The True Spirit of Christmas

Word count: 797

The True Spirit of Christmas

Donna looks at her collection of holiday spirit jars lining the walls of her shop. Wondering what she could add to her collection, a customer rang the bell by walking through the front door of her shop. Donna turns around facing the customer and says, "Welcome to Donna's Spells and More Shop. How may I help you today?"

"I am not sure exactly. The name of your shop drew me in and I am here to see what you have here."

With a radiant glow in her face Donna says, "My name is Donna. This is my place. I have spells which people come to get the recipes and ingredients and I have recently started the holiday spirit jars."

"My name is Susie. The spirit jars sound interesting. How do they work?"

"I have put the spirit of the holidays in jars so you can experience the spirit of the holidays anytime of the year. I have Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas..."

"Did you say Christmas?"

"Yes I did dearie. Do you like that one?"

With a big smile on her face, Susie says, "I have always wanted to celebrate Christmas in July. How does the Christmas jar work?"

With a serious look, Donna looks at Susie and says, "These are powerful spells I put in these jars. They are not meant to be taken lightly either. Once the spirit of Christmas is released you will have seven days of Christmas celebration. You will not be able to undue any of this spell until it wears off. Make sure you really want to do this before you release the Christmas spirit."

Susie looks at Donna with excitement, "This sounds wonderful. I will take it."

Susie is in her room with this jar sitting on her dresser just looking at it. Taking a deep breathe she says to herself, "Ok. Going to do this."

She walks over to the clear jar and pulls the cork off and puts the open jar on the dresser and steps back to see what would happen. Looking around nothing changed. Thinking that maybe the jar was broken Susie decided to crawl into bed for the night.

Bolting up out of bed. Susie sat up and turned the lamp on by her bed. As the light flooded the room with light she saw an intriguing blond boy sitting on the edge of her bed. He was shimmering in light. With a confused look on her face, Susie asks, "Who are you?"

"I am Holly the Christmas elf and you have summoned me. Thank you for releasing me from that cramped bottle, it is good to stretch my legs. You have three wishes. Under one condition, your wishes must contain a Christmas theme."

"I did not summon you. Donna at the shop told me that the jar contained Christmas spirit."

"Yes I am Christmas spirit. Almost forgot you have seven days to come up with your wishes and after that I go back into my itty bitty living space. So, what is your heart's desire?"

"Give me a minute. I am not even sure. Can you make it snow? I wish for snow in July."

The sparkling boy closes his eyes and nods and says, "Done."

Susie gets out of bed and rushes to the window, draws back the curtains and says, "Where is the snow?"

"Do not worry. It takes a bit of time sometimes to settle and make the changes. It will come."

Disappointed Susie walked back to bed and then heard the howl of what sounded like wind. She got up and drew the curtains back again and was shocked. The snow was coming down so hard you could not see anything except the fluffy white stuff. Turning from the window Susie called, "Holly! Where are you?"

"I am here. Are you ready for your second wish?"

"No. There is too much snow outside. I didn't want a storm."

"When you defy the laws of nature it is unpredictable what you will get. You wanted snow and there is snow."

"I am really not looking forward to anymore wishes after this. Except this one you may like. Holly I wish to free you from your prison. To be a free elf."

Holly was so shocked at the request. He turned to Susie and said, "You are the first person to ever use their wish for me. This is the true spirit of Christmas. When someone finds it I am to be free to be anything I choose. Thank you Susie. I have always wanted to be a Blackjack dealer in Vegas. This is great! Vegas, here I come."

That was the last time Susie saw Holly the elf. She will never forget the true meaning of Christmas.