over a dozen little children’s faces adorned the package on colorful round stickers; happy faces, funny faces, smiling faces, gentle faces, kind faces, and if that wasn't enough, on the oversized stamp was a curious image of a shiny red and white Porsche with a saddle attached to the roof; atop it sat an elf in elfish regalia, smiling impishly, holding a long curved clay pipe, with one of his thumbs up. Hahaha… Now who would send me something like this? On the back was a wax seal, which was odd, considering that no one (in my limited realm of knowledge) had sealed a letter, or package, in such a way since the turn of the century. Shaped like a horse-shoe, both of the ends were pointing up (I assumed) so luck wouldn't run out. Returning to the sunroom I sat down and… After gingerly opening the package, two tarnished copper pennies tumbled into my trembling hand, and then a strong fragrance of peppermint and cinnamon accosted my olfactory. Lastly, I pulled out a sheet of paper, scrunched from the long journey which, after I'd smoothed it out, revealed a scrawl of handwritten words which read:  Lads and lasses …   I've got a problem A conundrum if you will The reindeers have been arguing And mama’s taken ill I wanted something special To give you all this year But no one wants to help me The world is rife with fear All the elves are grumping now A sad affair indeed I just don't have the currency No tricks left up my sleeve I hope that you will understand The quandary that we're in And ask the Lord for wisdom And help this year to live If something doesn't happen soon I won't know what to do So could you find it in yourself To help me see this through? Give what you can To one another, from your heart, In pureness of spirit, and with no rancor, Understanding that it is better to give than receive, And knowing that in the giving seeds are being planted In the recipient that will return as a similar harvest in due season From Lapland, love to you … Nick ©richard lloyd cederberg 11/11   For Our Christmas Essays - click here For Our Christmas Poetry - click here