The Angel & The Tree

This is the story of how the angel got on top of the Christmas tree.

A long time ago, in a place where wishes and dreams go when they leave our lips as breath on a cold winter's day, lived an old man and some of his friends. And these were magical friends, indeed.

There were elves whose clever little fingers and nimble little brains could reverse engineer anything worth outsourcing to countries with cheap labor and no plan of their own. There were reindeer with the ability to bend the space time continuum, allowing the old man access to little boys and girls secret wishes and desires, thus casting them as naughty or nice. The younger reindeer were able to fly through sub-space, teleporting gifts to worthy little crumb munchers while circumnavigating the globe in the blink of an eye. And there was an "angel" named Linda whose talents usually helped the old man relax at night.

The old man, at this point in our story, had been doing his job for many, many years. He liked his job and he was good at it. So naturally things were about to change.

The elves were thinking about unionizing, citing health care costs and long work days as their chief complaints. So they were squeezing the old man with a work slow down. The reindeer were suddenly questioning the efficacy of their surveillance techniques and were talking of forming a committee. One of the younger reindeer had developed a nose bleed during their last practice run. And Linda had been a little cranky, lately.

So, there he was. The old man was weeks behind in his production schedule, his Naughty and Nice List was suspect, he had a young buck out on Workman's Comp and he hadn't been relaxed in days. He was mad enough to pull a Michael Richards.

Suddenly, the front door blows open and Linda comes in pulling a scraggly Christmas tree behind her; the wind and snow scattering the old man's revised production schedules and surveillance reports everywhere. She looks at him sweetly and asks, "Where would you like me to put the tree, Santa?"

And that's how the angel got on top of the Christmas tree!

NEXT UP: How the Bride and Groom got on top of the Wedding Cake.

.