On My Angel Tree Plans

Every Christmas at work, the company puts up an Angel Tree.

This year, I took a tag off the tree. It was the first time I had done so, as therein hangs a tale.

This is the first year that the company put an Angel Tree in ths sixth floor lobby. In years previous, the Angel Tree went in the third floor lobby. People who work on the sixth floor generally don’t have to visit the third floor and vice versa. While I was interested in doing the Angel Tree in years past, invariably by the time I knew the tree was up all the Angels had been taken.

This year they put Angel Trees on both the third and sixth floors.

Tally-ho!

I am shopping for a seven year-old boy. The tag has his clothing sizes, and it tells me that he wants “wrestling men” and “Legos” (sic).

I considered putting it back last week when I found out that my housing situation is going to change very soon now, but then I thought about it and realized I was being selfish.

I’ve given this a lot of thought.

He’s going to get a shirt. I’m not sure what kind of shirt. He’s a kid. Kids can use clothes.

He’s going to get a book. Don’t worry, it’s age appropriate.

He’s going to get some LEGO-type stuff. I hunted for the KRE-O Transformers: Optimus Prime set. No, not the big one. The one that goes for about ten dollars. I have this myself (there are pictures of it on Facebook; Optimus Prime is working with the Cybermen), and it’s a really nice set. It’s not LEGO, but it’s just as good. He’s also going to get a LEGO Batmobile set I saw at Target. It was about five dollars, it comes in a plastic bag. Kids like Batman.

And he’s going to get a letter from Santa Claus.

One of my favorite Tolkien books is The Father Christmas Letters. It’s a collection of the letters that Tolkien, writing as Father Christmas, sent to his children in the 1920s and 1930s.

I’m writing something in imitation of that. I can’t draw for toffee, so it’s unlikely to be illustrated, but I did start writing it yesterday. What I have isn’t great — the idea is right, but the execution of the idea right now isn’t there — but there’s time to make it so.

The idea is this. Every year, children write Santa Claus letters. And every year, Santa writes a few special children letters in return. This particular year, the Angel is receiving a letter.

I’ve had fun playing around with this.

I have to turn the package in on Thursday. I plan to wrap each item individually, then put them all inside another box, then wrap that and slap the label on it.

That’s the idea.

I’d best take another crack at that letter from Santa Claus. Or, rather, Julenissen. My Santa Claus is Norse and lives in Lapland. 🙂

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

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