Christmas Camp

by Karen Schaler

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to everyone who holds

  Christmas in their heart,

  and everyone who needs to let Christmas into their heart.

  Find a pinecone. Make a wish. Believe.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Acknowledgments

  P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*

  About the Author

  About the Book

  Read On

  Also by Karen Schaler

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Chapter 1

  Haley Hanson was having a staring contest—with a bunch of dolls. And they were winning. Lined up on her desk, the adorable dolls were dressed in beautiful, classic red velvet and emerald-green Christmas dresses. Each dress was meticulously trimmed with delicate white lace and had tiny pearl-like buttons up the front. But it was their perfectly painted smiles that made Haley’s frown deepen. They weren’t fooling her for a minute. She knew they might look innocent enough, but the truth was that these Christmas dolls were about to decide her entire future. They were everything.

  “So, here’s what we need to do,” she said to the dolls as she leaned in closer to them. “We need to work together if I’m going to get this promotion, understand?” Haley gave them a stern look, waited a beat, and then laughed. People always said she had an active imagination. It was a useful trait to have in her advertising job as a brand strategist. But not even her imagination could make those dolls talk back.

  She decided to let the dolls win this round. But she wasn’t giving up. She had too much to lose. To remind herself exactly what was at stake, she walked over to the biggest piece of furniture in her office, a chic glass bookcase filled with all the awards she had won working at Bergman Advertising. It was an impressive collection.

  She had started working for the agency right out of college eight years ago. She had chosen advertising and working specifically with building brands because it was a way to combine her creative skills with her storytelling ability, and she loved being able to help people and companies connect in an authentic way with their customers.

  She picked up one of her awards. It vaguely resembled a Hollywood Oscar, and she was always surprised by how heavy it was. It was called an Addie. It was silver instead of gold, and smaller than an Oscar, but if you worked in advertising, it was about the equivalent. It was the most prestigious award you could get.

  She’d won it right after she had started at the agency, working on a campaign for one of her first clients, the Massachusetts Board of Education. They had wanted a big television ad campaign to promote literacy, but their budget was tiny. She had found a way to get some top celebrities to donate their time and sponsor the ads. The campaign was such a huge success, it was used as a model for other school districts, helping children across the country. When Haley was put in charge of the national campaign, it had jump-started her career, and she never looked back. She quickly went from representing small mom-and-pop businesses to some of the top brands and companies in Boston.

  Sure, she had given up some things along the way to become one of the youngest vice presidents the company had ever had—like a personal life, vacations, and weekends—but she had never regretted it, and now she was finally getting everything she had worked so hard for: a promotion to partner.

  Her boss, the owner of the agency, Larry, had promised to make her partner if she could land a multimillion-dollar account before the end of the year. That’s where the Christmas dolls came in. Haley glanced back at them. They weren’t just any ordinary dolls. They were dolls from Tyler Toys, one of the largest toy companies in the country, which was about to go international. It was exactly the kind of account Haley needed to land if she wanted to make partner.

  She’d come to the point where she didn’t want to just work for a company—she wanted a stake in the business, a business she had helped build into one of the top ad agencies on the East Coast. She had worked hard, and she knew she deserved it.

  As an only child, she had grown up in a family where money had always been tight, but she had been lucky. While her parents couldn’t give her a lot of material things, like fancy clothes and vacations, and she’d had to miss out on dance and gymnastics lessons, she always knew she was loved. Her parents encouraged her to believe anything was possible, so she decided early on that when she grew up, she never wanted to have to worry about money like her parents always did. And neither would her parents. She’d take care of them.

  Haley walked back over to the dolls. An account like Tyler Toys didn’t come along very often. This was her chance.

  There was just one small thing standing in her way, or more like one very important person—her boss. To Haley, Larry had always been much more than just a boss. He was her mentor. He had taken a chance on her, hiring her right out of school. He had been tough but always fair, always pushing her to exceed expectations. He had taught her how to always think outside the box, to never take no for an answer, and to always stay one step ahead of the competition.

  So, when Haley got an insider tip that Tyler Toys was thinking about hiring a new ad agency, she immediately worked her contacts and found out that Tyler Toys’ president was attending a baseball game in Boston. She pulled some strings and made sure to get tickets for that game in the same box. By the third inning, she had him agreeing to come in for a pitch meeting. The meeting was in two weeks, right before Christmas. It was perfect, right up until Larry decided that another VP at the agency, Tom, should do the pitch.

  Haley shuddered just thinking about it. There was no way she could let that happen. Tom was also vying for a chance to make partner, and they had been competing against each other for the last two years. Haley had nothing against Tom, personally. He was about ten years older than her, married, with two kids under ten. He was a nice enough guy. He just wasn’t the guy she was ever going to let steal her promotion. It wasn’t personal. It was business.

  Haley sat back down at her desk. Her eyes filled with determination as she stared down the dolls. Her little one-on-one with them was suddenly interrupted when Larry walked into her office. Immediately she sat up straighter and smoothed an imaginary wrinkle out of her impeccable black dress.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  “Good morning.” He smiled back at her and then did a double take when he saw all of the dolls lined up on her desk. “Haley, what are you doing with the Tyler Toys dolls? Those were supposed to be sent over to Tom.”

  When Haley quickly stood up, she accidentally bumped her desk, sending the dolls toppling over like dominoes. She ignored the mess. She was on a mission, feet apart, hands on her hips, chest lifted, and head held high. She was assuming the position—the Wonder Woman position. She had perfected the power pose over the years after learning how it w
as supposed to give you an instant shot of confidence. It had always worked for her before, and she was counting on it to work this time.

  She smiled her most winning smile. “Larry, I want to pitch the Tyler Toys account. I’m the one who brought us the lead. Exactly what you asked me to do, to bring in a big account. I should be running this pitch, not Tom.” She locked eyes with Larry. She wanted to make sure he knew just how serious she was. When she saw the look of surprise in his eyes, she just kept smiling—and posing. Wonder Woman would have been proud. The only way you ever would know she was nervous was that her hands on her hips were pressing into her skin, hard.

  She watched and waited as Larry walked up to her desk and picked up one of the Tyler Toys Christmas dolls. The doll’s hair was messy from her tumble, but somehow this made her look even more endearing.

  Larry smiled at the doll. “You know a Tyler Toys doll was the first doll I ever bought my daughter Shannon.” He shook his head. “We gave it to her for Christmas when she was about six. It was the only thing she wanted. She was so excited about it, she didn’t even open any of her other presents.” He shook his head as he remembered. “She named her Grace and insisted the doll had its own plate at Christmas dinner. Grace instantly became part of our family. Shannon took that doll with her everywhere. Even on a vacation to Hawaii where there was an unfortunate swimming pool incident. But it never mattered how soggy or worn and torn Grace got, my daughter loved her. It’s hard to believe Shannon’s already a sophomore in college, but you know what, she still has that doll, and every year she gets Grace out for Christmas. That’s what makes Tyler Toys so special. Every doll comes with a Christmas memory—”

  Haley jumped in. “I know all about Tyler Toys and the Christmas dolls.” She hated interrupting, but she needed to show Larry just how hard she had worked researching the company. “I know the company is family owned and has been making these dolls for decades, and every year at Christmas, they introduce a new doll, like this one.” She went to grab one of the dolls but accidentally ended up knocking the pile of dolls off her desk.

  Larry arched one eyebrow.

  Haley laughed as she scrambled to pick up the dolls, but when she noticed Larry wasn’t laughing, she quickly put her game face back on. “Tyler Toys’ president told me they’re looking for something truly special for next year’s Christmas doll. It’s their seventieth anniversary, and I already have some great ideas. I want this pitch, Larry. I know I can get us this account.”

  But Larry didn’t look so sure. He walked over to her bookcase and pointed at all her awards. “Haley, I know how talented you are. You’ve proven that over and over again. You’re always my go-to person when I need to pitch a client something fresh and unique, something out of the box, but Tyler Toys . . . they need to stay in the box. That’s who they are. They’re all about Christmas and tradition.”

  “I can do Christmas and tradition.”

  Larry folded his arms and stared back at her. “Really?”

  Haley, excited, nodded.

  Larry took her arm and led her out of the office. When they got into the hallway, he pointed to an intern who was struggling to put up a fake Christmas tree. Tree branches were all over the place, and there were unopened boxes of Christmas decorations stacked up everywhere. When the intern tried to cram the latest branch into the sad-looking tree, the whole tree toppled over.

  “So then explain to me what’s going on here?” Larry asked.

  Haley cringed, then recovered quickly. “I can explain.”

  “This year I put you in charge of scheduling the decorators,” he said. “I wanted all the Christmas decorations up by November first. It’s two weeks until Christmas, and all we have is our intern wrestling with a tree. And it’s fake. We’re supposed to have a real tree.”

  Haley took a deep breath. She knew she needed to turn this conversation around fast. “I’m sorry. I just got so busy finishing up the Time Right Beauty TV ads and getting the Perfect Perfume billboards up in Times Square . . . by the time I got around to calling the decorators, they were all booked up, and I couldn’t find anyone else.”

  “So you thought it was a good idea to have our intern do it? He doesn’t even celebrate Christmas. He’s Jewish!”

  Haley opened her mouth to say something—but had nothing.

  Larry pointed across the hall. “And have you seen Tom’s office? He found time to decorate. He loves Christmas.”

  Haley reluctantly followed Larry’s stare. She knew what Tom’s office looked like. It was impossible to miss. He was the self-proclaimed Christmas king and had more decorations than a Hallmark Christmas movie. She forced a smile. “Larry, just because Tom can decorate doesn’t mean he’s the best person for the pitch.”

  Larry wasn’t smiling, and when he looked her straight in the eye, she squirmed inside. She knew that look. That was Larry’s “I’ve made up my mind so don’t mess with me” look. She had to do something. She assumed the position—the power pose. Only this time her chest wasn’t puffed out quite so much and her head wasn’t held quite so high. She fought to keep calm. She couldn’t lose this promotion. She wasn’t the kind of person to lose anything.

  When Larry spoke, he didn’t pull any punches. “I’m putting Tom on the Tyler Toys account because he embraces the Christmas spirit, just like Tyler Toys does. He’s our best chance at winning the account.” He gave her a curt nod, discussion over, and started to walk back to his office.

  But Haley wasn’t giving up. Her adrenaline kicked in, and she cut in front of him, talking a mile a minute.

  “I can embrace Christmas! I can decorate my office! I can put up the tree!”

  “Haley, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I just don’t believe you’re the right person for this pitch. You run off to the Caribbean every year at Christmas and completely ignore the holiday when you’re there.”

  Haley stood her ground. “You know that’s because I make it a work trip and always see our Caribbean client when I’m there. I take my parents. It’s our winter vacation. I work, they get to relax, it’s a win-win.”

  “But that’s the point, you’re working, you’re not celebrating Christmas.” Larry continued walking.

  Haley cut him off again. Her desperation was starting to show, and it wasn’t pretty. “Larry, look, please, you know how hard I’ve worked for you, for this agency. You said this was my year to finally make partner—”

  Larry interrupted her. “But part of being partner means knowing what’s best for our company—”

  “I know, and that’s why I’m telling you I’m the best person to pitch this account. I know I can do this. You have to give me a chance. Just tell me what I need to do to convince you, and I’ll do it.”

  Larry took a deep breath. Haley held hers.

  He glanced at Tom’s office, then at the intern who was still struggling with the pathetic tree, then back at Haley. He looked like he was about to regret what he was going to do next, but he did it anyway.

  “My office, in ten minutes. Be there.” Larry turned and walked away.

  Chapter 2

  This time when Larry walked away, Haley didn’t follow him. She was too busy doing a victory dance. She looked like a football player who had just made a touchdown and was dancing around with her arms up in the air. Kathy, the agency’s top graphic designer and Haley’s bohemian, fabulous best friend, came around the corner and laughed when she saw Haley dancing.

  “So, what’s going on here?” she asked, and began dancing herself. Only Kathy’s moves were more hip-hop than showboating football player.

  “We’re celebrating.” Haley grabbed Kathy’s hand, pulled her into her office, and shut the door behind them. “I think I’ve convinced Larry to give me the Tyler Toys account.”

  Kathy looked surprised. “You? Miss I Don’t Do Christmas?”

  Haley was not amused. “Now you sound like Larry. I’m not a Grinch. I like Christmas. I just don’t have time for all the—”

  “What?
The Christmas celebrations, the customs, the decorations, all the things that Tyler Toys embraces.”

  Haley looked around her office. “Okay, just because I don’t decorate or have a Christmas tree doesn’t mean I can’t do Christmas. I can research.”

  Kathy still didn’t look convinced. “You can’t research Christmas spirit, it’s something you have to feel. You know that, right?”

  Haley snapped, grabbed one of the Christmas dolls, and waved it at Kathy. “I can do this!” The poor doll’s head bobbled back and forth. “Larry hasn’t given this account to Tom yet. I have the dolls. They’re right here. They’re mine!”

  Kathy gingerly took the doll from her. “Okay, friend to friend, you know I love you, but you sound like you’re twelve.”

  Haley glared at her.

  Kathy shrugged. “I’m just saying . . .”

  Haley let out a frustrated sigh. She knew Kathy was right. She was spiraling out of control. “I’m sorry. I just can’t lose this account. If Tom gets this, Larry will make him partner, and who knows when I’ll ever get a chance like this again. I need this now. I told my parents I was making partner and that I’d help them with the house.”

  “They’re still trying to restore that old Victorian?” Kathy asked.

  Haley picked up her phone and scrolled through her pictures until she found the one she wanted to show Kathy. It was one showing a roof with a big hole in it.

  “Whoa!” Kathy looked alarmed.

  “Right? I’m telling you this place is a money pit. I’ve already invested all of my savings, but it’s the house that just keeps taking, and taking, and taking. I told my parents it would be cheaper if they’d just let me help them buy a new condo, but they love this place. It’s way too big for them. It’s eight bedrooms and four bathrooms. It was my great-great-grandmother’s, and it’s been in our family for generations. My parents’ dream is to make it a bed-and-breakfast, but that dream has a hefty price tag. The latest estimate to fix everything up is three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and who knows what else they will need to get repaired. I was planning to give the extra money I’d make with my promotion to them to help get them started.”