Christmas Angel

Story Info
Why is there an Angel on top of the Christmas tree.
4k words
4.52
16.5k
4
Share this Story

Font Size

Default Font Size

Font Spacing

Default Font Spacing

Font Face

Default Font Face

Reading Theme

Default Theme (White)
You need to Log In or Sign Up to have your customization saved in your Literotica profile.
PUBLIC BETA

Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.

You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.

Click here
Justtoold
Justtoold
289 Followers

Authors will tell you that some stories come to mind out of the blue from something that happens to get their creative minds working. The inspiration for this story comes from two stories I read by a favourite author of mine, slow_n_gentle. In, "It's What's Inside That Counts", there is a description of the ornaments that are decorating a Christmas tree, and in "Tell Santa", he describes a porcelain angel on top of a Christmas tree. Those two paragraphs are what inspired me to write this story. Thank you to slow_n_gentle for the inspiration for this story and a special thank you to Hank for his help editing it.

*

It was a few weeks before the Christmas holiday, and a few days before, Ann, my wife, had been making plans with our neighbour, Ruth. The two of them decided that Ann and I and our two children would go over to Ruth and Alf's place on Friday evening for a bit of seasonal cheer.

Boy, I tell you, those two women had gotten along famously for the last six months since Ruth and her husband Alf had moved into the house next door. They had become almost as close as twin sisters.

Since both were stay-at-home moms, they shared looking after each other's kids when one had an appointment or other such thing. I think they generally spent more time together than they did with their respective husbands.

I never minded because when they spent so much time together, Ann spent less energy thinking up chores for me to do around the house. I now enjoyed some down time now instead of having to fix every little thing as soon as I got home from work.

I met Ruth's husband Alf one weekend shortly after the wives had met and because of our busy schedules, the two of us spent some time together, but we really weren't that close. Our two kids were another matter; as soon as they met their two kids, they were instant buddies. The four of them were close in age and could always be found either at one house or the other playing or doing their thing.

Ruth and Alf had heavy accents, but spoke English quite well. They were from Abonaugh, a small European country, which not too many people have heard about. I tried looking for it on a map one day and Alf had to point out that little pinprick of a country that used to be his home. He and Ruth had scrimped and saved so that they could immigrate here to find work, and to get away from a dictatorial government. They were happy with their adopted country and Ruth was even happier that they had wound up next door to us.

Anyway, on the day when we got together with them, Alf and I sat in their front room sipping some nicely flavoured Christmas cheer while the wives were in the kitchen organizing snacks and sharing their women's gossip. The snacks were destined to miraculously disappear as soon as they were put on the table. The four kids seemed to have built in radar when it came to food and they all seemed to magically appear when it was set out.

I was looking over Alf's Christmas tree, which was standing in the corner, and was admiring some of the old world, hand-blown glass ornaments that were hanging on it. Alf saw me inspecting them and informed me, "Most of those ornaments are old ones from my grandparents, and the rest came from Ruth's side of the family. They've all been passed down to us over the years. Most of them are hand-painted by our ancestors. It was quite a chore packing those delicate keepsakes so they wouldn't be damaged on our trip to this country. I wanted to leave them, but Ruth wouldn't hear of it, and since she threatened me with dire consequences, as you can see, here they are."

Just then, Ruth and Ann came into the front room. Ruth must have heard Alf's comments and said, "He knew he wouldn't be able to touch me ever again if he would have left them behind. They have so many memories attached to them that there was no way I was leaving those ornaments behind."

"They look so well crafted; there's no way you could find anything that nice for sale in this day and age," Ann added. Just then, as predicted, the four kids came running up the stairs and headed for the snacks. Our oldest, Robert, (Robby) filled his mouth with cookies, and then stood by the tree, looking at it.

Because he has this habit of wanting to handle everything he sees, and being at the clumsy stage of his life, he usually drops whatever it is when he does get his hands on it. I warned him, "Don't touch or break anything. Those ornaments are keepsakes and quite fragile."

Robby obediently stepped back, but didn't take his eyes off the tree. I watched his eyes as he gazed over everything. I also saw that he seemed fascinated by the angel on the top of the tree. I had to admit that angel was pretty nice.

The angel tree topper was made of porcelain, a little over a foot tall and all white with a painted face. The wings on its back were carved so intricately they looked like real feathers. She was dressed in a long flowing white coloured silk gown and the train from her gown hung down a foot below the rest of her. The angel's hands were held in the praying position in front of her and her halo was actually a candle holder with a candle in it. Like the rest of the ornaments on the tree, the angel was hand-painted.

Robby turned to Alf and asked, "Why do you have an angel on top of the tree? Every other tree I've ever seen has a star on top."

Alf looked at Robby and said, "Well young man, I'm proud of that angel. In the old country we came from, traditionally most people have an angel on the top of the tree. That particular ornament used to be my great Grand-Ma's. That angel is so heavy and awkward I have to fix wire supports to the branches of the tree to add stability so she doesn't fall over."

Ruth interrupted and asked Alf, "Why don't you tell the kids about how in Abonaugh the angel came to be just about everyone's favourite ornament to put on the top of the tree? You tell that story to our kids every year and they love hearing it. I'm sure their friends would like to hear it too."

Alf looked over at the kids and asked them if they wanted to hear the story again. Of course as soon as Alf's kids wanted to hear the story again, ours did too.

Alf pulled out his pipe and almost like it was a ritual he went about stuffing it just so. Then he lit it so it was burning evenly. While he did, the kids grabbed some more cookies and cheese snacks from the table and sat on the floor in front of him.

He started by saying, "Well kids, a long time ago, back when my great, great, great, grandparents were still alive, there was a little girl by the name of Olga Petrovich. She lived in a small village that had about eight houses and an inn with a stable. It was a pretty small little village just outside the town of Golesville, which in turn was near the capital city of Maukerson in our old country of Abonaugh. The old village had only about sixty five people who lived in the surrounding area and it was a pretty poor locale, as was the whole country."

"No one knows where Olga came from, but she's the main reason that angels are so well liked in our old country. She may have been a beggar most of her life, but by the time she died she was so well known that everyone in her village just loved her."

"The story goes that Olga's dad was traveling through the village one day with all his meagre possessions on his back. He and his daughter were passing through, heading to the city to look for work. Olga was only four years old at the time and everyone could see that even though she wore rags for clothes, she was a cute little thing."

"It happened that the innkeeper needed a hand to work in the stable behind the inn because his regular guy had died of old age a month or so before. Olga's dad, whose name was Jessop Petrovich, agreed to take over the job. The innkeeper wouldn't allow Jessop to sleep in the inn, but he let the two of them stay in the stable with the animals."

"Jessop was a man who worked hard to care for and support Olga. Over time he had told his sad life story to a few people in the village and explained to them how his wife had died in childbirth, so he alone was left to take care of his daughter. Jessop had previously been a wood carver, but when his town was attacked by the soldiers from the next valley, his hands had been badly cut in the scuffle so he couldn't hold his knives properly anymore. He was forced to do odd jobs so he could provide for his daughter."

"In the village where Olga and her dad decided to settle down the people in the area planted their crops and some worked in a coal mine and generally did whatever they could to survive. The land all around the area was owned by the Earl who charged a tax on all the people that lived there so that meant Jessop and Olga had to pay their share of the tax too."

"The Earl owned the coal mine, which meant he had lots of coal for his own cook stove and to heat his stone castle. But he needed people to dig the coal out of the ground and that's where he forced anyone who couldn't pay his taxes to work for him by digging the coal. If you didn't have the money to pay his taxes, you could stay on his land if you worked in his coal mine one week out of every month. That's just what Jessop did! He worked in the mine plus he took care of the stable so he and Olga could have a roof over their heads and a meagre meal every now and then."

"While her dad worked, little Olga spent her time scrounging for food and other necessities so her father and her could survive. She may have been young, but back then you grew up fast. She spent a lot of time in the forest with a small bag, hunting for legumes, berries and anything else she could find that would fill their stomachs. When it got colder she also brought home sticks and branches so they could have a fire at night to keep warm."

Robby asked Alf, "Didn't the stable have heat to keep them warm?"

Alf replied, "There was a small wood stove in the corner and when there were guests at the inn there were usually horses to add some warmth, but it was still fairly cool. Olga's dad usually managed to fill his pockets and the front of his shirt with coal he managed to steal from the mine, but that was never enough to last the night."

"When fall turned to winter, Olga found firewood wherever she could find it in the woods. A branch from a tree, some wood taken from an old wind break, whatever. She would bring home anything she could find. The winters there weren't as bad as they are here, but the nights could still get chilly and a small fire was welcome. Some days her dad had to work all day in the stable so he couldn't get any coal for their nightly fire and on those days Olga's gathering of wood was appreciated."

"For the times they lived in, Olga and her dad had a fairly settled life, even if it was a lot harder than things are today. They had a roof over their heads; Jessup had a job, and Olga managed to come up with enough to keep the two of them from starving. But the most important thing to them was that they were together."

"As with all stories, hard times caught up with them when Olga was about ten years old. Jessop got sick and the only one to look after him was Olga. Because of his illness, he was weak and only able to work a bit before he had to rest. Olga took over most of the chores, looking after the stables and keeping them warm and looking for more food to eat. For a small little girl she handled things very well."

"One day Olga was out picking up coal that had fallen off the wagon onto the road. She was looking around and saw a branch in a tree that would be fairly easy to break loose. Now, being a small girl she was fairly agile and soon climbed up the tree and worked the branch loose. After she tossed it to the ground she was feeling pretty good, so she scampered the rest of the way up the tree to have a look around."

Alf stopped there to relight his pipe and sip his drink. He took a few puffs while he waited for the kids to replenish their supply of snacks from the table.

When the pipe was relit and the kids settled in front of him again, he continued his story. "Olga climbed as high in the tree as she could, and when she looked around the view was mesmerizing. She had never seen the countryside from that perspective. You must realize that when you are walking around in the forest, you can't see much past the trees and bushes and can't get the full picture of what's around you. That high tree gave her a whole new view of the area she lived in, and from her perch up high, she could almost see the whole valley. She was amazed to see smoke coming from the buildings in the village in one direction and the Earl's small castle in the opposite direction. At right angles from those, the road from the next province appeared from over a hill and passed through her village before meandering off through the fields."

"That tree top became her favourite spot. She'd climb up there every chance she got and dream about what it would be like to visit far off places. She spent every free moment daydreaming of a life in those distant lands."

"Life went on for Olga and her dad. They survived, but barely made it from one day to the next. As I said, after his illness Jessop couldn't work too much, so Olga did most of the work in the stable. The only work he did was to work in the mine, and that almost killed him every time he went there. Also, by then the whole village had come to love the little girl, and the tavern owner took pity on her. As long as the work was done, he allowed her to stay in the stable and take care of the guest's horses like she had done since Jessop's illness had begun."

"Now you must understand that everything in those times was not as rosy as it sounds. Not only was her dad sick, but there were many other occurrences that made life hazardous. There were always wars between different sides, and occasionally soldiers would come through every now and then rounding up men to fight their battles as well as taking all the crops to feed the troops. Also, there were bandits who regularly swooped down and stole anything of value from the people in the village."

"In the spring of the year when Olga turned twelve years old, the bandits came once more. Jessop was too weak to get away and hide, and the bandits killed him when he struggled with them to keep what he had. Olga was lucky that day because she was in the forest looking for food to gather. When she returned that night, she was devastated by what had happened. She blamed herself for not being there to help her dad hide from the bandits."

"Olga spent a long time thinking about what had happened to her father and continued to feel guilty about not being there to help him when he needed her the most. The bandits seemed to strike around every six months or so, and Olga remembering her tree, and how she could see for miles, vowed to never let those bandits sneak up on the town again."

"Many times, the Earl had tried to protect his lands from those bandits, but by the time he could get his few soldiers organized, the bandits were long gone. Olga took it upon herself to sit in her tree during the times when the bandits were expected to come. Sometimes she sat there for two weeks before she spotted them and then scrambled down the tree and ran to warn the villagers."

"When she had twice alerted the villagers to the bandits, they really started to appreciate her warnings. She had come in plenty of time for the villagers to hide their valuables in the trees and get themselves out of harm's way. Olga soon found that there was always an evening meal waiting for her on the work table in the stable. It was the villagers' way of saying thanks, and now she usually didn't have to scrounge for food because someone from the village had left some food for her."

"The Earl's wife soon heard about Olga and how she had saved the village a few times. She brought it to the Earl's attention but first he saw her as just another body to work in his mine. His wife soon changed his mind by pointing out that because of Olga, the villagers still had their valuables and supplies of food, and could still pay him their taxes. The Earl realized that having most of his subjects pay their taxes was something which had rarely ever happened before. So understanding that fact made him comprehend that now the villagers could pay their taxes, it would be easier for him to pay his share to the king and take a load off his mind."

"The Earl and his wife summoned Olga to their castle, to meet this saviour of the village. When they first saw the unkempt little girl they weren't too impressed, but found something about the young thing in front of them captivating. The Earl thanked Olga for giving the warnings. In his wisdom granted her a reprieve from having to work in his mine and as long as she continued to look for the bandits and give warnings she didn't have to pay her taxes."

"After the meeting, the Earl's wife took Olga into the back rooms and got her maids to give her a good scrubbing to clean her up, and then dressed her in some clean clothes. As Olga was about to leave to return to the stable, one of the Earl's daughters took pity on Olga and gave her a white cloak she had outgrown."

"Olga thought the cloak was the most wonderful thing she had ever received. Until then, she usually had to scrounge up rags to wear. This cloak was something she could only have dreamed about before."

"The cloak was thick, so it kept out the winter's chill and the summer's rain, and for that reason Olga loved to wear it while she was in her tree. In the fall, after all the leaves had fallen, the villagers could see Olga high up in her tree and took comfort that she was still looking out for them."

"One time after she had again saved the village, leaving the bandits empty handed, the villagers met at the tavern to celebrate their good luck. The tavern owner's wife invited Olga in for a rare hot meal and sat her in the best seat in the house, which was beside the warm fire. The villagers all stopped by to thank her, and at one point poor Olga was interrupted so often she couldn't even eat her meal. The tavern owner's wife saw Olga's predicament and loudly told everyone to leave "our little angel" alone long enough to finish her meal."

"That was the first time Olga had been referred to as an angel. The villagers were now paying more attention to her and soon noticed that when Olga was in her perch in the tree, and when the sun was shining just so, her cloak seemed to give off a glow. Around the holidays a few people started to dress up some homemade dolls to fasten to the top of their Christmas trees so they would look just like Olga in her perch.

"Word spread about Olga and within a few years it seemed that everyone was attaching angels to the top of their Christmas trees in tribute to Olga. It was the villagers' small gesture to show gratitude to their saviour."

"The story spread to all corners of the country, and soon most people were also attaching angels to the top of their Christmas trees. And that is why most people from Abonaugh have an angel on their tree at Christmas time."

"Wow that was a neat story," said Robby. "What ever happened to Olga?"

"Well the story goes that she stayed in the stable and lived there for twenty years, but one day someone noticed she hadn't been seen for a while, so a few of the village folk went to look for her. They found her with her tree. The old tree had given out and toppled down with her in it."

"Everyone was sad. Since the town had just finished building a church, Olga was the very first one buried in its yard, right by the front door, so all who came there could look over at her resting place. Times changed and over the years more people moved into the area. When there were enough people who could defend themselves, the bandits disappeared. To this day every Sunday the village priest gives a special prayer for Olga."

Justtoold
Justtoold
289 Followers
12