Not Christmas Until...

"Almost Christmas Laney! Are you excited?" She asked as her daughter followed her around the house.
"But, it doesn't feel like Christmas..." The young girl said, looking up at her.
"Doesn't feel like Christmas?" Her mother repeated, confused for a moment before understanding set in. "Oh," she said, her eyes lighting up as she turned to face her little girl, "that's because the Christmas tree isn't up yet."
"And Santa hasn't come." Laney added sadly.
"No, but he never comes till Christmas Eve, and that's another week away. Besides, he doesn't like to see houses with no Christmas tree."
"He doesn't?"
"No. It makes him sad." Her mother said. "He likes to see everyone getting into the spirit of Christmas and making it the happy time it's supposed to be."
"Is that why you say 'Merry Christmas'?" Laney asked.
"Yes. So, what do you say we put the tree up?"
At that, the little girl's face lit up.

Laney set the box of decorations down with a loud thump as her mother began to spread the branches on the tree.
"What do we first?" Laney asked as her mother looked back at her with a smile.
"Tinsel." Her mother said, playing with a piece. "Should we do gold or silver?"
"Gold!" Laney said cheerfully, pulling it from the box.
"Now, we wrap it around the tree." Her mother said, taking the other end of the tinsel and beginning to wrap it.

"It doesn't look quite right yet." Laney said, a small frown on her face and her arms folded as she studied the tree.
"We haven't got the decorations on yet," her mother said simply, her smile unfaltering. "Only the tinsel."
"Hey this bauble's got my name on it!" Laney said excitedly as she rested it in her palm.
"And this one has mine," said her mother, holding it up, "and this one your Dad's."
"I think they should go up there!" Laney said, starting to get excited now. She pointed up to a few branches about two rows down from the top, as she couldn't reach.
"I think they'd look good up there too," her mother agreed, carefully threading them on the branches. "Now, do you want to put some other ones along the bottom?"

"It feels more like Christmas now." Laney said contentedly, smiling as she admired the abundantly decorated tree.
"We're not done yet."
"We're not?"
"Nope. There's one more thing," her mother said, carefully extracting the tree topper from the box. "We've got to put the Christmas star on top. Do you want to do it?" She asked, holding the gold star out to her daughter.
"Yeah!" Laney said, excitedly coming forward and taking the star from her mother.
The little girl's smile only grew brighter as her mother lifted her into the air and she set the star on the top of the tree before being put down again.


"What's that Mummy?" Laney asked curiously as her mother dragged a big bag full of things into the room.
"Presents!" She said excitedly, resting the bag on the floor. "It's not quite right without presents under the tree."
"No." Laney agreed.

"There." Laney's mother said happily. "Now we're done."
"And it feels like Christmas." The little girl smiled happily. Christmas was here.
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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone. I'm off for the holidays but will be back on the 7th next year.