top of page

The Lorelei Signal

purple_star.gif

A Missing Christmas

Written by Arendse Lund / Artwork by Marge Simon

Missing Father Christmas.jpeg

The year Father Christmas vanished, the other Holidays gathered together to fashion a replacement. Each volunteered something of themselves in their best approximation of how they remembered the bygone Holiday.

 

Valentine shrugged off his red cloak. “For Saint Nick,” he said.

 

“For Santa Claus,” Amu Nowruz added, shearing off his white beard with a grimace.

 

“And I bring Joulupukki green boughs and branches,” said the May Queen.

 

But they worried that this wasn’t enough.

 

Finally, in late autumn, with the scent of cinnamon and waxy pumpkins in the air, the Headless Horseman rode in. He dismounted.

 

“I’ve come to offer my horse for Sinterklaas,” he said.

 

“I remember him riding a reindeer,” said the Easter Bunny, who had brought a basket of small gifts.

 

“If Christmas is something different to each of us,” Saint Lucia answered as she handed over her festive lights, “with any luck, it is for humans too.”

Originally published in The Fabulist Words & Art - 23 December 2022

Reprinted with permission of the author

line4_winter.gif
PayPal ButtonPayPal Button
line4_winter.gif

Arendse Lund is an international award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Mystery Magazine, The Fabulist, and The Asahi Shimbun. She is currently a Writer-in-Residence at the Seattle Public Library.

 

bottom of page