Once upon a time there was a Christmas bauble that lived upstairs in the attic of a grandma’s old stone cottage. He was a very jolly bauble and spent most of the year in the big box of Christmas decorations with all his friends: the tinsel, the candles, the coloured lights, the other baubles and the toy dog that wagged its tail and sang Happy Christmas.
One year it was different because when all the other decorations were put away in January the jolly bauble was left out. He was overlooked by the Grandma, and it was well into March when she saw him still hanging on a brass nail by the sitting room fireplace. He was gathered up and put in the kitchen which he thought would be a temporary measure but he was still there in April.
When it was time for the grandma to do her Spring cleaning, she saw the Christmas bauble and thought to herself, ‘I really must put this away. Here we are at Easter and it’s still in my kitchen’. So, the grandma gave him a little dust off and took him up the three flights of stairs to the attic. The bauble was so excited; he was going to see his friends again. The grandma put the light on and the bauble looked around and he could see the box with all his friends. Someone had written CHRISTMAS BOX in big capital letters on the lid. The bauble was even more excited after that because he had such tales to tell his friends of his time spent in the kitchen downstairs.
Just as they went into the attic, the grandma heard the doorbell ring so she popped the bauble down on a shelf and rushed downstairs to answer the door afraid she would not get there in time. The bauble looked around, he could see shelves full of ‘stuff’, a few dolls, an old television and lots of shoe boxes. He waited patiently for the grandma to come back. He waited, and he waited but the grandma did not come back for a long time. One sunny day she came back, but did not seem to see him sitting there on the shelf. She opened some boxes, sat on the floor with crossed legs and looked at old photographs, took a few out, put the boxes back then disappeared again. Another time she took a suitcase then returned it two weeks later.
The jolly bauble spent 7 months sitting on his own on the shelf next to some old diaries, a jar of buttons and a pile of baby clothes. After a while he noticed that the days became shorter and the room became colder. Then one evening he looked out of the window and he could see lights. Not normal lights but white lights in the distance. Two days after that he saw lots of coloured lights and he realised from their shape they were on a Christmas tree. Soon he could see lots of Christmas tree lights. The very next morning the grandma arrived, huffing and puffing because she had climbed the stairs too quickly. She knelt on the floor, opened up the Christmas Box, rummaged inside and began taking out his friends. First the tinsel, then the other baubles and the coloured lights. She gathered everything up and put it in a big bag and went out of the door.
‘Oh no,’ thought the jolly bauble who was not feeling very jolly at all at that moment, ‘she’s forgotten me.’ He heard the grandma’s feet on the stairs and was quite upset until he realised she was coming back. ‘Was it to get him? Was he going to meet up with his friends again?’ The grandma arrived, looked around and walked over to his shelf. ‘Come on Santa,’ she said as she slipped him in the bag with all his friends, ‘It wouldn’t be Christmas without you.’
The jolly bauble was so happy he thought he would burst as he chatted with all his friends in the bag while the grandma sorted out the Christmas tree. His friends were so happy to see him thinking he had met with an accident and were relieved he was well. The jolly bauble, who could not remember ever feeling jollier, got ready to take up his place on the brass nail again but the grandma had a different spot for him – just below the Christmas Angel on the top of the tree and he looked so grand there that for every year after that he was always placed in prime position just below the Christmas Angel.
From Lorna's Command Centre 