There were once four friends named Horse, Tiger, Camel, and Elephant. Although they looked like the animals whose names they bore, in reality, they were made of wood. They were brightly painted Christmas tree ornaments. Even now, though their paint had faded and even worn down to the wood in places, they were favorites of the man who hung them up every year in a place of honor.
For most of the year, they lay quietly dreaming in the confines of a brightly painted can, the kind that once held a delicious fruit cake. From overhearing conversations from people during the holidays, they knew that many people didn’t like fruitcakes which they found hard to understand because one of the joys of their eleven-month vacation was the lingering smell of the raisins, nuts, candied fruit, and spices once contained in their current home.
The four amigos did so much enjoy their long rest each year—napping, quietly playing games, and telling stories. And not just amongst themselves, but with all of the other ornaments in the tin. They all had a wonderful time all year and when the holiday season come on, they shook and glowed with excitement. Just as boys and girls enjoy their summer vacations but can’t wait to see their friends when the school year begins again.
During the spring, summer, and fall there were times that they heard voices nearby, even a few times when their can was picked up, jostled but immediately sat down. Camel thought that someone was just teasing them, Tiger growled assuming that a burglar had come and was going to steal them or hold them for ransom. Horse, who was always up for an adventure, said that perhaps they were going to a new home, after all, they had moved several times before—several holiday seasons at one place, then others at a different home. He explained to the others how very exciting changes can be. However, Elephant, being very wise though no older than the other three wooden animals, gave the opinion that sometimes they were just moved momentarily. Perhaps the humans that removed them from their tin every year, might have picked up their container to retrieve one beneath it or were simply reorganizing the decorations.
“How can you know that?” asked Camel. “You can’t see any better in the dark than we can.”
Elephant, being diplomatic and kind, answered, “I may be wrong, but every year when we are brought out into the light and hung on the tree, I see our can on the coffee table, and often it’s on top of another can or a box.”
His friends, nodded their heads, acknowledging that he solved the mystery, though Camel looked skeptical even now. “Besides,” added Tiger, “usually when we visit the tree, it’s colder.”
“And it seems like it hasn’t been the right amount of time yet,” added Horse. He relaxed, relieved that there were no burglars or kidnappers as Tiger suggested. He leaned against a candy cane and closed his eyes—something they were only allowed to do in the dark of the fruit cake tin. Only a short time passed before they heard footsteps and were lifted to the place where they always stayed during the year.
The days passed, along with months and seasons. On a particularly cool day, they hear the rhythmic trudging of feet as someone came to fetch them. After their container was lifted from its place, they felt another placed on top of it, and then another. They heard the human carrying them singing what they had been told were “Christmas songs.” As the clomp, clomp, clomp of boots rang on wooden steps, they felt they were rising.
“I hope we are in a new place,” Horse said, shaking his mane and prancing.
“I don’t think so,” said Elephant. “When that happens, there is lots of jostling and stacking, and moving and many new voices.”
“That’s right,” chimed Camel and Tiger together.
“We’ll see,” said Horse, yet he kept hoping even though their argument made sense.
Reaching the proper altitude, the stepping became quiet as the human walked on carpet. Crossing the room, they were laid down with the other ornament boxes on a table. Stretching, wriggling, smiling, all the inhabitants of the shiny tin smiled excitedly and struck the poses that they learned many years before.
The can was lifted up, the lid was removed, and the light of day once again brightened their world. Ancient hands, soft and warm, reached down and threaded slender wire hangers through the eyelets on their backs. Then they were lifted—up, up, up—to some of the higher branches of the tree from which they could see the whole room. Tiger enjoyed seeing the fire in the fireplace, yellow like himself, giving off a comforting glow. Elephant just smiled wisely, happy that he was near to his old friends, and in a place of honor from which they could see the whole room.
The white-haired man lifted a clear slab of acrylic that had a deeply engraved Nativity screen cut into the back to allow the tiny colored neon lights to reflect radiantly on the front. He stared at it for several moments in his hands, then murmured softly, “Merry Christmas, Talia.”
“Who’s Talia, again?” asked Tiger.
Elephant was going to answer but he noticed how excited Horse became. “Horse can remind you. I believe it’s his favorite story.”
Horse beamed. “This is the story of our first Christmas together.” He glanced at his three companions, and then at Lane, the man still hanging decorations, and smiled. “It is also Lane’s story.
“Many, many, many Christmases ago and several different houses and lots of Christmas trees, we lived in an adobe house on a country road dotted with juniper and pinon trees. Although many houses were large, ours was small and closer to the road. Each morning the inside shutters were thrown wide open so the sun could brighten the whole room. We could watch the cars pass each other on the road, see birds, and people move across our view.
“One day two young people walked up the dirt path to the house.”
“I know. I know, they were Lane and Talia!” Tiger blurted.
“That’s right,” Horse said, smiling that Tiger remembered. “They were Lane and Talia. That was when they were first married and were living in a college dorm together. They had no car, which was lucky for us because most cars raced past our house never stopping to see us. Well, they walked up to the door and stood under the portal for a moment, looking unsure whether to knock or not. The lady of the house let them in after they stomped the snow off their boots. Stepping just inside the door, the youthful couple studied the many treasures that hung from the walls, from free-standing holders, and standing on tables throughout the room.
“Something drove both sets of eyes to the table on which we stood before the window. Ignoring the tiny dolls, the Santa figures, and a variety of angels in lofty poses. They walked up to us, and the woman picked me up first! I was so excited, I shined my brightest colors! They then picked up Elephant, Camel, and Tiger, and passed them back and forth to each other, saying how pretty we were. How nice we’d look on their first tree.
“So they gathered us up with some little prisms that were once droplets of glass from a broken chandelier. The shop owner put us in a paper bag after wrapping the glass in pieces of tissue. We couldn’t see out of the bag but enjoyed the jostling walk along the road until we arrived at our new home.”
“I remember now,” said Tiger, eyes shining with excitement. “There was a small juniper tree standing up in a shallow dish in a corner, clothed only by a short necklace of colored lights. The room was warm and furnished with two desks and a couple of twin beds pushed together. The two young people hung us on their first Christmas tree, then embraced and kissed. Then they hung the little glass prisms.”
Elephant eyed his friends, then spoke. “That was many Christmases ago. To my reckoning, we’ve lived in nine different apartments and houses since then: each with their own smells, sounds, and window framed landscapes.”
Camel gazed happily first at Lane and then at each of his friends. “But the best part is that Lane always keeps us together, and every year we are the first to decorate the new Christmas tree.”
Copyright 2022 by Richard Lane Church. All rights reserved.