Holly's Jolly Christmas

by Nancy Krulik

  “Oh yeah!” Jeremy cheered. “Where’s Dad?”

  “Right here,” Mr. Fox said, as he came up the stairs from the basement. “I was just getting your first present.”

  “Okay, are we ready?” Mrs. Fox asked the kids.

  Katie and Jeremy nodded. Then Katie watched as Mrs. Fox used the shemash to light the candle on the end of the menorah—the one that was for the first night.

  While she lit the candle, Jeremy said a prayer in Hebrew.

  “I didn’t know you could speak Hebrew,” Katie said to him.

  “I can’t,” Jeremy admitted. “I just know that one prayer.”

  “And you did it beautifully,” Mrs. Fox said. She handed Jeremy a small box. “Happy first night of Hanukkah.”

  “Thanks,” Jeremy said excitedly.

  “Don’t think we forgot you, Katie,” Mrs. Fox said. She handed Katie a box as well.

  “Wow! Thank you,” Katie exclaimed. She hadn’t been expecting a present. “You open yours first,” she told Jeremy.

  Jeremy opened his gift box. He pulled out something that looked like a watch without the band. “How do I wear this watch?” he asked.

  “It’s not a watch,” his dad told him. “It’s a pedometer.”

  “A pedo-what?” Jeremy asked.

  “A pedometer,” Mr. Fox repeated. “You put it in your pocket. It tells you how many steps you walk or run in a day.”

  “How does it do that?” Jeremy asked.

  Mr. Fox shrugged. “I have no idea. I just know it works.”

  Jeremy put the pedometer in his jeans pocket and began to walk around the room. “One, two, three, four, five, six,” he said as he counted his steps. Then he pulled the pedometer out of his pocket. “Wow. It says six steps. This thing really does work.”

  “Wait until you use it a whole day,” Katie told him. “I’ll bet you walk ten thousand steps. Maybe even a million steps on the days you have soccer practice!”

  “Cool!” Jeremy exclaimed. “Now you open your present, Katie.”

  Katie didn’t have to be told twice. She opened the box. Inside was a purple, plastic top with Hebrew letters on it. There was also a package of chocolate coins covered in gold foil. “A dreidel!” Katie exclaimed.

  “And chocolate money,” Jeremy reminded her. “Don’t forget the chocolate.”

  “I could never forget chocolate,” Katie said with a smile. “I love chocolate.”

  “I remembered how much you liked playing the dreidel game last year, so we thought you’d like one of your own,” Mrs. Fox said.

  “I love it!” Katie exclaimed. “Thank you so much.”

  “Can we play dreidel right now?” Jeremy asked his mom.

  “Sure. The potato pancakes have to fry a little longer, anyway,” she answered.

  “Let’s use your dreidel,” Jeremy told Katie. “You can spin first.”

  “Thanks,” Katie said. She sat down on the floor and gave her top a good spin.

  “I love Hanukkah!” Jeremy exclaimed as they watched the top spin around and around.

  “I love this whole season!” Katie agreed.

  Chapter 13

  What Katie didn’t love, however, was working on the play with Suzanne. But that was exactly what she was stuck doing on Sunday afternoon. And listening to Suzanne boss everyone around was really getting old.

  “James, you have to wear your elf hat,” Katie heard Suzanne insisting to one of the actors in the play. “How else will the audience know you’re an elf ?”

  “There’s no audience here, Suzanne. It’s just a rehearsal,” James answered her. “And besides, I’m not even in this scene. I’m going out in the hall to make a phone call.”

  “Oh,” Suzanne said. “Well, you should wear your hat, anyway. That way you’ll stay in character!”

  James shook his head and ignored Suzanne. Katie didn’t blame him. Suzanne might be her best friend, but she was also a real pain in the neck.

  “Make sure that sleigh is strong and won’t break,” Suzanne told Henry, the man who was building Santa’s sleigh. “My little sister is going to be sitting on that during the play.”

  Katie was surprised at that. Suzanne usually didn’t care what happened to Heather. But of course, right now, having a little sister in the play gave her a chance to boss someone around.

  “Don’t worry, kiddo,” Henry said. “Your sister will be safe on this.”

  Katie could tell from the look on her face that Suzanne didn’t like being called “kiddo.” That didn’t sound like something you would call a stage manager. But Suzanne didn’t say anything. After all, Henry was a grown-up.

  “Could you guys paint a little faster?” Suzanne asked, as she walked over to where Katie and the other scenery people were working. “This forest is taking longer to paint than a real one takes to grow.”

  Grrrr. That made Katie really mad. She leaped up, and waved her paintbrush at Suzanne. “If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you try it?”

  Suzanne jumped back. “I can’t believe you did that!” she yelled at Katie. “You got paint on my sweater!”

  “And on your face, too,” one of the other painters pointed out. “And in your hair.” She began to laugh.

  Soon all the scenery painters were laughing. “A little more paint on your face and you could stand in the background and be one of the trees,” one of them said.

  Suzanne’s eyes became angry, little slits. She glared at Katie. “Thanks a lot!”

  “Oh, come on,” Katie said. “What’s the big deal? We have paint all over us. And we’re not complaining.”

  “You’re supposed to be a mess,” Suzanne told her. “You’re scenery people. But I’m in charge!”

  “Suzanne!” Mr. Porter shouted.

  Suzanne took a deep breath, and smoothed out her sweater. “I have to go.” She tried to sound very dignified. “Obviously, Mr. Porter has something very important for me to do.”

  Suzanne walked across the stage. “Yes, Mr. Porter, here I am.”

  “I need you to go make some more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the cast,” he told her.

  Katie choked back a laugh. That didn’t sound very important. At least not to her.

  But Suzanne said, “Yes sir, Mr. Porter. I know how important it is to keep the cast from being hungry.”

  Katie laughed. What a very Suzanne thing to say!

  A few minutes later, as Katie was helping to arrange some of the wooden trees backstage, Suzanne came walking back with a tray full of sandwiches.

  “Come and get it!” she called out to the cast.

  The singers, dancers, and actors all came running over. They were so anxious to eat the sandwiches that they nearly pushed Suzanne over. She had to jump out of the way to keep from getting trampled. As she jumped, she brushed against one of the trees.

  “Suzanne!” Katie shouted. “That one was still wet.”

  Suzanne looked down at her sweater. Sure enough, another streak of green paint was there. “It wasn’t my fault,” she told Katie.

  “It wasn’t mine, either,” Katie said. “You fix it.”

  But before Suzanne could answer, Mr. Porter called out her name. “Suzanne, a few members of the cast are going to run through the scene in Santa’s Workshop. I need you to stand backstage and make sure they get their lines right.”

  “Yes, Mr. Porter,” Suzanne said. She picked up her script and walked over to the side of the stage, just behind the curtain.

  “Okay, cast,” Mr. Newman shouted. “Action.”

  “It’s almost Christmas,” one of the elf actors said loudly from behind a workbench. “We have to finish these toys quickly.”

  “I wonder how Santa knows where all these toys belong,” said another.

  “Santa’s smart,” a third actor said.

  “Well, one thing’s for sure,” said a fourth. “The kids will love these toys. They’re perfect!”

  Then the music began to play. The actors playing the elves started
to dance in a circle. They spun each other by the elbows and kicked their feet in the air.

  From where she was working, Katie could see Suzanne backstage. She was kicking her feet in time to the music. When it came time for the dancers to spin each other, Suzanne spun around.

  Oh no! Katie watched, her eyes opening wide in horror, as Suzanne lost her balance and grabbed for a long rope . . . the rope for the curtain!

  Woosh! The curtain came down, right in the middle of the dance. Bam! Two of the dancers bashed into each other.

  “Ouch!” the dancers cried out.

  “SUZANNE!” Mr. Porter exclaimed.

  “Get that girl out of here!” Mr. Newman shouted.

  Suzanne looked like she was about to cry.

  Suddenly, Katie felt kind of bad for Suzanne. No matter how bossy she had been, she didn’t deserve to be yelled at like that. It wasn’t like she’d dropped the curtain on purpose.

  A little while later, Katie found herself in the Community Center lobby with Suzanne. The girls were waiting for Mrs. Lock to pick them up from rehearsal.

  “Mr. Newman sure was mean,” Katie said, trying to make Suzanne feel better.

  But Suzanne didn’t seem upset at all.

  “Directors can be like that,” she said. “Besides, Mr. Porter and I had a long talk. He gave me a new job. It’s better suited to my talents.”

  Katie wasn’t sure what talents Suzanne was talking about. “What are you going to be doing?”

  “You’ll see on Tuesday night,” Suzanne told her. “It’s a surprise.”

  Chapter 14

  On Tuesday night, Suzanne was the first person Katie and her friends saw when they arrived at the Community Center for the show. She was in the lobby selling candy and soda.

  “This is your big job?” Jeremy asked. “The one you were bragging about all day in school?”

  Suzanne nodded. “I’m in charge of the refreshments. That’s a very important job. These snacks raise a lot of money for the Community Center.”

  “I’ll have two boxes of chocolate-covered raisins,” George said.

  “That will be two dollars,” Suzanne told him.

  George handed Suzanne the money. “Thanks,” he said.

  “How is this job suited to your talents?” Katie asked her.

  “Well, I’m a model, right?” Suzanne reminded Katie.

  Katie didn’t say anything. Suzanne wasn’t really a model. She just took modeling classes. But Suzanne always insisted that was the same thing. So Katie just shrugged.

  “I am a model,” Suzanne insisted. “And models do a lot of advertising, on TV and in magazines. I’m advertising this candy, by telling people what we have. I’m the spokesmodel for all this candy.”

  Katie sighed. It was incredible the way Suzanne could turn anything around to make her look good. “You’re amazing, Suzanne,” she said.

  “Thanks.” Suzanne smiled brightly.

  “How does Heather look in her costume?” Emma W. asked Suzanne.

  “Not as great as I look in this dress,” Suzanne said, spinning around so the kids could see her new red and green dress. “But of course, she doesn’t need to look that nice. She’s only on stage for a minute or two. I’m going to be out here being a spokesmodel before the show and during the intermission.”

  “You do look pretty,” Katie assured Suzanne.

  “I’ll be back at intermission for more candy,” George assured her.

  “Try our peanut brittle,” Suzanne suggested. She flashed George a model-y smile. “It’s delicious.”

  “We’d better get inside if we want good seats,” Jeremy said.

  “Yeah. We’ll see you at intermission, Suzanne,” Katie said.

  “I’ll be here during intermission and all during tomorrow night’s show, too,” Suzanne assured her. “This is the perfect job for me.”

  “That was a really good show,” Katie said later that evening, as she, Emma W., George, and Jeremy drove home with Katie’s grandmother and Nick.

  “It was okay,” George said. “Except for when Heather cried.”

  “They probably shouldn’t have used a real baby in the show,” Emma W. said. “A doll would have been better.”

  “Definitely,” Jeremy said. “And I’m sure tomorrow Suzanne will be telling everyone that.”

  The kids all laughed. They all knew Suzanne loved to say “I told you so.”

  “Your scenery looked beautiful,” Emma told Katie. “I really felt like we were in the North Pole.”

  “Thanks,” Katie said. “That’s exactly how we wanted it to look.”

  “Wouldn’t it be great to be an elf in Santa’s Workshop?” George asked the other kids.

  “Too bad that’s impossible,” Katie said.

  “Is it?” Katie’s grandma asked the kids.

  “Of course it is, Grandma,” Katie said. “We live in Cherrydale. That’s pretty far from the North Pole.”

  “What if I told you that I could take you to Santa’s Workshop?” Nick said.

  The kids laughed again.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Nick said. “Tomorrow is your last school day before vacation. When school lets out, I’ll pick you kids up and take you to Santa’s Workshop.”

  “You can’t really do that,” Katie said.

  “Sure I can,” Nick told her. “Anything is possible at Christmastime.”

  Chapter 15

  “You can’t get to the North Pole in a car,” Matthew Weber told Nick the next afternoon.

  Matthew was Emma W.’s little brother. He had tagged along with Katie and her friends on their North Pole Experience. That was what Nick was calling this exciting after-school trip.

  “Well, how else would we get to the North Pole?” Nick asked Matthew. “We can’t walk there.”

  “You have to fly,” Matthew said. “In a sleigh, pulled by reindeer.”

  “Or at least in a plane,” George added.

  “Ho, ho, ho,” Nick laughed. “I think this old car will get us there just fine.”

  Katie didn’t really think Nick was taking them to the North Pole. But he sounded so sure of himself that Katie didn’t know what to believe.

  “We’re almost there,” Nick said. “So you kids had better bundle up. It’s plenty cold up at the North Pole.”

  Emma W. turned to her little brother. “You’d better put on your hat and gloves, Matty,” she said. “And don’t forget your scarf.”

  “If I put all that on, how will Santa recognize me?” Matthew asked Emma.

  “He’ll just know,” Emma assured him. “Santa’s smart that way.”

  “How many miles have we gone so far?” Katie asked Jeremy.

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  “Don’t you have your pedometer with you?” she wondered.

  Jeremy nodded. “It only works when you walk, not when you drive.”

  “Besides, these are magical miles,” Nick said. “You can’t measure a trip to the North Pole in a regular way.”

  Katie looked over at Matthew. She could tell the first-grader was soaking in everything Nick said. She didn’t want to tell him that Nick was only teasing. So she said, “Everything about Christmas is magical. Don’t you think so, Matthew?”

  Matthew nodded. “Are we gonna meet the reindeer?” he asked Nick. “I want to see Rudolph’s red nose.”

  “I don’t know if we’ll see Rudolph,” Nick told Matthew. “He might be resting up. It’s a big job leading a sleigh on Christmas Eve. But I think we’ll be able to see some other reindeer.”

  “Cool,” Matthew said excitedly.

  “Do you guys know what you call a reindeer wearing earmuffs?” George asked.

  “What?” Jeremy wondered.

  “You can call him anything,” George answered. “He can’t hear you!”

  Everyone laughed. Especially Nick. He let out a hearty, “Ho, ho, ho.”

  A few minutes later, Nick turned off the main road. Suddenly, the kids found themselves driving through a
snowy winter wonderland. Crystal-like icicles hung from the trees. And the smell of pine drifted in through the car windows.

  “We’re here!” Matthew squealed excitedly. “This looks just like the North Pole in my picture book.”

  “You’re right, Matthew,” Nick said. He parked the car and opened the door. “Welcome to the North Pole, kids!”

  As Katie stepped out of the car, she saw a big red and white striped sign. It read: North Pole Winter Fun Park.

  “It’s an amusement p . . .” Katie started. But then she stopped herself when she caught a glimpse of Matthew’s face. His eyes were open wide. He was so excited. He thought they were at the real North Pole. Katie didn’t want to ruin that. “It’s amazing!” she corrected herself quickly.

  A small man with big, brown eyes walked over to greet them. He was wearing a pair of green overalls, a red shirt, and a red and green ski jacket.

  “Welcome to the North Pole, kids,” he greeted them. “I’m Mr. Frost. I’ll be your guide to Santa’s Workshop.”

  “Wow!” Matthew said. “We’re going to the workshop!”

  “Are we going on a sleigh ride, too?” Katie asked Mr. Frost excitedly. Then she blushed. She sounded just like a little kid.

  But Katie’s friends were just as excited as she was.

  “You sure will,” Mr. Frost assured her.

  “I’ve never seen a real reindeer,” Jeremy said.

  “Me neither,” Emma added.

  “I need some hot chocolate,” George said. “It’s cold up here at the North Pole.”

  Mr. Frost smiled. “It sure is. There’s hot chocolate over there in that little cottage. Why don’t you go over and get yourself some?”

  The kids all looked up at Nick.

  “Is it okay?” Katie asked him.

  “Go ahead,” Nick replied. “Mr. Frost and I have to arrange for that reindeer ride you want.”

  “Are we going to fly in a sleigh?” Matthew asked.

  “We won’t be flying,” Mr. Frost told him. “Only Santa can do that. But you’ll be in a sleigh and reindeer will be pulling you.”

  “That sounds fun, too,” Emma W. said.