Harry’s 12 Days of Christmas
December 2010
By Teekabell
Chapter 1
Harry rolled his eyes at his mother when she told him to be a good boy at school today, or Santa wouldn’t bring him presents. At twelve, he knew his parents got the presents. He liked getting presents at Christmas, but felt his mom got carried away a bit at Christmas pretending about the existence of Santa. She would massively decorate the house inside and out. But on the twelfth day she would start making a big deal out of everything. On the Twelfth day, Harry’s mom would get out the countdown calendar, play The Twelve Days of Christmas, and start putting presents under the tree. Over the days leading up to Christmas, she would make Christmas treats, finish the decorating, and take Harry to go see Santa. Presents would start to collect under the tree.
On the way out the door to get on the school bus, he was reminded to take the first piece of chocolate out of the countdown calendar and put it in his lunch for dessert. He was tempted to tell his mom he didn’t want to do the calendar this year, but his mom had always said that if you stopped believing in Santa, he would stop getting presents from Santa. Although he knew he would still get presents from people, the best presents were always labeled as coming from Santa. He took a chocolate kiss out of day 12, and headed out to the school bus for another annoying day of seventh grade.
When Harry got home from school, the house was in full Christmas mode. It looked like Mom had put up more Christmas stuff this year than last. Everything was decorated throughout the house, except for the tree. That was always a family affair. Under the tree was one present. It was a small rectangular shaped box wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper obviously for a baby. Harry didn’t know any babies, so the gift was a puzzle. To add to the mystery, there was no name on the present. He asked his mom who it was for, but she only said it was for a special little kid. Leaving Mom to putting Christmas candles around the house, he went up to his room to play before he was made to do his homework.
After Dinner, Dad got the boxes of ornaments and the three of them went about decorating the tree. No matter how silly Harry thought Mom was about Christmas, he still loved decorating the tree. The Christmas music was playing and the three of them would remember old times with different ornaments.
“When are we buying this year’s ornament Mom?”
“I thought we might do it Wednesday after school with 10 days till Christmas, and our trip to see Santa will be Saturday so Dad can be there too.”
“Oh Mom, I am not a little 7 year old. I don’t need to go see Santa. I will look silly sitting on his lap at my age.”
“Well, Harry, let’s wait till Saturday before you make up your mind.”
Mom quickly changed the topic to when Dad would finish setting up the lights outside the house. Dad grumbled about doing it so close to Christmas and he would only have to take them down again so soon, but Mom won and he would start work on them tomorrow when he got home from work. Dad always put up the lights trimming the house the weekend after Thanksgiving, but stuff like a lighted Snowman and animated characters always waited till somewhere in the 12 days of Christmas countdown. Dad grumbled every year wanting to put them up that weekend after Thanksgiving, but Mom always won.
The next morning after Breakfast Harry took a chocolate snowman out of Day 11 of the countdown calendar and put it with his lunch in his backpack. On the way out the door to another day of 6th grade, he smiled at the tree in the living room and looked curiously down at the one present under it, the baby gift. Hearing the bus, he quickly ran out the door and down the street. Harry didn’t want to miss the bus, he had heard that the Principal at the Middle School always wore silly outfits the last 4 days before Christmas Break, he really wanted to see what she was going to be wearing, or if the older kids were just playing jokes on the 6th graders.
Harry reached the bus just as it was starting to close the doors. He sat down and looked out the window, watching the Elementary aged kids starting to collect for their bus which came about five minutes after the Middle School bus. Smiling down at the little kids as the bus pulled away, Harry heard discussions of Santa, presents, and the Elementary Christmas Program.
When Harry got home that afternoon, he immediately went to find Mom to tell her all about the Principal. He was dressed as an elf all day, and ate lunch in the cafeteria with the Grade Level reps for each grade. Mom sat him down for Christmas cookies, while he continued to tell her with abundant glee all about his day. Once the cookies were gone, Harry headed up to his room to play before having to do his homework. On the way, he stopped by the tree and saw that there were now two gifts under the tree; the baby gift and one wrapped in snowman wrapping paper. That new gift, had his name on it. As he was reaching out to pick it up, Mom stopped him and told him to leave the gift alone. Reluctantly, he left the tree and headed toward his room. Before leaving the living room however, he turned around and looked at the two gifts one more time. Although he started by looking at his gift, his focus wondered over to the baby gift. He so wanted to know what was inside and who it was for.
After doing his homework, Harry got to go help Dad set up the outside light sets. This was his second year of being able to help Dad with the outside lights. Dad had always said that only people with double digit ages can help set up outside lights. They started with a snowman, then put some lighted gift boxes, and lined the driveway with candy canes. Dad cringed at what was next, but it was Harry’s favorite and the one that caused Mom to win the argument every year for waiting till this time each year to set it up – Santa Clause in his sleigh with reindeer pulling it. It took a while, but eventually Santa was in the front yard, with his sleigh taking off.
Harry got to go out and look at all the lights lit up on the house before being sent up to bed. Coming back in, he had a huge smile on his face.
“We did that Daddy,” Harry said giving dad a big hug and then running to his room.