The Lonely Christmas Tree

Meet Christmas Pine. He is this Christmas tree. But he has never seen Christmas before. You see he lives in the forest among all of his family and friends. He has always heard of Christmas and has always wished to be chosen to be a special family tree for the holidays.

Christmas Pine was a small tree. he was only 3.5' tall and unfortunately, his branches weren't very full. Every year he would stand there patiently while watching every tree he knew got picked to go to a beautiful home and get decorated.

This year there were only 5 trees left in the entire area.

"I know I will get chosen this year." He said to himself hopefully.

One by one the trees were picked. and as the sun went down, poor little Christmas Pine got more and more discouraged. Then suddenly a little girl walked up to him staring at him intently she circled him. She started ruffling his branches, and with a gleam in her eye, she spun around quickly and shouted at her father.

"THIS ONE! Dad, this is the one I want!" she hollered excitedly.

The little girl’s father walked up to Christmas Pine and got him ready for the ride home. He strapped him to the roof of their little station wagon and drove home.

The entire way there Christmas Pine was in awe. Seeing all of the Christmas lights and displays up. All of the vibrant colors. The reds, greens and blues... even the white lights were mesmerizing to him.

It was a long journey home. They drove over mountains and through valleys. Christmas Pine even got to see the ocean, so big and blue. He saw the birds flying above them in the clear sky.

Once they finally got home the man took Christmas Pine inside and placed him carefully in the corner of the living room. The man’s wife came into the room holding a box. ‘I wonder what that’s for’ Christmas Pine wondered to himself. When just then the little girl came skipping in with a speaker and turned up some Christmas carols. Her mother opened the box and started passing the ornaments to both the little girl and her father.

After a successful evening of decorations and hot chocolate, Christmas Pine found himself lost in bliss. He was so in love with this family and was overjoyed to finally be a part of the festivities. But as the days went by, Christmas Pine found himself growing weaker. His needles were so dry and started falling off his branches. The sap that was seeping through his bark was drying out, and h started to droop. Every day the little girl would give him some water to keep him strong which was actually working.

Christmas eve crept up quickly, and got to watch the families holiday traditions. A tidy up of the house followed by a turkey dinner. Then they made sugar cookies and poured a glass of milk which they left of the table? This was so confusing for Christmas Pine. Why bake these cookies and pour some milk when they know that they will go bad by morning.

Suddenly there was a huge ‘THUD’ that came from the roof above Christmas Pine. The fireplace went out with no smoke. And it seemed to be getting bigger? This has never happened before so Christmas Pine thought he was going crazy with dehydration. But just then he heard a bang in the chimney and then a burlap sack landed on the charred wood. Next Christmas Pine saw shiny black boots on either side of the sack.

With a swift toss the sack landed right in front of Christmas Pine and then he saw a jolly looking old man with rosy cheeks, a red suit and a white beard walking towards it. He opened the sack and pulled out a watering can and started to watcher Christmas Pines trunk. He then proceeded to unload the sack. There was a small gift for the little girl wrapped up in a shiny, metallic wrapping paper. The mother's gift was in a box that was wrapped with wrapping paper that looked like a candy cane, and topped with a bow, and the father's gift was the biggest of them all. Again, it was in a box but this time the wrapping paper was blue with snowflakes on it, and it was tied up with a red and green ribbon.

After carefully placing the presents neatly under Christmas Pines branches the jolly old man walked back into the fireplace with his sack in hand. And with a ‘HO HO HO’ he leapt up and disappeared. Christmas Pine was in total shock. But soon enough the sun started to rise and he could hear the family waking up.

The little girl ran down the stairs and screamed to her parents,

“HE CAME!”

And her parents rushed into the living room. With smiles on their faces, they opened their presents one by one. Enthralled by their joy, Christmas Pine soaked up every little bit of this experience that he could. The family cleaned up the mess and put away all the gifts they received. The mother started making breakfast and the father started opening some of the toys that the little girl had gotten.

And once the day was over the family sent Christmas Pine back to the forest, and he couldn't have been happier.

The End