Christmas Special, A Short Novel By Arabella
Bella woke up with a jolt and heard someone yell from the next room, “Christmas is almost here!”
Bella looked at the calendar. November 24 - one month until Christmas Eve. The first Christmas for her ants. Considering all the millions of ants she needed to fix Christmas presents for, it was high time to start.
In the afternoon, all the team leaders and Bella gathered in the conference room for a planning meeting.
“This will be our first Christmas together. We have to make it great so that we remember it forever. Any suggestions?” Bella said started the meeting
- We must have a Christmas tree with decorations and Christmas lights.
- And a Christmas party. In the movies, they say Christmas parties are the best way to fall in love.
- And gingerbread baking competition - they always have competition in the movies. And the best cookies get put on a plate for Santa.
Bella tried to think of what Christmas-themed movies her ants got to see because, apparently, the film were the most significant source of their knowledge about Christmas. - "And we have to have lots of food and dance around the Christmas tree.
- And we have to have a squirrel in the tree. It will sing Christmas carols with us, and then we will hunt it with a dog.
And now Bella had a strong suspicion about what movie her ants were watching.
- Okay, okay. We can do anything you want.
- But the most important thing of all is the wish list.
- Wish list?
- We must all write a letter to Santa with our wishes.
- Has everyone been kind enough to get their wishes granted? - Bella asked, looking meaningfully at one of the leaders who had burned down three trees in the forest while trying to prove that wood is not flammable.
- We are the nicest we can be - with wide-open eyes, her ants answered innocently.
Well, Bella couldn’t deny it. Her ants made mischief sometimes, but they were never mean or evil.
The Christmas tree was picked up first. A group of ants wandered out to the forest with axes and flashlights. They brought food and sleeping bags and were told not to return until they found the perfect Christmas tree.
After three days, they were back, tired, hungry, dirty and smelly, but with a perfect Christmas tree that everyone just stood and admired it. Apparently, they did not want to use axes, and they wanted to dig it out “like the man in the Christmas movie”. Decorations were made by preschool ants and consisted of balls in different colours and small bags filled with candy. The Christmas tree’s decorations and lighting gave the perfect Christmas feeling throughout the anthill.
Bella spent all her free time knitting little sweaters for all 5 million ants. Every one of her soldiers will receive a sweater and a bag of Christmas goodies. And as her hands began to ache, she wondered if some of her soldiers could be sent out to fight other anthills and thus reduce the number of Christmas sweaters she needed to make.
In the evenings, she sat on her rocking chair and watched all the activities outside. Small groups practiced dancing around the tree; preschool ants drew pictures to be used as Christmas cards. The choir practiced Christmas carols, and the most loved carol was this one:
Dashing through the grass
Jumping on a bail of hay
O’er the gecko carcass
Laughing all the way
Bells on tiny ants ring
Making Bella happy
What fun it is to play and sing
With ants that are getting wacky
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to fight
Killing geckos, bugs and prey, hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to fight
Killing geckos, bugs and prey!
Time moved forward, millions of Christmas sweaters were wrapped in glittery Christmas paper, small candy bags with red bows were ready, and Bella felt ready for Christmas. And then she realized that they didn’t have a Santa Claus. Her ants believed in Santa, so she couldn’t pretend to be one. And they needed someone who could play Santa well, with voice and laughter. What would she do?
Suddenly she had an idea. In the anthill, next to hers, was a leader who could be Santa. nc was a monk, so he was used to different clothes, was bald so the Santa Claus wig would work, and already had a long beard. He would be perfect!!! Quickly Bella wrote a letter to nc with the question. She could knit a Christmas sweater for nc as thanks for the help.
Christmas Eve was approaching. nc would come at midnight dressed as Santa Claus, with eight ants dressed as reindeer. All the millions of Christmas sweaters fit into a giant Santa sack hidden deep in the forest. Several long tables stood on the lawn with plenty of food and drink. The festive atmosphere was enhanced by the choir and the laughter of all the happy children. When the clock struck twelve, everyone got silent. They started looking up at the sky to see if Santa was coming. But then the sound of bells was suddenly heard from the forest.
- Ho ho ho!!! Are there any kind ants here?
Everyone’s eyes turned towards the forest, and there you could see a very strange sight.
The first thing you could see were eight little ants dressed as reindeer, one of them with a red nose, linked together by a string. Behind the ants was a man with a red jacket and red pants. He had a beard with small flashing lights in it, and on the man’s head sat a clown wig in all the colours of the rainbow. Bella watched in horror - she must have packed the wrong wig for nc. What would her ants think now?
- Wow! - she heard one of the ants say - our Santa is so awesome!
- Yeah! And he shines!
OK, Bella thought with relief. It seems the ants were accepting nc as a real Santa Clause, despite the weird hair. The rest of the night was filled with laughter, dancing and singing. All the ants, dressed in their new Christmas sweaters, experienced their first Christmas with joy and happiness.
