Happy Holly Days!
It’s the time of year I think a lot about the small town of Cratersville, where I grew up.
Cratersville inhabited a desert valley located within a techno-magically created orb known as Red Rainbow Minor.
The aesthetic of Cratersville was a bit of Norman Rockwell Americana with a lot of Jetson’s cartoonishness mixed in. In other words, Cratersville was a classic iconville where a fictional past and an imagined future came together to create a quirky present.
This left the denizens of Cratersville to live out their lives following a decorum that both bemused and enchanted in equal parts.
It should come as no surprise then that the holidays we celebrated in Cratersville tended to have a quirky bent too.
The Holly Day season started off the day after Turkey Day with Shop-Till-You-Drop-Friday and ran all the way to Frost Flower Day when people nursed their hangovers from Glitter Eve while watching flower-covered floats on TV.
During these festive days, people participated in all kinds of merriment. There was something about the shortening days outside that made us linger with family and friends inside.
We put up lights, festooned anything that didn’t move with greenery, and decorated the trees we brought into our homes like royalty. All the while, we drank nog, ate way too many cookies, and made wishes for the new year.
If you know my story, you know how my sister Poppy and I also added a bit of extra fun to the mix as we grew older.
The summer before fifth grade, my sister and I discovered a magic that allowed us to create little creatures. With them came an assortment of new sentiments to be expressed when the Holly Days rolled around.
Black Friday became Rainbow Friday where doers of good deeds were acknowledged with a generous shower of rainbow and gold confetti from the Holly Zings.
Bah Humbug Day came about to let the townspeople carp about whatever peeved them the previous year. As was to be expected, the little creatures’ antics were always high on the list of everyone’s kvetches.
Then there was the eco-friendly ReBoxing Day where the little creatures took all the discarded wrapping paper, ribbons and boxes, which would otherwise be put into the trash, and repurposed them into creative new gifts they exchanged amongst themselves.
I offer you this small glimpse into my world to let you know, no matter your circumstances this time of year, the Magic is there—waiting to be discovered.
All of us have a piece of the Magic inside.
Let the light of the season rekindle your childhood hope and redeem those childhood dreams.
Remember, the darkest time of the year is the best time to rediscover our true light.
—Jellybean Reds, Creator of Little Creatures
