White Christmas Puppets

White Christmas Puppets

         Julie had worked long and hard on her Christmas project for the ‘group wager’. A wager agreed to by a group of Senior Citizen women? Yep. You see, while sitting in the lounge, the group had heard White Christmas being performed. But it wasn’t Bing Crosby that so many of them remembered from their youth, It wasn’t until the DJ announced the performer after the song was complete that they realized it was Michael Bublé! Hearing it left them all humming the song quietly as they worked on the next quilt for their group, The Quilts Of Valor. Finally Beth looked up and said, “I bet I can make a better White Christmas scene than any of you old biddies.” Now you have to understand that calling each other old biddies was something they all did. Each of them harrumphed over her statement, and the challenge was on. Everyone in the group agreed to a small wager, bragging rights for the one voted the most beautiful by group consensus.

         A date of Christmas Eve was set, and the quilt was gently pushed aside for the next few days. Julie’s inspiration came the next night when she watched the animated special, “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” for probably the 50th time. She realized that she would build a winter scene with figures that would not be moved around the scene. Instead, she would play the Michael Bublé version of White Christmas, which she was surprised to realize she loved.

         The scene would be capped by a cloudy sky from which snow would fall. If she remembered correctly, she could make fake snow from Baking Soda and Water. She’s just have to experiment to get the correct consistency.

         The day of judging finally arrived, with the women placing their creations in the main foyer. Everyone in the center was invited to drop by and admire their work and vote for their favorite.

         As Julie looked around, she saw many wonderful scenes on the tables, and for the first time, she wondered if she might not win this wager. There was Becca’s scene, complete with children sledding down a hill. Or Beth and her small cabin almost covered to the roof with snow, a small sign front proclaiming the cabin to be the home of the infamous ‘Snowman’. And Lisa’s, a frozen pond whose ice apparently wasn’t thick enough, since a hole revealed a man and his dog struggling to get out of the ice cold water. But only Julie’s creation was musical. Plus, with a last minute inspiration, she had embedded small magnets in the heels of each miniature human in her scene, and could move a magnet under them to cause movement. Meticulous painting on each figure had taken her far longer than she wanted to remember, but her reward was one male figure who resembled Michael Bublé. She thought this was great, but looking around at the others, she began to have doubts.

         The day dragged past slowly for the women as their friends in the center did stroll past the scenes. A few comments were made, more than one small exclamation was heard as a person examined one scene or another, which from the sounds of it all, was their favorite. Yet no one commented on Julie’s scene. She felt herself grow a bit despondent as the day progressed, realizing all her work was not being appreciated.

         Finally, five o’clock arrived and the small strips of paper that served as ballots were removed from the box. Everyone was surprised, because all of them had seen numerous hands dropping slips of paper into the box, but only twelve slips were removed! Mary, the head nurse on duty had the honor of counting the votes. Of course it didn’t take long, and once done she looked around at the crowd of contestants and observers alike, and offered one small comment.

         “Fred has the most votes.”

         A hubbub immediately arose from the contestants and observers alike. The comment/question heard most was, “Fred?” Fred was with the housekeeping crew, a man who was a pleasure to be around. But Fred wasn’t part of the wager, nor had he built a winter scene, and many of the women said just that!

         Mary smiled at them all and simply said, “Look outside.”

         As they turned to look, each one gasped. The grounds were covered in snow, the walkways shoveled clean, snow was still falling.

         Mary looked at the contestants and asked, “Which of you voted for the best winter scene?”
Julie smiled a wry smile and said, “I didn’t vote. I had an entry and felt it wouldn’t be right to vote since I knew I’d vote for mine.”

         Many of the other women laughed and said, “Me too!”

         Mary laughed at this and replied, “I saw who was voting and who wasn’t. Your votes came from the staff, and those residents here at Hannibal’s Hall who weren’t involved in your wager. Merry Christmas everyone!”

Jim Dorrell
12/08/22