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Mungo put the finishing
touches on his Christmas tree and then plugged it in. Red, green, blue,
orange, yellow and purple lights flickered as they wound through the
needled branches, from the top of the tree down to the bottom. Round,
glass ornaments hung by silver hooks, dangled colorfully, casting
reflections of the lights, tinsel and glowing fire in the fireplace.
"We’ve got a nice tree this year, don’t we Ginger?" Mungo said to his cat.
She purred and rubbed her body against Mungo’s legs. "Time to put you in
the other room." He carried Ginger through to the bedroom and laid her on
the bed.
Mungo put another log onto
the fire. Flames were flickering, embers burning bright orange, and warmth
spread through the room like a woolen blanket. It was Friday night. The
bairns would be coming soon. DING DONG! The front door bell rang. Mungo
opened it. Andy stood shivering while snowflakes raged around him. "Come
in, quick," said Mungo. Andy stepped inside. "Take your boots off right
here and hang up your coat. You’d better put your wooly gloves inside your
pockets so you’ll not get them mixed up," Mungo told him.
"This is for you, Mr.
McGee," Andy said, handing Mungo a package. It was wrapped in red paper
with white Santas on it and tied with a big white ribbon.
"Thank you, Andy," he said,
taking the gift and putting it under the tree. The doorbell rang again.
DING DONG! "Ah, it’s wee Fiona and Gavin," he said, opening the door. Snow
flew inside. "Hurry on in," he urged the brother and sister. "It’s a cold
one out there tonight, is it not?"
"It’s freezing," wee Fiona
answered. Seeing Andy’s boots, they both took theirs off and hung up their
coats next to his. "Here’s a present for you from Gavin and I," she said,
handing him a gift wrapped in green and white striped paper and tied with
a red bow.
"Thank you very much,"
Mungo said, putting it under the tree next to Andys. "Come and sit by the
fire and warm up. Help yourself to the snacks while we wait for the
others," Mungo told them.
They sat on the floor in
front of the fire. "Yummy," said wee Fiona. There were so many sweets that
she had a hard time deciding where to begin. She reached for a plate piled
high with Cornish fudge. She picked a piece that was filled with walnuts.
It was creamy and chocolaty and delicious. Gavin took a peppermint stick
and licked it until the red stripes disappeared. Andy took a handful of
marzipan fruits.
The doorbell rang again.
DING DONG! Mungo opened it. There stood wee Hamish, Morag and Gregor. The
wind was howling and snow blowing around them in every direction. "Hurry
in," he said, shutting the door behind them. All boots were put nicely
near the door and all coats were hung up. Wee Hamish, Morag and Gregor
each gave Mungo a present. The one wee Hamish gave him was wrapped in dark
green paper with a gold bow. Gregor’s was wrapped in gold paper with
silver and gold ribbons and a gold bow. Morag’s was wrapped in white
paper, with a red, green and gold bow. "Why thank you all," Mungo said,
putting the gifts under the tree.
"Go and help yourself to
the sweets," Mungo said, pointing to the trays of delicious goodies in the
middle of the room.
"Gumdrops!" called Gregor.
"My favorite!" He started licking the sugar off a large yellow one. "I
love lemon too."
"Jellybeans!" cried wee
Hamish. "I love jellybeans, even when they stick to my teeth. Mum doesn’t
like me to eat too many though," he said to Andy.
Morag walked up to Gavin.
"This is for you. Merry Christmas," she said, handing him a present.
Gavin didn’t know what to
say or to do. "Thank you," was all he could mutter. "I’ll open it later
on, if you don’t mind."
"Of course not," she said
and sat down to see what there was to eat. "Dundee cake, pastries filled
with raspberry jam, licorice bites, jam tarts; so many things to choose
from," she said, smiling at the thoughts of tasting them all.
"Time for our story now
bairns. You can eat your sweets and listen at the same time. Find a place
to sit," Mungo called to them. They scattered about, each taking a plate
full of sweets to eat as they listened to his story. "Since it’s Christmas
time, I’ll tell you a Christmas story. It’s about Claws, the Christmas
monster."
"This isn’t going to be a
scary story about monsters, is it?" Morag asked. "Remember how your last
scary story frightened poor Andy."
Gavin looked at Morag. He
was surprised to hear her say that. She smiled at him when she caught him
looking. He looked down at the present and then back to Mungo.
"No, it’s not scary. Listen
carefully. Claws was covered with light brown hair. He walked on two legs
and he did have very sharp claws. He looked almost like a bear, but not
really. Claws lived in a cave in the hills. During the winter, when it
snowed and was cold, Claws rarely left his cave, but one day he felt like
going for a walk. He left his cave and walked to the edge of the hill. He
stood looking down at the village below. He saw lots of bright colored
lights and wreaths made from pine branches, just like the ones that grew
near his cave. He decided to go and see for himself what was going on. It
had snowed the night before and the ground was carpeted with a layer of
white. Ferns and bracken jutted up through the snow. Even the village had
snow on the ground. As he entered the village, Claws didn’t want anyone to
see him so he crept from tree to tree and hid behind bushes," Mungo said.
"Did Claws like to build
snowmen?" asked wee Hamish, holding a lollipop and licking it between
sentences. "I like to build snowmen."
"Claws didn’t know what a
snowman was. He was a monster," Morag explained.
Andy thought for a moment
and added, "I built a big snowman once and put a carrot in for a nose."
"That’s very good, Andy,"
said Mungo. He continued with the story, "Now, Claws came to a house. It
was covered with lights and had a wreath with jingle bells on it hanging
on the door. Claws crept up to it and hit it. It went JINGLE JINGLE
JINGLE." Mungo had a set of bells in his pocket that he rattled as he said
that.
"What was that?" asked wee
Fiona. "I heard bells ringing," she giggled.
"Me too," said Gregor.
Mungo ignored them and went
on with the story. "Claws stood at the door playing with the jingle bells
and laughing a funny monster laugh. GRRREEE! GREEE! GREEE! He looked in
through the window. Nobody was home. He lifted it up and went inside. A
Christmas tree, decorated with all sorts of colors, stood near the
fireplace. Claws walked up to it. He saw his reflection in one of the
glass ornaments. When he put his face close to it, it got big and ugly.
When he pulled it away, he got smaller, but still was ugly," Mungo said.
"Why don’t each of you go to my tree and look at your faces in an ornament
and see what it was like for Claws."
They jumped up and ran over
to the tree. Wee Hamish looked in a blue ornament. He put his face close
and burst out laughing. "That’s funny." HA! HA! HA! HA!
Wee Fiona looked at a gold
ornament. Her face got huge and her nose looked like a pumpkin. "Look at
my nose, Gavin," she said to her big brother. "It’s big." She giggled and
giggled.
Andy picked a green
ornament. It was shiny. He pulled his face away. It got small. When he put
it closer it made his eyes gigantic. He started laughing, going in and
out, in and out, away and closer to the ornament.
Gavin was looking at a
silver ornament. He was watching himself and saw something coming up
behind him. It was Morag. She put her face right next to his. Gavin
screamed, "Argh!" She’d frightened him. She started to laugh.
Gregor was looking into a red ball. He imagined Claws face and how he must
have felt seeing himself.
"That’s enough for now,
bairns. Come on back. There’s more storytelling." The bairns ran back and
sat down. "Claws saw the lights on the tree glowing. Not knowing any
better, he reached up and grabbed hold of a blue light. What do you think
happened?"
"He burned himself,"
whispered Andy.
"That’s right, Andy. He
burned himself. Some of the hairs on his fingers sizzled and curled up
from the heat. Claws didn’t touch another one. Instead, he went exploring.
He found a stack of presents under the tree. He ripped some of them open.
One was a fire engine that made sound. He shook it and it broke into
pieces. He didn’t like the siren. He opened another one. It was a doll.
When he shook it, the doll cried, ‘Mama. Mama’. Claws threw it on the
floor. Just then he started sniffing. He smelled food. He was very hungry
and went into the kitchen. On the table sat a gingerbread house. It had a
wafer roof, gumdrops along the path, peppermint sticks standing near the
front door, and all kinds of sweeties and frosting all over it. Claws
picked it up and took a big bite out of it," Mungo said. CRUNCH! GOBBLE!
CRUNCH! GOBBLE!
"I have a gingerbread house
at my house, Mr. McGee. My mum told me not to eat any of it or else I’d be
in big trouble," said wee Hamish.
"We’ve got one too. It’s
pretty. Mum worked hard making it," said Gavin.
"Well, Claws didn’t care
about that. He was hungry and it tasted good. He ate the whole thing. He
ate every shingle, and every tree, and the sides of the house, and even
the roof. He was still hungry. He ate the chocolate chip biscuits, he ate
the shortbread, he ate the raisin scones and a whole carrot cake with
cream cheese frosting!" Mungo let his voice go louder and higher as he
told the children this.
"Was he finally full?"
asked Gregor.
"He was full. He couldn’t
eat another bite. When he’d finished the last bite of carrot cake, he
heard a car pull up in the driveway and children’s voices. He had to hide
before the people found him. He ran and hid in a closet. The family came
into the house and saw the mess. The wee lass started to cry. She was sad
that her doll was broken. The wee lad saw his present and cried too. The
mum and dad hugged the bairns and then cleaned up the mess. ‘Santa will
bring you another present,’ the dad said to his wee ones. When the mum
went into the kitchen, she saw all of her sweeties were eaten. ‘I’ll just
make some more,’ she said. Claws heard all this and he started to feel
bad. He hadn’t meant to break the toys. He didn’t know what toys were or
how much children loved playing with them. He didn’t mean to eat all their
food. He snuck out of the closet and climbed out the window. Just then he
heard some music. The family was singing some Christmas carols. Claws
stood and listened. A tear ran down his face. They sounded beautiful,"
Mungo said. The room was silent. "Why don’t we sing a song, just like the
family," he suggested.
"Let’s sing Silent Night,"
said wee Hamish. Mungo and the bairns sang Silent Night and then a few
other carols.
"That was nice. Imagine how
Claws felt when he heard them singing. Later, he walked back to his cave,
curled up in a ball and fell asleep. The next morning, when he woke up, he
was surprised to see a wee Christmas tree in his cave. It was covered with
ornaments just like the ones he’d seen at the house. There were even a few
presents under the tree. Claws got up and opened them. One was a jar of
honey, his favorite. In another wrapped box was a bag of roasted
chestnuts. The last present was a box of toffee. A note was tied to the
tree and it said, ‘Merry Christmas. Love, Santa Claus.’ Claws, the
Christmas monster, was a happy monster."
"That was a good story,"
said Gavin.
"I loved it too," said
Morag. She walked over to Gavin. "Why don’t you open your present now."
"Okay," he said. He ripped
the wrapping off and opened the box. "A car!" he shouted with delight.
"Morag gave me a new car!" He took it out of the box and looked at it
carefully. "How did you know I wanted this one?" he asked. "Thank you,
Morag."
"Santa Claus told me,"
Morag smiled and sat down again.
"Open your presents," the
others said to Mungo.
"I will, but I’ve got
something for all of you too," he said and went into the bedroom. He came
back with an armful of presents. "Here, this is for you, Morag. This is
for you, Gavin. Here’s one for you, wee Hamish. This is yours, wee Fiona.
This is your present from me, Gregor, and to Andy, Merry Christmas," Mungo
said, handing out his gifts.
They spent the next hour
opening presents, singing songs and laughing. Mungo even took the bells
out of his pocket and let them play with them. DING DONG! The doorbell
rang. It was time to go. Their parents were here. "Thanks for the story,"
said Gregor, "and for the present and the sweeties."
The others thanked him too.
"Thank you," he shouted after them. They waved goodbye and left. Mungo let
Ginger out of the bedroom. She ran into the living room and ate the crumbs
and leftover sweets. Mungo looked at the mess of wrapping paper and
ribbons. He gathered them up and tossed them into the fire. "Merry
Christmas, Ginger," he said to the cat. MEOW! The cat curled up next to
him in his chair and they both fell asleep in front of the fire; the
Christmas lights still flickering on the tree. |
