Guest Author Alice Marks

 Happy Christmas to All

Two souls in Heaven have a chat. “Do you know what I miss most up here, Holly?”

“I guess, Merry, it’s your family that hasn’t joined us yet?”

“Of course, I miss them, but, Holly, what I miss right now is Christmas.”

“What do you mean, Merry? We always have The Holy Birthday on December 25.”

“Yes, of course, but what I miss is . . .” Merry pauses and looks downward. “I miss secular Christmas, with all the trimmings.”

“Now I understand! I miss all that, too—Christmas trees, decorations, Santa, shopping.”

“Yes! Especially shopping! Three friends and I had red sweatshirts that we wore when we Christmas shopped. On the back Cindy’s had, ‘Shop’, I had ‘Until’, Ruthie had ‘You’ and had. . .”

“Drop it!” interrupts Holly who continues, “I wonder if people still shop in stores? I’ve heard that most people order anything they need using their computers, from a huge store along the Amazon River.”

“Really? That doesn’t sound like much fun! I think we should find out for ourselves! What if we ask St. Peter for a pass to visit the earth before Christmas?”

“Hmm. We must catch him in a good mood.”

“A good mood? You mean, when not too many bad people are trying to get in here?”

Holly was quick to correct her. “Nonsense, you’re thinking of earth. All who believe they are welcome here. I am going to ask him now.”

Holly floats away to the Pearly Gates and says, “Hey, Pete. Do you think you could give Merry and me passes to go to earth to view Christmas preparations? Of course, we’ll be back for the real Christmas birthday celebration.”

“Well, I’ll have to get approval from my boss, but first I’ll check my records to see if you two have been ‘Naughty or Nice?’ Ho, ho!”

* * *

Unseen Holly and Merry, arrive below early in the Christmas season. A Santa stands shivering in a corner with a bell in his hand. He rings the bell twice, and both Holly and Merry feel wings sprout at their shoulders. “Just like in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’,” whispers Merry.

“Speaking of movies, I was just thinking,” Holly also whispers, “We aren’t the first ghosts to visit at Christmastime. Remember all the ghosts in ‘A Christmas Carol’?”

Merry replies, “I shudder when I see those poor children the last ghost conceals, but all those ghosts did change Ebenezer Scrooge’s whole life.”

Merry agrees but is thinking, maybe we could change some lives while we are visiting.

Holly says, “My happiest Christmas memory is our Christmas tree.”

Merry comments, “Well, that’s a good place to start. I see a tree lot in the next block, and we can fly right over there to see what’s going on!”

“Look!” Holly says, “There’s Ralphie, the kid who wanted ‘a Red Ryder, 300 shot carbine with a compass in the stock’ and his family picking out a tree!”

Merry complains, “This doesn’t do anything for me. Our family always went to the forest and cut down a tree.”

“That sounds like fun! Let’s see if we can fly around and see someone doing that!”

In no time they find a cold, snowy tree farm in Minnesota. They see a man bundled up a in buffalo plaid coat, chopper mittens, purple knit Vikings hat, and high snow boots. His black lab, Bubba, crisscrosses in front of him, almost tripping the man several times as he trudges upward and pulls a sled occupied by two young children. The tykes sip hot chocolate from recyclable paper cups and spill it all over whenever the sled hits a bump.

The dad has a determined look on his face and an axe over his shoulder. All of a sudden, the little girl howls, “I gonna frow up”, and she does. Dad stops, certain someone else will spot the tree ahead that would look perfect in their living room. He cleans up his child with the red rag he intended to tie on the trunk of the tree so it could poke out of the back of his Nissan.

The little girl begins howling, “I cold, I want Mama.”

“I’m freezing,” says the girl’s slightly big brother, who makes a snowball. He throws and almost hits an elderly lady trailing behind a family looking for their perfect tree. They all yell at the dad for not having control over his son.

Another perfect tree seeker, yells at him, “Hey, buddy. leash your dog. He just lifted his leg on the tree I was gonna cut down.”

Dad has had it. Pointing to the perfect tree he intended to chop down, he says, “There, take mine.”

He pulls the sled downwards as the children, looking behind them scream, “You forgot to cut down our tree.”

Dad explains, “We’re going to some place warm –Target!” The kids chant, “Target! Toys! Target! Toys”. The two angels fly alongside the Nissan. Reaching Target, Dad puts the kids back on the sled and the axe over his shoulder. To the look of consternation on faces of other shoppers, he enters the store.

He heads towards the display of pre-lighted, in three colors, faux trees. He unplugs one and pretends to chop it down for the benefit of his children. He pulls out his phone and asks one of the assembled dropped-jaw crowd of shoppers to take a photo to show his wife the perfect tree she wanted him to chop down.

Someone summoned a very tall, red-vested Target employee wearing an elf hat festooned with jingle bells. The towering elf says gently, “Hey, buddy, you can’t take a tree from a display.”

“Just watch me!” Dad throws the tree over his shoulder, which means leaving the axe behind.

As he races to a register, he sings ‘Jingle Bells.’ The children join in and pretty soon everyone in the store sings Jingle Bells in competition with a loudspeaker playing Feliz Navidad. The Dad tosses money at a clerk and is out the door with tree, sled and kids before security arrives.

As Holly and Merry watch the family pile into their car, Merry says, “I don’t remember that movie. Oh, wait wasn’t there one called ‘Elf’?”

“Yes! But this whole saga wasn’t a movie. The author who is writing this story about us wrote it for a contest years ago,” explains Holly.

“Did she win?”

“You would have to ask that.” Changing the subject, Holly suggests, “While we are here, we might as well see all the great stuff Target has for decorating and gift-giving.”

There is no argument from her shop-loving friend. Every place they go in the store, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. They begin oohing over all the enticing home decorations as they grab a copy of the store’s ads flyer: Replace your regular wall pictures only with Christmas paintings! What about a fireproof garland for your electric fireplace? Replace all tree ornaments with new exquisite silver and purple ones! Replace your old Christmas dishes that have been used three times with the latest design! How about a Christmas comforter for your bed with new curtains to match, a Christmas throw for all of your living rooms chairs and sofa and matching drapes, a cutesy Santa Christmas shower curtain, rug, toilet and tank cover. Don’t forget magnetic Christmas scenes to decorate kitchen appliances (and garage doors).

The two angels progress to self-inflating Christmas figures for the yard, the most popular being Santa, snow people, reindeer and the Grinch. Remember to buy the speakers for broadcasting your choice of carols from the outside of your house.

“By the way, who won the election, Merry?”

“How should I know/ There are no politics in Heaven!”

 “Praise the Lord!”

They look at toys. As always there are dolls for girls including an almost life-size Taylor Swift doll that has a microphone. Merry pushes a button on the mike, and Taylor dances as she belts out “Shake It Out”.

There is a new atomic ball that will take three days to return to earth after it’s thrown. The angels resist taking it outside to see if it works.

“Merry,” says Holly. “Do you see what I see?”

“Why it’s Clark Griswold, navigating two carts filled with electric lights. Let’s follow him to his house to watch him put them up.”

The angels fly to the Griswold house and watch him use every extension cord he owns and can borrow to put up lights inside and out.

“Oh, no!” squeals Holly though, of course, only Merry hears. “He doesn’t seem to know much about electricity.”

“We must intervene so that poor cat isn’t electrocuted. As Griswold wonders why the tree doesn’t light up, the cat escapes unscathed.

“I like that movie better now,” says Merry, and Holly agrees

“Holly, let’s fly to a small town to watch a parade. They have the best ones.”

The two angels clap with the crowd assembled along streets in Whoville as the local High School Band leads the parade with their rendition of “Jingle Bell Rock.” The mayor of the town drives a brand-new Red Cadillac trimmed in holly and ivy. Behind him is the Parade Queen and her attendants, in red or green gowns on a dazzling float.

“Aren’t they darling?” says Holly when she sees a troop of tiny kids dressed as stars that twinkle as they toddle down the street.

Next comes a group of carolers on a float, dressed in Victorian costumes singing Olde English Carols. Next comes an Elvis singing “Blue Christmas” on a flatbed truck and bundled up people singing “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” as their float leaks fake snow down the street. The junior high band plays a Christmas medley as they try to keep in step.

Finally comes Santa ho-ho-ing as he hangs onto a rung of a hook and ladder fire truck while his elves throw candy to the kids.

“Let’s fly to New York City to watch The Nutcracker Ballet!” suggests Holly. After the delightful performance, Merry says,” If we hurry, we can slip into the Gala Theatre to see ‘A Christmas Carol’.

After that delight, they decide to go to all-night grocery store to view holiday treats.

“Oh, look at all the different Christmas cookies and cakes! I used to bake the entire month of December!” purrs Merry.

“See that beautiful spiral ham wrapped in a red bow. It’s pricey but not as bad as turkeys! I guess people need to roast a chicken.”

“No, Holly, look at the price of chicken. Turkeys are less per pound. How on earth do people afford to eat down here?”

“Merry, look at the ‘Toys for Tots’ box. There are only two little Teddy Bears in it.”

“No surprise there. With grocery prices so high, customers have nothing left for charities.”

“We have to do something about this, Merry!”

Off they fly to Santa’s workshop, where the elves load up two grocery carts filled with Fisher Price toys, dolls and stuffed animals for little ones plus age-appropriate games and puzzles for older kids. The elves tie Toys for Tots signs on the carts. The invisible angels push them through the skies towards the grocery store.

The flying carts soaring through the sky in the US remind folks they haven’t contributed, and soon every Toys for Tots box in the US overflows with dolls, stuffed animals, games, puzzles.

The angels beam. “It must be getting late,” Holly says, noticing, Santa’s eight original reindeer led by legendary Rudolph, even though it isn’t even foggy.”

Merry saw this, too, and shared a memory. “My kids must have watched the TV show a million times!”

“Merry, do you hear what I hear?”

“Yes! Christmas carols are floating from churches having midnight services.”

“And look! A star, a star shining in the night.”

“That means we better fly back to Heaven,” says Merry. “With wings both of us will be able to join the Hark the Herald Angels Choir to begin the Holy Birthday as we sing ‘It Came Upon a Midnight Clear’.”

As Santa notices two angels ascend into Heaven, he shouts from his sleigh, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Alice-Marks/author/B07BB1NZ2D

Author Alice Marks has moved around as much as Sandra Lewis, heroine of her suspense novels Missing and Breaks. Born in Wyoming, she grew up there and received her undergraduate degree at the University of Wyoming. In 1967 She and her husband, Sam, and two babies moved to Minnesota where both had careers in education and reared four children. In 2005 Sam and Alice moved to Port Aransas, Texas, an island town on the Gulf of Mexico. Corpus Christi is by accessible by ferry and highway or by highway, JFK bridge and Causeway. After soaking up the sun for eight years and enjoying life in a much different culture, including the energy of Spring Break, the couple returned to Minnesota in 2013 to spend their retirement years. They live in Duluth, where both are involved in music (Sam directs the Duluth Civic Orchestra, and Alice plays flute) and where Alice is involved in many aspects of writing including activities of Lake Superior Writers, leading a writers group, Ink Slingers, and teaching writing workshops and classes. Alice has been published in several anthologies for short stories and poetry. One of her poems will be featured in a dance-poetry collaboration.