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Oddball Ornaments: The Story of Christmas

By Terry Overton

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PROLOGUE
In the human world, Christmas is a wonderful time of year—a time of decorating, eating, shopping, giving and getting gifts, and hosting celebrations and parties. But in some of the most tucked away places, sometimes in dark closets or attics with cobwebs, Christmas decorations are stored throughout the year. It is the very Christmas decorations themselves that have a world all their own. They patiently wait, packed in their boxes, until they are finally set free and hung upon a Christmas tree. Humans can’t hear the conversations that happen between the ornaments, but the ornaments listen to every word spoken by the humans who hang the decorations each year.

This year, the ornaments observe a Christmas season like no other before. In the land of the humans, there are unexpected surprises and new celebrations. This is the enchanted Christmas the ornaments will always remember.


CHAPTER ONE

ODDBALLS

“Stop! Wait a minute!” shouted Nutcracker. “What’s happening?”

The wobbling and rattling signaled that the walls of their box were being pushed. It seemed the box was being moved toward the other side of the shelf. This was a highly unusual thing to occur in the attic. Nothing had ever been relocated. Each box was labeled and put on the same shelf. In the attic, things were stored until the next year. The boxes sat through the scorching summer heat until it cooled off again and, when it got very cold, it was time to come back out of the attic.

“Whoa!” Red Ball replied. “What? What in the world?” Red Ball couldn’t help but accidentally roll when the box
moved. He was glad the tissue paper that surrounded him kept him from bumping into his friends.

“I don’t understand. I didn’t even smell a hint of turkey cooking,” Ballerina whispered. “This isn’t right. Something is going on.” Ballerina looked like her usual calm self, but inside, she was shaking with fear from the sudden jolt.

“No, no,” Train replied. “It’s too early. There has been no turkey cooking. Not even the faintest smell of turkey.” Train was puzzled and let out a low tootle from his steam whistle before continuing, “It has been cold only a couple of weeks. No one should be moving our box yet. There has been no turkey, no cookies baking, nothing. It’s not time.”

Train let out another low tootle as he looked to his friends for an answer.

“ How do you explain it, Red? ” Nutcracker asked.

“Well, I can’t. There’s no reason; do you hear me? No reason whatsoever for our box to be moving at this moment. And now, I think I’ve hurt myself rolling around. And for what? There has been no turkey yet. We always smell the turkey cooking—and the cookies and pies. The humans take us out after we smell the turkey!”

Red Ball looked down at his sparkles. “Now look! All this rolling around knocked some of my sparkles off!”


“ Sorr y about that, Red Ba l l ,” Nutcracker replied. “No matter what is happening, I’ll protect us.” As if he was preparing for battle, Nutcracker lifted up his shoulders, straightened his tall hat, puffed out his chest, and checked his shiny sword.

“You are a toy soldier—TOY, emphasis on toy!” Red Ball said.

“Red Ball, I wouldn’t be making fun of anyone if I were you,” Nutcracker snarled.

“And just what is that supposed to mean?”

“You are so fragile, they have to wrap you up in tissue paper every year when they put you away! You need to be protected even inside of a box!”

“Oh, you!”

“That’s not very nice, Nutcracker,” Ballerina said. She gracefully placed her arm around Red Ball.

“And why are you in here anyway, Red? This is the box of Oddball Ornaments. You know, one of a kind,” Nutcracker reminded him.

“I prefer to think of us as unique, unmatched, or special ornaments, unlike any other,” Red Ball replied proudly, rolling a bit from side to side.

Train turned his wheels and went over to get in the conversation. He couldn’t stand this bickering.

Ballerina hastily retired to the corner of the box to practice her dancing. Ballerina never participated in arguments of any kind.

“Okay,” Train said, “Nutcracker does actually have a point here. There are lots of other balls in the other boxes. There are sets of them. Dozens of balls. Why are you in here?”

“Well . . . the other balls are all different colors.”

“Yeah, including red,” Train interjected.

“But the other reds don’t have silver snowflakes on them—snowflakes made of sparkles,” Red Ball reminded them. “And besides that, all the other red balls with snowflakes have been broken. I am a survivor! I have outlasted all the others, and that makes me really special!”

For a moment, Nutcracker and Train were quiet. They had no comeback. Red Ball was the only red one with snowflakes on him. He was different. And he had survived. It was true. All the others in the set were broken long ago when the tiny human started grabbing the decorations hanging at the bottom.

“Okay, let’s return to the problem at hand,” Nutcracker said. “Why was our box moved?”

“No clue,” said Train as he let out another low tootle.

Ballerina finished her plié and gracefully stepped toward Train. “You could investigate,” she said to him.

Train was puzzled. “How? What do you mean? What can I do?”

“Roll over to the other side of the box and look out through the rip in the side of the box. See what you can find out,” she said.

Train nodded and rolled across the box. He peered through the crack and said, “Ah ha!”

“What?” Nutcracker asked.

“What do you see?” asked Ballerina.

“Tell us!” Red Ball huffed.

“This is strange. The humans are in the attic, and they are not taking boxes out of the attic; they are putting other boxes in the attic and right on our shelf,” Train said.

“What? Why? Are we being replaced?” Red Ball asked.

“I’m not sure. The other boxes have ‘Christmas Decorations’ written on them just like our box,” Train said. “The only difference is that our box says ‘Oddballs’ on it.”

“Oh, no!” Red Ball said. “We are being replaced! I was afraid this day would come! We are being left for better ornaments. After all, we are Oddball Ornaments. Besides that, we are old, you know.” Red Ball nervously rolled a bit.

Nutcracker thought for a moment. “No, no, we’re not old. There are some ornaments in another box that the Mom had when she was a little girl. Or at least, that is what she told the tiny human. Now those ornaments, they’re old ornaments!”

“Old is a good thing, anyway. Old means you are experienced and have wisdom,” Ballerina said. “Let’s not rush into anything. You’re all worried, and you don’t even know if you should be worried. Relax. Things work out. They always do.” A smile spread across her face as she stood on her tiptoes in her shiny ballet slippers and twirled to the other side of the box.

For a few moments, the ornaments were silent. Nutcracker, Train, and Red Ball were worried. Ballerina was her usual graceful, happy self. She looked on the positive side of things. That is just how she had always been.

The Oddballs heard other boxes being moved around, and then, the light was turned off. The humans had gone back downstairs.

“Now what?” asked Train.

“I guess we wait until we smell the turkey. Then we will find out if we are replaced,” said Nutcracker.

“I just hope they don’t throw us away. We still look good, after all,” Red Ball said. “I mean, I have almost all of my sparkles.”

“Yes, you do,” said Ballerina. “I am sure we will be fine. Soon, when we smell the turkey, we’ll find out. It won’t be long. It’s already getting cold up here. It must be close to the time they cook the turkey.”

Nutcracker, Train, Red Ball, and Ballerina sat in the quiet, cold darkness and waited to smell turkey or cookies or some sign that they would be taken out of their box.

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