Do you know where Christmas trees come from?
I bet you had no idea it’s all thanks to Santa’s helper cat Garland!
During the last stream, we spun the Wheel of Prompticality and did whatever prompt it landed on. It chose Image Prompt, so chat generously donated a bunch of pictures from all over the internet, then voted on their favorites.
These were the two winners: a tree in all four seasons, and a Christmas cat.
You can watch the full video here to or scroll down to read what we wrote.
Here’s what we came up with:
Before the elves, before Rudolph, before even Mrs. Claus, Santa’s closest helper was his cat named Garland. Every morning Santa and Garland ate breakfast together, with Garland sitting at the table, leaning over her saucer of milk sprinkled with cinnamon, just as she liked it.
“Oh, Garland,” Santa sighed one cold morning. “What am I going to do? I want to deliver presents to all the good boys and girls, but I don’t have any place to put them. If only there was some place that everyone knew presents would be waiting for them on Christmas morning. But alas, there is none.”
Garland felt bad for Santa. After all that he’d done for her, she wanted to give something back. Plus there was the Christmas pudding, her favorite food, to worry about. If Santa was too sad to cook it for her, then she didn’t know what she was going to do!
After Santa cleared the table and went to work, Garland snuck away to her secret spot through a hole into the wall of the workshop where she kept all of her treasures. Her shiny buttons, threads of string, chewed-up rubber mouse, toy compass, and most importantly, her bootsies.
She swiftly stepped into all four bootsies, buckled them up with her teeths, then set out into the world with nothing more than some yarn, buttons, her compass, and a dream to help Santa.
All around her, the world was blooming with spring beauty. Trees and flowers opening up with new, fragrant life, while birds and bees buzzed through the air.
Garland didn’t even know what she was looking for, but she figured that she’d know it when she saw it. It had to be something that people all over the world could put in their homes, but also that was grand enough for the occasion — Christmas.
Unfortunately, Garland was easily distracted. As she was walking around, she caught wind of a tasty mouse and stalked it close to the ground, feeling for its movements. It scurried along, invisible to her eyes but easily-followable to her nose and sensitive paws. Before she knew it, she was underneath the shade of a tree, watching the mouse drop away into a hole in the ground underneath the trunk.
Garland grumbled at her bad luck. Her tasty little present had been hidden away under the tree. Maybe if she waited for a while, then…
That’s when inspiration hit her. Garland looked up at the branches of the tree with new eyes. She was under a freshly-budded cherry blossom tree, bursting with pink and white petals. They fluttered to the ground like snowfall in spring, reflecting in Garland’s wide-open eyes.
This was what she’d been looking for! If all the people in the world cut down cherry blossom trees and put them in their homes, then Santa would have a beautiful place to put the presents: right under them, waiting to be opened on Christmas morning.
Garland could hardly wait to run back and tell Santa her discovery. She couldn’t believe it had happened so quickly!
But just as Garland was about to pounce back to the workshop, she took a closer look at the cherry blossom and knew it wouldn’t work. The trunk, which was perfect for mice to hide in, was too thick for people to easily cut down. It would take all day to chop a cherry blossom, and even then, the tree would be too big for most homes. Even though it was a gorgeous tree, worthy of Santa’s gifts, it was too impractical.
This tree would simply not do, so Garland dashed away.
Months passed as Garland traveled the world looking for the perfect tree to use for Santa’s presents. She didn’t want to go back to the workshop until she had good news to bring him, and memories of warm cinnamon milk made her tummy grumble as she spent most days trudging through forests and fields.
Summer came, bringing with it the heat that Garland hated. She couldn’t take off her fur coat, and most of her time walking was spent with her tongue hanging out.
Thirsty for a drink, Garland wandered over to a pond and lapped away at the cool water. As she took in the refreshing sips, something poked her in the side. Slightly irritated from her long journey, Garland glared over at whatever it was. Then her cat eyes widened with delight.
It was the most beautiful tree she’d ever seen. An Oleander bush, bursting with milky white flowers that shone in the hot summer sun. Seeing them reminded her of winter snow, and it tugged at her heartstrings, wishing that Christmas were here already.
This was the perfect tree for Santa to put gifts under. It was beautiful, and the trunk could be easily cut for people to place in their own homes. What more could Garland ask for?
Just to prove how easy it was, Garland snuck underneath the plant and clamped onto one of the many thin trunks with her own teeth. But as soon as she did, a foul taste hit her tongue, and she hissed and backed away.
This tree, this beautiful tree, was poison! No matter how nice it looked, Santa could never allow such a thing.
This tree would simply not do, so Garland dashed away.
The months continued on, and whispers of coolness came back in the air. Before Garland knew it, it was fall, and crisp leaves crunched under her bootsies as she journeyed on. Thoughts of Christmas pudding kept her moving forward, and how happy Santa would be when she finally returned with the perfect tree for him to use.
But for now, her stomach grumbled when she saw a tasty bird flying in the sky. Hungry for a snack, she ran after it from below, staring up so high in the sky that she didn’t even notice she was going to crash into something.
So crash she did. Garland smacked her head hard against a rough surface and spun around, ready to defend herself against whatever animal she’d smacked into. But it wasn’t any animal, it was a tree trunk.
A tree trunk of the most beautiful tree she’d ever seen.
The maple tree stood before her, its red, orange and yellow leaves flaring upward like a lit match. Just seeing it send a warm blaze through Garland, as if she were home with Santa, curled up in front of the fireplace on his lap.
This was exactly what she was looking for. A gorgeous tree that wasn’t any danger, and had a slender trunk for people to easily put into their homes. She needed to tell Santa right away!
The bird she’d been chasing landed in the maple’s branches, making them bob up and down. Just that light weight and wiggle was enough to send a dozen of the colorful leaves spiraling to the ground next to Garland, where she stared at them with a sad realization.
The leaves on this tree were dead. Soon enough, they would all fall to the ground, leaving nothing but cold, bare branches. By the time Christmas came around, it would just be a skeleton in people’s homes, not the grand welcoming for Santa’s presents that they deserved.
This tree would simply not do, so Garland dashed away.
The months passed by yet again, and all the warmth disappeared from the air, chilling into white frost that covered the ground. Garland continued marching forward on her quest, her bootsies digging deeper and deeper into the snow as the days went on.
By now almost a year had passed since Garland began her journey, and she still had not found a tree suitable for Santa. At this point, she didn’t know if she ever would. Having mostly given up hope, she spent her days wandering aimlessly and wondering if she should just give up and go home. But she couldn’t bare to face Santa’s disappointment.
That was when something bonked her on the head.
Garland hissed and jumped back, sending a flurry of white powder up in the air, staring at what had hit her. It was only a pinecone, half-buried in snow, that must’ve gotten blown in by a chilly winter breeze.
Knocked out of her daze of self-pity, Garland began to notice some green among the white. All around her was a lush forest of pine trees, hundreds of them like upside-down ice cream cones, thick with bristles and branches.For a moment, Garland’s heart rose. Maybe Santa could use these trees for Christmas?
But no, they wouldn’t do. Even though the pine trees were small enough to be easily cut, weren’t poison, and still had their leaves, they had a much bigger problem: they weren’t beautiful. Compared to the cherry blossom, the oleander, and the maple, these evergreens were too plain for Santa.
Still, they would make for good shelter while Garland thought about what to do. She snatched the pinecone in her mouth, trudged over underneath one to escape from the snow, and gave a sad meow as she curled up with her remaining possessions. Her well-used compass was faded and the needle barely worked, and the string and buttons were frayed and chipped. And now, she had this pinecone too.
Just for fun, Garland wound the buttons through the string, then placed them over the pinecone. It was like she was dressing it up, like she used to watch Santa do every morning when he put on his bright red and white suit. People loved doing silly things like that, putting on clothes and decorations and…
Garland snapped to attention so quickly that she sent a squirrel who’d been hiding in the pine tree above her scurrying away. She glanced back and forth between her pinecone and the pine tree, excitement running through her.
She snatched the string in her mouth, leaped up onto the bristly branches, and wove it around the green needles, before falling back to the snowy ground and inspecting her handiwork. The string of buttons wound around the center of the tree, just like Santa’s belt, giving it a wonderful flair of color that it was otherwise lacking.
And all the other people in the world who put pine trees in their homes for Santa could do the same to theirs too!
This tree would certainly do, so Garland dashed home, proud of her gift to Santa.
Be sure to check out the video to see other ways the story could’ve gone, and for a live reading!
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Hope to see you next time, friend!
Featured image: Pakutaso