A Clothespin's Christmas by Sandra Russell

 

The wind rattled the branches of the trees against the clothesline. Three little wooden clothes pins still gripped on tightly. Grandma hollered from the house. “You kids clean up that backyard, any old toys you find, put ‘em in the basket, and take down that old clothesline. Paw wants to hang the Christmas lights before it snows, add seed to the bird feeder and put out corn for the squirrels.” So, Jenny and Dutch gathered up the old corncobs and trash. They found an old softball, a wheel from a tricycle, a marionette with a broken foot, and put them all into the basket with the clothespins and line.

When they got into the kitchen, they found hot chocolate waiting for them and some butter cookies. Gran was baking something in the oven and stirring pots on the stove. It smelled really spicy and felt very warm; icy frost was forming designs on the window, and it glittered like diamonds and glaciers.

Grandpa was getting out his paints, nails, glue and hammers so that meant he was fixing up and making things. "Give that puppet to me," he said, "and I’ll fix him first. All he needs is some wood putty on his toe, a good sanding and a new coat of paint all over and he’ll be good as new."

"What are you doing Grandpa?" asked Dutch. 

"We’re taking all these toys and things over to the City Hall tonight. All these toys and lots more will become Christmas presents for our neighbors. There will be a giant tree to decorate, some of these little things can be decorations for the tree. Jenny you can string some popcorn for garlands and Dutch, you can help her thread the needle and roll it up. Santa Claus will be coming to town, and he’ll pick out the very best ones to put on the tree HIMSELF! I believe there are games and prizes too? A big potluck supper with anything you’d want to eat, dances and sings, and plenty of fun things for everyone to do."

The clothespins were still in the basket, they were tiny and grey, plain and useless. One of the pins had a slit for a mouth. It was a little place where she lost a splinter in Grandma’s finger last Spring…so she could talk just a little, but only from the center of her mouth and it came out sort of like a cat voice, sort of like a mewing sound. Like, she would say “Peggy Peg is my name” but it sounded like “Meegy mig” is my neeme.” And when she would shout it was like a kazoo...moot mooty mgooo! She was shy most of the time but hearing about the big party made her bold. She wanted to go! “I want to be an ornament!” she said in her kazoo voice. The other clothespins just wanted to go to sleep for the winter. They said, "We don’t want a celebration; we just love our hibernation!" Then they rolled over to snooze and snore. But not Peggy. She inched her way out of the basket and found a friend had heard her cries. Standing on the floor next to the basket was a beautiful golden-haired doll in a blue dress and blue eyes. With her was the now fixed up puppet, and a corncob horse. Grandpa had made a horse out of a corncob, and a Champagne cork, with neck and legs from old pencil stubs!!! The blue doll said with a musical voice, “Don’t worry Peggy…we will fix you up too. You will be an ornament. I went to beauty school.”

So, before she knew it, Peg’s friends got busy making her new. The marionette said, “Pull my arm string then I can reach many things. Look up in the drawer and under the table. Here’s some ribbon and gift wrap and cellophane tape. We could use this brass washer for a hat, and some pipe cleaner for arms… let’s see about these earrings, can’t do any harm; oops, beads falling off, but would be just the size for a pair of bright shiny black eyes!”

“Oh look!” said the blue doll, “some wooly lint from a sock, still stuck on the basket, we are in luck. She’ll look like a queen before I am through with a fluffy white wig and some pink ribbon shoes.”

The blue doll got busy as two teddy bears handed her a cranberry that rolled under the chair. She squished it a little bit and dabbed on Pegs cheeks for rogue, a tiny drop for her splinter mouth left not much left to do.

Peg looked in the mirror and said, “Now I can see! I’ve always been here; but now I’m a ME!”

The happy group was ready to go, the two little teddies wished to tag along. Peg says with her splinter mouth, “Okay little helpers, so what could go wrong!” 

One teddy said, "This may last the whole night long, I’m taking my pillow if we spend the night. If the party is dull (we could have a pillow fight)."

The blue doll said, “Hush! That would be naughty. Only the nice get to decorate this party."

"Don’t you want to be an ornament?" asked the marionette.

"We sure do!” said the bears, and away they all went.

Well, the party was in ‘full swing’ when they arrived. Decorations of glass balls, candy canes and popcorn strings, waiting for others who wanted to sing, dance or juggle or any other talent to be called an enhancement to the ornamentations this very special Christmas season occasion. 

The blue doll said, “I can sing the blues. The marionette can dance a jig if someone pulls his strings.”

Poor Peg sighed, “I am pretty now but that’s all I can do.”

“Nonsense Peggy! You can play the kazoo. While your mouth is just a splinter, it’s perfect for a backup singer.”

The cob and cork horse whinnied, “I can rear up at end ever so jolly and be a display for the grand finale!”

Pleased with the plan, all gathered under the tree. And they gave it their ‘All’ as all ever could be! Blue doll sang her best singing voice and Peg did her Kazoo and it was good, not a noise. The marionette tapped danced unaware, in the branches above them, two teddy bears were there. They shook the feathers from their pillows all went flying everywhere. “Look out below; we’re decorating, with flakes puffs and blankets of snow!” The feathers flew over the branches okay, but some tumbled onto the presents and even topped the cookie plates!

Feathers stuck in the sprinkles and frosting. The cob horse reared up on his back legs to be fancy - Peg slipped off his back; fell face first in the icing! Poor Peg sighed, “I’m ruined, I’ll never be an ornament now, I’m a mess, with sprinkles and goop all over my dress, and look at my tape arms with feathers all stuck, I don’t look like a princess, I look like a duck.”

But then a huge mittened hand lifted her up to the lights. She was shiny and bright. The whole hall heard Santa declare the winner!

“This Plain Peggy Pegg is the perfect tree angel! I’ll put her up there at the very top of the tree above the garlands and glass balls, with all the lights shining bright... Will be a Merry Christmas for Everyone and For All a Good Night!”