The Original Christmas Tree

 

The first Christmas tree

In those days, when the people lived in caves, Jesus hadn’t been born and people hadn’t discovered Christmas, so the winter was long and cold and bleak. When the wind blew it howled in the mouth of the cave. The howling sounded just like a wolf and made Ho and her brother, He, frightened. They asked their father if he could stop it and he thought hard and put a big rock in front of the cave. It stopped the wind but the smoke from their fire grew thick and their mother told their father to roll the stone away. ‘Instead of a stone, put a tree or something at the front of the cave. It will stop the wind howling but let the smoke out,’ she told him.

Their father went to look for a bit of a tree but any that were big enough were very heavy. Then he saw a fir tree and looked at it carefully. It was still green and had lot of little leaves that looked like the fine bones they made needles from. What a good door it would make for the cave, he thought. The needles will make shelter the door from the wind but still let the smoke out. He was smiling as he cut the tree and carried it home. Ho and He came to watch as he dug a hole and put the trunk of the little tree into it. He put the earth back in the hole but it was loose and the tree wobbled, so he got them to jump on the loose earth to pack it down and keep the tree standing up straight.

It worked very well and when the snow came it lay on the branches of the tree and looked nice but the smoke from the fire melted the snow and made it drip, making Ho and He sad.

During the night a frost came and froze the drips into icicles and when Ho and He got up in the morning, the sun was shining and making the icicles sparkle It looked so pretty they decided to ask their father if they could have a tree every year.

Ho, Ho, Ho, He, He, He, their father laughed, and that’s how Christmas trees and Santa’s, Ho, Ho ,Ho and He, He, He, were first made.

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