6-Dec-2018
Fancy Decorations Don’t Get It
After a long day of desperate Christmas shoppers, Cupid the Reindeer let out a contented sigh when the last customer left and the lights started going off at one end of the store and continued to the other.
“About time,” someone from the little village at the base of the tree muttered.
“These people are just about as far from the Christmas spirit as you can get,” Frosted the Snowman said. The jewels on his hat glimmered in the faint light left on for the night.
“Says the guy who doesn’t even represent Christmas,” piped up a comic book hero ornament from near the top of the tree.
“Like you’re one to talk,” Frosted shot back.
Cupid shook himself out, then tried to fling the myriad of tiny, sticky hand prints off of his legs. “Why did it have to be suckers?”
“That’s why they brought you in,” Frosted said. His coal smile somehow morphed into a smirk. “You’re supposed to be able to take that sort of thing.”
“Give the kid a break,” a gruff voice said from the village. “Just because he’s a discount store decoration doesn’t mean he’s not important.”
“Yes it does,” Frosted said.
“Do you want to get touched by all of those juicy, germ ridden, sticky little children’s hands?” the comic hero asked.
Cupid rolled his neck. “At least the kids can touch me.”
Frosted looked down at himself. “Well, they can’t touch the rest of us.”
“Certainly not!” a squeak came from the village, followed by several more voices expressing the same sentiment.
“We’re fragile!”
“And priceless,” Frosted said, gazing at his designer coat with diamond buttons.
“But the point of Christmas is to make the kids happy,” Cupid said.
“Or to eat the last half of that rum cake over there,” a villager said.
The comic hero snorted. “Uh, no. The point of Christmas is money.”
“You’re both wrong,” Frosted said. “The point of Christmas is to make people so frustrated that they’ll buy things they normally wouldn’t.”
“Isn’t that what I said?” the comic hero said.
Cupid cocked his head to the side. “Who taught you that?”
“The decorations that came before us.”
“But, at my old store, some moms brought their kids just to see the nutcracker, or me. Or both.”
“That’s because people who visited your old store spend their days in undeserved leisure, pretending to be functioning members of society.”
“I think you’re wrong,” Cupid said.
“Do you?” Frosted asked.
“Yes. I mean, how does it make you feel when a little kid sees you and their eyes go big and they point?”
“It makes me feel like hiding,” someone from the village said.
“Agreed,” the comic hero said. “All I can think about is going into their dirty, little mouths.”
Cupid’s mouth hung open. “You don’t get it.”
“There’s nothing to get,” the mayor from the village said. “We get put out once a year, ogled, sometimes abused and then we get shoved back into our respective boxes and piled in the basement until next year.”
“But this is the most wonderful time of the year!” Cupid said. “None of the other decorations get to see what we see, or feel what we feel?”
“Exhausted?” the comic hero asked.
“No!” Cupid cried. “Do you even listen to the kids? The parents?”
“All I hear is crying, begging and exasperation.”
“It’s under that,” Cupid said. “Most people love Christmas. They love that they get to give to others, because it makes them feel good.”
“No, what makes people feel good is after-Christmas returns,” a villager said.
Before Cupid could speak he heard a small voice coming from the towel section.
“Can we go see the tree?”
Frosted the snowman cringed. “Wonderful.”
More murmurs followed as the decorations went still.
Cupid kept his eyes trained on the approaching family. It was one of the managers, along with her two little girls. The oldest might be six, but the other couldn’t be more than three years old.
Both cherubic faces lit up as they rounded the corner and saw the display.
“Santa’s chair!” the older girl cried as she ran toward Cupid.
Cupid watched the younger girl as she kept a hold of her mother’s hand and quietly approached Frosted and the village under the tree. Her large, blue eyes never once blinked, and her little mouth formed an O.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.
The older girl got to Cupid and smiled up at him. He wanted to smile back.
The younger girl kept moving until she stood right in front of Frosted. She looked up at her mom. “Can I touch him?”
“Go ahead, but be gentle.”
The girl reached out a chubby hand and gently stroked Frosted’s lowest snowball. She giggled. “He’s soft.”
Their mother, complete with dark rings under her eyes and a slight limp from working the floor all day, smiled. “He is.”
The family spent fifteen minutes examining each ornament and member of the village.
Cupid beamed. This is what the season was all about. Surly the others would see that.
After the family left Frosted snorted. “At least she didn’t have dirty hands.”
“They were so happy!” Cupid said.
“I’m just glad they’re gone,” a villager said.
Cupid rolled his eyes. This was going to be a tough crowd to crack.
***
Theme – Christmas
Character – Cupid the Costco Reindeer
Setting – A Fancy Department Store
Random Object – Half-Eaten Rum Cake
Here are the Options my Facebook Crew came up with!
Character
- Cupid, the reindeer from Costco
- Weeping angel
- Nutcracker prince
- John McClain
- Frosty, the Snowman
- Jack Frost
- The Grinch
- Elf on the Shelf
- Bu (the gnome off The Troll Prince)
- Frosty the snow letch
Setting
- A Hanukkah party
- North pole (under attack by gumdrop terrorists)
- Phoenix
- Black Friday Shopping brawl
- The In-Laws
- A gingerbread house
- Santa’s chair at the Little Rock Mall
- Fancy department store
- High School Holiday Concert
- Sledding Hill
Random item
- BlueRay of Scrooge with Albert Finney
- Giant candy cane
- Jack Frost’s Staff
- Eggnog
- Re-gifted fruitcake
- Christmas toilet paper
- Half-eaten rum cake
- Can of Vienna sausages
- Krampus’ bag of naughty children
- String of red lights—only half working
