The Snow Prince (Short Christmas Fairytale)

Once upon a time, beneath a tall tree in the middle of a snowy field stood a snowman with coal lump eyes and a carrot nose but unlike an ordinary snowman it wore the regal costume and cloak of a prince with a golden crown upon its head.

That is because the snowman had once been a real prince; a very important and wealthy prince but, riding on his horse through the forest one cold Christmas day he had chanced to pass by a poor old woman struggling to cut and gather fire wood and when she had begged him to help her he had refused, turning up his nose and saying,

“I am a Prince. Princes do not chop wood or help old beggars”.

Unfortunately for the Prince, however, the old woman turned out to be a very powerful witch and pointing a finger at him she cursed the Prince saying,

“You must have a heart as cold as ice and the only man that should have such a heart is a snowman, so I curse you; a Snowman shall you be until the day a poor young maiden sets you free with a kiss”.

And the moment that these magic words were spoken, the Princes flesh turned into snow and ice, his nose into a carrot and his blue eyes into black lumps of coal and, like that, he remained, frozen, for many years.

And, as those years passed, the Princes cold heart slowly melted, his ego and his arrogance fading and instead he only wished to be human again.

“Oh, please. If only I could be human again”, he would think, looking up at the twinkling stars in the sky each Christmas Eve, a tear spilling down over his unmelting cheek of snow, “Then I would be a kinder and wiser prince, I promise and help anyone, however poor or humble they may be, who needed my help”.

But then, one Christmas, a young peasant girl was passing by and happened to see the snowman and, looking up, she noticed a sprig of green mistletoe was hanging on the branch above its head and, because it is the custom at Christmas to kiss under the mistletoe; curtseying respectfully, she kissed the snowman.

“Oh I wish you were a real prince and not a Prince made of Snow”, she said, kissing it upon the lips, “Then you could marry me and take me away with you to your palace and we would live happily ever after”

But then, no sooner had she said this, when the snowman started to change; snow turning to flesh, coal lumps to eyes of blue and carrot to nose until, to the amazement of the girl, it had become a handsome prince once again.

Then, getting down upon one knee, he asked the poor maiden to marry him and they returned to his palace and after that day he was a kinder and wiser prince who did all that he could to help the poor and powerless and just as the young girl had wished, they lived happily ever after.