The Christmas Gifts

One Christmas Day, a long time ago, a little boy sighed as, kneeling beneath his Christmas tree, he looked at what his Aunt Agatha had given him as a present.

She was always giving him the most awful, homemade Christmas presents and that year was no exception.

"Yuk!", he said rudely, "A knitted scarf, a knitted pair of gloves and a woolen bobble hat. What child would want those for Christmas?".

"Now, Tom", said his mother angrily, "Your Aunt Agatha is very kind to have knitted you those presents and I think you should be more grateful, infact I want you to go round to your Aunts house and thank her for her presents".

"What?", said Tom, sulkily, "Do I have to?".

"Yes, Tom", said his mother, "You have to understand that its not the gift that matters, its the giving. That's what Christmas is about, love and kindness and goodwill to all people, including your Aunt Agatha".

And so Tom was forced to go out in the cold and snow, wearing the scarf, bobble hat and gloves that his Aunt Agatha had knitted for him so that he could say thank you to her.

As he was walking to his Aunties house, however, suddenly there was enormous snow storm; a thick blizzard of white snowflakes, roaring with the sound of wind, that was so dense that Tom couldn't see anything, not his street or the sky, not even his wooly gloved hand infront of his face.

And then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the snowstorm disappeared and now he could see the pale blue winter sky above him and hear twittering birds and everything seemed calm.

But then, looking around, he realized that everything round about him had changed; he wasn't in his street anymore; he was insome kind of...some kind of forest but it wasn't like any normal forest because the trees were all made of glittering ice and even the apples and pears upon them were made out of ice and sparkled like jewels and there were birds too, perched upon icicle branches, that seemed to be ice carvings.

Tom touched one of the ice birds with his gloved hand, just delicately because he thought his touch might melt it but then, to his surprise, rather than melting, the ice bird started to change, its glistening feathers of ice becoming soft and its plump body warm, then he saw the bird start to hop about and then he heard it twitter.

"Oh, thank goodness", said the bird, "Thank goodness. Something must have freed me from that terrible Snow Ogres spell".

"It was me", said Tom, astonished, "I touched you and you changed from ice into a bird".

"Oh well then you must have magic fingers", said the bird, happy to see Tom.

"No", said Tom, bewildered, "I mean I don't think I do. They don't normally do magical things".

"Well then perhaps you're wearing magic gloves", said the bird.

Tom gasped as he looked at the gloves he was wearing; the gloves his Aunt Agatha had knitted for him.

"That must be it", he said, "They're magic gloves".

"Well maybe you can change back all the other things in the forest too", said the bird, hopping about excitedly, "Could you do that?".

Tom looked round about him at the frozen forest that seemed to stretch on forever in all directions,

"Maybe", he said.

But then he scratched his head,

"What is this place anyway?", he asked, "And why are the trees and birds and things made out of ice".

"This is the ever emerald forest", said the bird, "Or atleast it was before the snow ogre cast a freezing spell over everything, turning it into the ever ice forest instead".

"Why did he do that?", asked Tom.

"Why?", asked the bird, "Why do unicorns have horns? Why do snow fairies fly backwards? Who knows what makes a snow ogre do evil things? All I know is that he did do it and now all my poor friends and family are turned to ice".

Tom felt sorry for the bird.

"Don't worry", said Tom, "My gloves turned you back so I'm sure I can turn your friends and family back aswell".

Just then however, as Tom was speaking, suddenly, the whole forest shook; infact it shook so hard that it made some of the nearby frozen trees crack and crumble.

"What is that", asked Tom, trembling, "An earthquake?".

"Oh no", said the bird, "Much worse than that. Thats what happens when the Snow ogre walks about. He's so gigantic, you see, that his footsteps make the ground shake. He must be nearby".

And then, suddenly, they both heard an enormous booming voice echoing through the forest,

"What is that I smell with my extraordinarilly long ogre nose?", its said, "It smells like a little boy. Mmmm... and it smells delicious".

And then, no sooner had they heard the voice when Tom saw the gigantic ogre, who the voice belonged to, stomping through the forest towards him, easily 3 times the size of the tallest tree in the forest and pushing over trees like matchsticks as he came closer.

"Is that him?", asked Tom, looking at the giant, hairy creature, "He's terrifying?".

"Yes, he is", the little bird agreed, "And he must have smelled you. We better go quickly before he catches us".

Then the bird flew off into the forest and Tom ran after him, trying to follow him, but it was no good because then the Snow Ogre spotted him with the enormous, blazing eye at the centre of its hairy forehead and, reaching out an arm towards him, the arm stretched like elastic till it was twice as long as the longest neck of the tallest giraffe, then it wrapped itself around Toms waist so tightly that he couldn't move and then, fast as a frogs tongue pulls a fly out of the air, the Snow Ogre reeled the arm in and Tom with it.

"Oh no", said the little bird, looking back and seeing the giant ogre putting a screaming Tom into an enormous sack.

"Hee- hee-hee", laughed the Snow Ogre as he heard Tom squirm and wriggle from inside the sack, "Now I shall take you home with me and roast you in my ogre oven. Its been a long time since I had cooked boy".

Then the bird saw the Ogre carry Tom away back to ice cave where he lived.

Poor Tom. He wondered if he would ever see his mum or his home again and then, before he knew what had happened, the Snow Ogre had opened his sack and had tipped it up into a large, deep, icy, pit.

Tom fell with a thump, landing at the bottom of the pit.

"There. You'll keep nice and cool in that pit", said the Ogre, looking down into the pit, "While I go heat up my oven and prepare a nice radish sauce to go with you".

"Oh, what will I do?", said Tom looking around at the pit, "I'll never get out of here, the walls of this pit are so high".

And not only were the walls of the pit too high for Tom to climb, they were far too slippery; covered with thick ice that Tom just couldn't grip on to.

Just then, however, looking up, Tom saw a large hook hanging down from the ceiling of the cave.

"Oh, if only I had something I could attach to that hook I could pull myself out of here", he thought.

But what could Tom use to catch hold of the hook? He didn't have any rope or a chain of any kind.

However, while Tom was thinking about what to do, suddenly he felt a strange sort of warm tingling around his neck, and then, looking down at his knitted scarf he saw a bright glow running through all its woolen threads like electricity through a web of wires then, to Toms amazement, the scarf started to move, uncoiling itself like a long boa constrictor snake from around his neck and then, stretching itself just as the Snow Ogres arm had stretched, it stretched all the way up to the hook on the ceiling, wrapping itself around the hook tightly.

"Wow!", said Tom, unable to believe what he had just seen, "It must be magic just like my gloves".

Then, tugging upon the end of it first to see if it would take his weight, Tom started to climb up the long scarf and out of the Ogres Icy pit before, swinging back and forth upon it, he managed to swing himself safely beyond the pits icy edge.

And the moment that he did that he saw the long scarf begin to unwrap itself from round the hook at one end and wind itself back round his neck with the other.

"Wow!", he said again, smiling and looking down at the scarf as it was tying itself firmly in a knot around his kneck, "Thanks Scarf. I don't know what I would have done without you".

But then, just when it seemed that he was safe again, Tom heard the sound of the giant Snow Ogre from behind him, roaring like an avalanche.

"Here! You", shouted the Ogre, "What are you doing out of your pit!".

Then Tom saw the Ogre pick up a long spiky club and, raising it above its head, come charging towards him.

"I'll teach you to try and escape", said the Ogre.

But then, just as the Ogre seemed about to bring the spiky club smashing down upon Tom's head, suddenly Tom felt that warm tingle again, but this time it was coming from the top of his head and then, looking at his reflection in the icy wall of the Ogres cave, Tom saw the bobble ontop of his woolen hat started to glow a bright red colour, then the glow from the bobble spread out until it formed a protective shield of glowing red energy all about him.

And then, not only did the glowing shield protect Tom's head when the Ogre tried to hit him with his spiky club but it made the Ogres club shatter just like a brittle stick of rock.

The Snow Ogres cavernous mouth gawped with amazement when he saw the glowing shield and his shattered club but still, he wouldn't give up and, instead of hitting the boy with his club, he snatched him up in one of his gigantic clawed hands.

"Never mind cooking you in my oven", he said, licking his lips with an enormous tongue and opening his mouth wide as he raised Tom up to take a bite from him, "I'll eat you raw instead".

Tom screamed as, danging from the Ogres fist, he looked down into the dark pit of its gigantic mouth filled with sharp teeth.

But then, as he was looking down at the Ogre, Tom noticed something large and glittering at the centre of the Ogres Chest.

It was Ogres icy heart, just like a human heart but large as a boulder and heard as a solid lump of ice.

Then Tom remembered what had happened when he had reached out and touched the frozen bird with the glove; how it had come to life.

"Perhaps the same thing will happen with the Ogres heart", he thought.

And so, stretching out his gloved hand, Tom tried to reach the frozen heart but it was no good, his arm just wasn't long enough.

But then, just as the scarf and the glove had earlier, Tom's glove started to glow; bright blue energy flowing through all its woolen threads and bursting out of the ends of the fingers of the glove so that it looked just like a star.

Then the light from the glove stretched out as starlight can across space until, to Toms relief, he saw it touch the Ogres heart and, when it did, suddenly, the ice that encased all of the heart began to melt.

"What? What's happening to me?", said the Ogre looking down at the bright glow that was now coming out of his chest, "I feel all...I feel all...good and kind and loving".

Then, suddenly, Tom felt himself being lowered to the ground by the Ogre and, looking up at him, Tom saw that a warm smile like an upside down rainbow had spread completely across its face and now, rather than looking fierce and scary, the ogre looked almost nice.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, little boy", said the Snow Ogre, patting him ever so gently upon his head with one of its enormous hands, "Why don't you go out and play".

Tom didn't need to be told twice but, seeing that the Ogre had only been evil because of its frozen heart, he thanked the creature before running out its cave.

But then Tom saw something else that was equally remarkable for, as he ran outside, he saw that the forest which had been frozen solid by the Snow Ogres spell had been brought back to life; its trees of glittering ice were now lush and green; forest animals scampered about and forest birds twittered in all the tree branches.

"Oh thank you", said the little bird that Tom had unfroze earlier, perching upon a branch nearby and chirping happily, "You've broken the Snow Ogres spell and saved the Ever Emerald forest".

Tom felt proud as he looked around at the land he had helped restore to life.

But, just then, Tom heard another noise; a strange sort of clicking-clacking noise, like the sound of knitting needles.

"Did you like the gifts I knitted for you?", he heard his Aunt Agatha ask.

He turned around and saw her sitting in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth and then he realized that he was no longer standing in the centre of a green forest but in the middle of Aunt Agatha's living room.

"They were amazing...incredible...magical", said Tom, excitedly.

"I should think so", said his Aunt, "Considering they're made from the finest Sheepicorn wool".

"Sheepicorn?", asked Tom, befuddled.

"Unicorn sheep", said his Aunt, "Their wool is charged with magic the way a thundercloud crackles with energy. Its all the four leaf clovers that they feed upon".

"I never realised that you were magical", said Tom, stunned and awestruck by the old lady, "Are you a witch?".

"I'm a Watt", said his Aunty, "Much more powerful than a Witch and only slightly less powerful than a Hoo. I hope you have learned young man, that you should never judge anything by its outward appearance; a knitted pair of gloves can be magical; a Snow Ogre can have a beating heart beneath the ice and an old lady can be someone very interesting and exciting".

"I have", said Tom, feeling slightly ashamed of how he had talked about his Aunts Christmas present, "But I've change. Its like my eyes are wide open now".

"Well, hopefully we can open them alot wider. I've so many things to show you but first, I think you should be getting home", said his Aunt, "You don't want to miss the most magical thing of all".

"Most magical thing", asked Tom, "What's that?".

"A childs Christmas with his family", said his Aunt, smiling.

And so Tom went back home and spent Christmas with his family and when he did he realised his Aunty was right; there was nothing more magical than that in all the world.