Nick x
Christmas 2023
By Nick Mellish
Chapter One
The Tree in the Living Room
Lancing was a quiet village but even quiet villages have stories, or so Alex and Hannah were told one day. They thought that their story was probably the best story of them all.
It all started in December. There was a tree in their living room, and Hannah and Alex were confused—not by the tree being there. It was Christmas, and at Christmas they always had a tree in their living room, which was strange as you usually saw trees in parks or woods or on the side of the road. You didn’t usually find one planted next to your sofa. It was different at Christmas though. Alex and Hannah weren’t sure why, but it was just One Of Those Things and they went along with it.
That said, it had been an odd day for trees. They lived on a quiet street near their school and there were trees to be seen along the way there. That morning, one on their street seemed to be leaning over, like it was trying to touch its toes, and they were sure it had been upright the day before. Then when they reached their school, they saw that a tree there had suddenly sprouted lots of leaves! It looked a bit like the tree had a bright green beard and moustache.
“I thought trees lost their leaves in the Autumn and Winter?” Alex had said, perplexed.
“They do normally,” Hannah had agreed, but there the tree was with its green leaves, breaking all the rules. It was strange, but not as strange as their Christmas tree.
They looked at it again. No, it wasn’t the tree being inside their living room which was confusing: it was the big hole in its bark.
The Christmas tree was standing near a wall, and apart from the hole it looked normal: thick bark in the middle, lots of pointy needles and branches, and now they’d decorated it, lots of tinsel and baubles, too, and a star on the top. But in the middle of it all, there in the bark, was a hole.
You couldn’t see right through the hole to the other side of the wall, but it was large and looked like it curved and went down to the ground, deep like a tunnel. It was strange. They had bought the Christmas tree that morning and Alex was sure there hadn’t been a hole then.
“There wasn’t,” confirmed Hannah. “I would definitely have noticed it. You know how long we were in the car looking at it!”
Alex remembered. On the way back from buying the tree, they’d got caught in a traffic jam near the beach. A large transporter stacked with broken cars had itself broken down; the ramp you used to get cars on the top level was stuck and wouldn’t lift off the ground no matter how hard anybody tried to shift it.
“Does the transporter need a transporter?” he’d asked, but nobody knew. It had taken nearly a whole hour to move it to the side of the road and put some traffic cones around the broken ramp so everyone could get home, and there the poor transporter had remained, waiting for someone to pick it up. All that time, Alex and Hannah had sat in the back of their own car, the tree between them, so Alex believed his sister: they would definitely have noticed a hole.
He stood back to look over the tree again. They decided they needed some help. Fortunately, they knew who to ask.
“Mum!” shouted Alex. “Mum, the Christmas tree’s all weird!”
“That’s nice, Alex,” called back Mum, busy in the other room.
“Dad!” shouted Hannah. “The tree’s got a hole in it!”
“A hole?” replied Dad, who was with Mum. “Don’t put anything in it.”
Hannah looked at Alex. Alex looked at Hannah.
“Dad only said ‘any thing’,” said Hannah. “I don’t think my hand counts, right?”
“Right,” agreed Alex. “Your hand isn’t a thing, it’s a body part!”
Hannah nodded. “I’m going to put my finger in it.”
She rolled up her sleeve and put a finger in the hole.
“What’s it like?” asked Alex.
“Weird,” said Hannah with a frown on her face. “Warm. A bit slimy.”
“Warm and slimy?”
“Yeah. Warm and slimy and wet!”
“Wet? That’s odd,” said Alex. “Here, let me have a go.”
Hannah pulled her finger out and Alex could see it was soggy. He felt up and down the rough bark, scratching his palma a little, then he put a whole hand into the hole and pulled a face.
“Urgh! You’re right, it’s all clammy!” He squeezed his face up in concentration. “I’ll try and see how far down it goes!” He tried to push further down when the entire tree shuddered and shook, and Alex felt two branches grab his arm and yank it out. Inside the hole, he saw two little wooden shards, like teeth made of splinters. They gnashed.
“Argh!” he cried. “What’s going on?”
“Argh!” cried Hannah. “The Christmas tree’s alive!”
“Well of course I’m alive!” said the Christmas tree. “Why else would I have a mouth?”
Alex looked at his soggy hand. “I put my hand in your mouth?”
“You did!” said the Christmas tree. “Kindly refrain from doing so again in the future, young man!”
“I’m sorry,” said Alex. “I didn’t realise it was your mouth, I thought it was just a hole.”
“Just a hole! Such ignorance!” tutted the Christmas tree. “What did you think these were? Decorations?” The Christmas tree pointed a gnarled twig at the two little gnashing blocks in the mouth.
“So they are teeth!” said Alex.
“Did the tree chomp you?” asked Hannah.
“No,” said Alex. “It hurt a bit when I touched the bark though.”
“You mean my neck,” said the Christmas tree. “Of course it did. Haven’t you ever heard of the phrase ‘my bark is worse than my bite’?”
“I thought that was about dogs,” said Alex. “Sorry.”
“Excuses, excuses!” sniffed the Christmas tree.
“We really are sorry!” said Hannah. “We’ve never met a talking Christmas tree before: we didn’t even know a Christmas tree could talk!”
“If a Christmas tree has not spoken to you, young lady, then one can only assume that you have never spoken to a Christmas tree in return,” sniffed the Christmas tree. “We would only ever talk to you if you talked to us first: that’s just good manners.”
“I see,” said Alex. There was clearly a lot that he and Hannah did not know about Christmas trees. He decided he should show his good manners though. “My name is Alex. I live in this house with Mum and Dad and my sister.”
“That’s me. My name’s Hannah,” said Hannah. She curtsied like a ballerina and the Christmas tree bowed in return.
“What’s your name?” asked Alex.
“I am Christina,” said the Christmas tree. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
The two branches that had grabbed Alex rested one on each side of the trunk, like someone putting their hands on their hips. Now he looked more closely, he realised they were arms. The needles near the top of the tree furrowed like a frown, and Hannah realised they were a part of Christina’s face. The trunk was clearly her neck and body.
“Do you think we should tell Dad and Mum about her?” whispered Alex to Hannah.
“Your parents would not see or hear me, because they’d never be able to imagine it,” said Christina.
“Why?” asked Hannah.
“The moment you grow up, you stop noticing things like talking Christmas trees,” explained Christina. “Your imagination gets replaced by jobs and dusting and other adult things. They’d just see me as a static, normal tree and say you’re making all of this up.”
Alex and Hannah thought about this. Sometimes being grown up sounded really exciting, and sometimes it seemed really sad.
“You did a good job with my decorations,” said Christina brightly, which cheered Hannah and Alex up. “I like the tinsel. One can never have enough scarves.”
“Tinsel is a scarf?” laughed Hannah.
“Of course it is!” said Christina. “Why else would you wrap it around my neck again and again?”
“And the star or fairy on top?” asked Alex.
“A hat,” confirmed Christina. “Keeps the tops of our heads warm when it’s snowing.”
“And what about baubles? What are they?” asked Hannah.
“Earrings,” said Christina. “A Christmas tree needs lots and lots of ears to hear when the coast is clear and we can go walking.”
“That explains all the needles on the carpet,” said Alex to Hannah. “It’s a bit like when Mum brushes our hair and there’s lots of it in the hairbrush after. The trees must lose their needles like hair when they move around a lot.”
“Hmmm,” said Christina approvingly. “You’re not so silly after all.” She put her hands on her hips again. “Now, what time is it?”
“Nearly dinnertime,” said Hannah, her stomach rumbling.
“Good,” said Christina, “then it will soon be time for the big event.”
“What big event?” asked Alex, but just then Mum and Dad walked into the living room.
“What are you doing?” laughed Dad. “All I can hear is you two talking to yourself!”
“Nothing!” said Alex quickly.
“Honestly, you two and your imagination! The tree isn’t going to answer back!” said Mum, rolling her eyes. “Go and wash your hands, dinner’s nearly ready.”
Alex and Hannah went to get ready to eat, when Christina subtly leant forward and whispered into their ears: “Tonight, after everyone else has gone to bed, sneak over to me and we’ll go on an adventure!”
Hannah and Alex nodded. They didn’t know what was so special about tonight, but they were dying to find out.
Chapter Two
The Midnight March
Hannah hadn’t been able to fall asleep that night; she was too excited to find out what Christina was going to show them. Alex was intrigued as well, but he’d fallen fast asleep straight away and Hannah had to wake him up.
“Come on!” she said to her brother. “Mum and Dad are snoring! Let’s see what’s going on.”
They changed into their warmest clothes and coats and silently crept into the living room where Christina impatiently waggled a branchy arm at them both.
“Quick! Quick! Allegro, children! We’ll be late!” she hissed.
“Late for what?” asked Alex. “You haven’t told us anything!”
“Haven’t I?” Christina shrugged and a heap of needles fell to the floor. “No time now. Hurry, it’s time to go!” All the lights draped around her switched themselves on, even though they weren’t plugged into the wall.
“How did you do that?” gasped Hannah.
“All Christmas trees can do that,” said Christina haughtily. “We need the lights; they’re like torches. It is far too dark to move around at night-time without a torch!”
It had been difficult to find their way to Christina in the dark, thought Hannah. She put on her shoes and Alex did the same, then carefully opened the front door. Christina had a bit of trouble squeezing out of the gap, but once she was, she moved quickly up the path.
It was strange to see a Christmas tree move by itself. Alex had wondered if Christina would stay in her bucket and hop around like a jumping bean, but instead she’d bounced out of it and revealed two roots at her base, like tentacles or legs. She wobbled her way forward, weaving left and right, her lights leading the way in the darkness.
It was cold outside, but Alex and Hannah felt warm in their coats. It was dead quiet, too. If you tried very carefully, you could hear the sea lapping at the shore far away at Lancing beach.
“I wonder how late it is,” pondered Alex.
“It’s midnight,” said Christina, “and it’s time for the Midnight March!”
“The Midnight March?” echoed Hannah. “Where are we marching to?”
Before she could get an answer though, Alex was tapping his sister on the shoulder excitedly and pointing to the other trees along their street.
“Hannah! Look! Look at the trees!”
The one they’d seen lean over earlier had been touching its toes! It was now doing star jumps and jogging on the spot, conkers dropping everywhere. They’d been right about the tree by their school as well: it had been growing a beard made out of leaves! It was now using a garden strimmer to make it look like a neat and tidy goatee.
“Can all trees move and talk?” asked Hannah.
Christina nodded: “All trees, all bees, all birds, all fleas.”
Hannah was taken aback: “Birds?”
“Birds,” nodded Christina again.
“Do birds have proper conversations?” asked Hannah. “It’s not all just birdsong and noise?”
“Of course it’s not,” said Christina. “Sometimes they sing, sometimes they talk. Just because you don’t know what they’re saying, it doesn’t mean they’re talking nonsense.”
“That sounds like when I have to learn French at school,” said Alex. “I don’t understand a lot of French, but I know that all the words make sense if you do.”
“Hello Christina!” said the tree that was touching his toes, out of breath from all his exercising. “Are you looking forward to tonight?”
“I am,” said Christina. “Alex, Hannah, this is Oakley.”
“Hello,” said Alex and Hannah to the tree.
“You’re looking very healthy,” said Christina.
“I’ve taken in plenty of water and sunlight and lost a lot of conkers this year,” said Oakley proudly.
“What-o, Christina!” called the tree by the school with the beard. “I say, are those children coming with us?”
“They are,” said Christina. “Their names are Alex and Hannah, and they can be trusted.”
“Larry Larch at your service, children,” said the bearded tree, bowing so low his branches touched and tickled Alex’s nose.
“Come, come, we must press on!” said Christina. “We cannot be late!”
“Right you are!” said Larry. He walked down to be alongside them. “Hop on, you two! We have a jolly long walk ahead of us, and it’s best not to tire yourself out before the main event!”
“What is the main event?” asked Hannah. “Christina still hasn’t told us!”
“You’ll know soon enough!” said Christina.
Alex and Hannah let themselves be lifted into a thick branch halfway up Larry. The trees walked quickly down the road, avoiding parked cars, lampposts, recycling bins and the occasional fox. Oakley started to run alongside them, but he had soon overtaken them.
As they marched on, doors in all the nearby buildings opened and dozens upon dozens of Christmas trees came out to join them. There were big trees and small trees, some with lights that dazzled and blinded, and some with hardly any decorations at all. Some of them were real trees, and some of them were artificial trees, and all of them seemed to know Christina. She was clearly happy to see them, her lights glowing brighter with every new companion.
It was strange to see a street full of walking Christmas trees, but Alex and Hannah thought it was even stranger to see what was going on just behind them. A busy flock of robins had appeared. They flew low, carrying heavy-looking buckets of water in their beaks. As they followed the parade of Christmas trees, they poured the water onto the roads and streets, and the cold weather quickly turned it into thick ice. They even poured it over cars and vans, until they looked like slippery, frozen hills in the middle of the road! It was very odd and very nice at the same time to look at, in the way that everything looks very odd and very nice at the same time when it’s covered in ice or snow.
“Why are they doing that?” wondered Hannah, but Alex didn’t know.
Safely stowed in Larry’s branches, Alex and Hannah carried on watching the robins as the Midnight March continued. They walked down Lancing high street past the library, shops, churches and pubs until they reached the large hills outside of the village. These were called the South Downs and they stretched for miles and miles.
“Are we climbing up the hills?” asked Alex.
“We are, old bean!” said Larry. “We need to go to Lancing Ring!”
Hannah and Alex had been to Lancing Ring before. It was a nature reserve on top of a hill on the South Downs, with shrubs and flowers, a large pond, chalky paths and farmland close by, and woodland stretching out towards more hills in the distance that seemed to carry on forever.
You could see the sea far away when you were there, and look out across Lancing and all the cities and towns nearby. It was a beautiful place. Tonight, it was also a very busy place. By the time they arrived, the hills surrounding them were covered in all sorts of trees, but mostly in Christmas trees. They were all clearly trying to look their best, using pondwater and dew to wet their needles, and berries and leaves to spruce up their decorations. One of them even used a blue tit as a hat.
“It’s nearly time for the main event!” said Christina excitedly, pushing her way to the front of the assembled throng.
“What is the main event, Christina?” asked Hannah again.
“Guess!” said Christina, cheekily.
“Is it a competition for prettiest tree?” asked Alex.
“All trees are pretty,” said Christina. “Why would we compete for that prize?”
“Is this a party like on bonfire night?” guessed Hannah. “Are there going to be fireworks?”
“Fire and trees do not mix!” said Christina with a shudder.
They tried to guess some more things.
“A birthday party?”
“It is not.”
“Are you here to swap Christmas cards?”
“There are no cards here.”
“Will there be dancing?”
“I highly doubt it.”
“Are we flying kites? Singing? Digging for treasure?”
“No and no and no.”
“What then?” asked Alex eventually. “What are we doing here?”
“We are here for the race!” said Christina gleefully.
“What race?” asked Hannah.
“What race?!” Christina shook her branches in shock. “Honestly, you know nothing! The RATTY Race, of course!”
“The RATTY Race?” Hannah and Alex were baffled.
“RATTY is what the race is called, old fruit,” explained Larry. “It stands for Rarely Active Trees Together Yearly. You see, us trees spend all year as still as they come, but Christmas is a special time of year, and Christmas trees are extra special. It’s why they glitter with so many decorations! They only come out at this time of year, and every year they gather to do a race to the sea: the RATTY Race!”
“And all the trees run?” asked Alex, laughing to himself at the thought.
“No,” said Christina, “we ice skate! It is a far more dignified sight.”
“That’s why the robins were putting all the water onto the paths!” realised Hannah.
“Bingo!” nodded Oakley, walking over to join them. He was sweating sap and out of breath from his run. “The Christmas trees run down the hills, and then skate through the streets. The first to get a branch into the sea gets a prize.”
“What prize?” asked Hannah. “A medal?”
“A decoration!” said Christina. “Sometimes it’s a coveted fairy made from a toilet roll to put on your head. Sometimes it’s a length of glitzy tinsel to wear as a scarf. Sometimes it’s something else entirely. Nobody knows what it is until we finish the race!”
“And you do this every year?” asked Hannah.
“Absolutely!” said Larry. “Every year, just after midnight when Christmas Eve begins, we start the Midnight March and end up here on the South Downs, and then the RATTY Race begins.”
It made sense that the race was at the start of Christmas Eve and not the end, reasoned Hannah and Alex. After all, the end of Christmas Eve was always really busy. People rushed around delivering presents, seeing friends and going to sleep. They wouldn’t want to get in the way of all that.
“I can’t believe this happens in Lancing every year,” said Alex. “I always thought Lancing was a bit sleepy and quiet!”
“It is sleepy and quiet!” said Christina. “But even quiet villages like Lancing have stories to be told, and no story is quite as exciting as the RATTY Race.” She clapped her twiggy hands. “Now! It’s nice to chatter, but I must go and get ready.”
Hannah and Alex wished her good luck and they climbed down Larry, then realised Christina was waiting.
“Well?” she asked. “Are you not going to join me?”
“Join you where?” asked Hannah.
“In the RATTY Race!” laughed Christina. “Why not get into my branches and run with me?”
“Are we allowed to?” asked Alex.
“I can’t see why not,” reasoned Oakley. “It’s not against the rules.”
“It isn’t like you’ll be steering her like a jockey on a horse!” snorted Larry with a laugh. “It will be like she’s carrying a bag or two.”
“You mean we’ll be like her luggage?” laughed Alex. He imagined himself trapped in a suitcase and Christina running with him in it and laughed again.
“I want to be luggage!” declared Hannah, and she walked over to Christina.
“I suppose I’ll be luggage as well, then!” said Alex, joining them.
“Then let’s go and win the RATTY Race!” said Christina.
The three of them waved goodbye to Oakley and Larry and walked over to a long line made up of all the other Christmas trees. They all looked eager to get started. The trees not participating had shuffled off to watch, stretching down the sides of the South Downs as far as the eye could see, leaving a wide, clear route down the hills towards Lancing.
Blackbirds hovered in the air with large video cameras, and seagulls held aloft huge white sheets where the picture from the video cameras were projected.
“Is it only trees and birds that watch the RATTY Race?” asked Alex.
“Sometimes other animals do,” said Christina. “Sheep and cows and so on. We even had a llama watch us last year.”
“A llama?”
“Oh yes.” Christina nodded. “And a moose. They flew over especially. I can’t see them this year. Maybe their flight was cancelled?”
“Hey, look at the white sheets!” said Hannah. “They’re showing the RATTY Race’s route!”
Sure enough, an image was being projected onto the white sheets held by the seagulls: a map of the RATTY Race. It began at Lancing Ring. The Christmas trees had to run down the hills and through the woods of the South Downs before they reached the streets and roads of Lancing, which were now all covered in ice.
They then had to skate down a really steep hill and through quiet streets before they went through the main high street. There was then a railway to cross, more streets to skate down, and an area of grass with parks in it called the Beach Green before they reached the rocks and pebbles and stones of Lancing Beach and their goal, the sea.
It would take a very long time to walk it, and Alex wondered aloud how long it would take to run it.
“However long it takes you, I will be quicker!” sniggered a rude Christmas tree nearby. She was covered in fake white snow which fell as she laughed, and she wore a crown on her head instead of a star or fairy.
“That is Angelina,” said Christina. “She won the race the past two years.”
“And you came second both times. Boo-hoo-hoo!” sneered Angelina. “I look forward to winning it for a third time!”
“Don’t listen to her!” said Alex. “You can do it!”
“No time for talking, Alex,” said Hannah. “I think the RATTY Race is about to start!”
She pointed to a robin which was hovering near the long row of Christmas trees, holding a large white flag in their feet.
“That’s Robyn Robin!” whispered Christina. “Robins help organise the race every year: that’s why they were icing the roads earlier. Robyn Robin is their Prime Minister.”
Alex thought about this. “Aren’t Prime Ministers too busy running the country to start a race? Or is it different for birds?”
“No Prime Minister, avian or otherwise, would be too busy to start the RATTY Race!” said Christina. “The Prime Minister always starts the RATTY Race! It’s an ancient tradition!”
Hannah wondered how many years the race had been run. Had she slept through it every year? She supposed she must have done. She always found it hard to sleep on Christmas Eve, but had never had difficulty doing it the day before. Having the race then was a good way to keep it a secret.
“Stop daydreaming, Hannah!” said Christina, pulling Hannah out of her deep thoughts. “The race is starting!”
The Christmas trees around them clearly all agreed. They fell silent, lights glowing and tinsel safely tucked away, ready to run and skate their way to the sea. Alex looked up and spotted a nest full of sparrows with microphones chirping away. The trees spectating the race listened carefully and laughed along.
“It must be a commentary like you get at football,” said Alex. “I don’t speak Sparrow so I don’t know what they’re saying.”
“Come on you two, get in!” said Christina.
They tried, but it wasn’t easy: Christina may have been a big tree, but she didn’t really have the space for two people. She clearly realised this though as she took a deep breath and shook her whole body. With a whoosh, she expanded until she was wide enough to fit Hannah and Alex in her branches.
“How did you do that?” asked Hannah.
“It’s a clever method us trees have, called branching out,” said Christina.
The sparrows fell silent as Robyn Robin sang. Alex guessed it wasn’t a song at all but a pre-race speech.
“Look forward to losing, Christina!” hissed Angelina cruelly. Christina said nothing back, trying to ignore her rival.
Robyn Robin finished her speech and all the Christmas trees leaned forwards. Alex may not have spoken Sparrow, but he and Hannah clearly knew what the chorus of tweets that suddenly erupted meant: “Three… two… one… start!”
Robyn Robin dropped her white flag and with an excited cry, the Christmas trees ran. The RATTY race had begun!
Chapter Three
The RATTY Race
A cloud of needles flew in the air and the thunder of running roots was deafening as the RATTY Race started.
The crowd cheered and waved and Alex and Hannah held onto Christina, their fingers digging into her bark, as the largest gathering of Christmas trees anyone had ever seen wobbled and sprinted down the hill: it was like a garden centre had come to life. Christina was somewhere in the middle of the pack, but she began to push her way through the lush, green crowd.
Alex could see himself on one of the white sheets and waved to the blackbird close by with the video camera. Christina had jostled her way to the front of the runners now. Her lights blazed fiercely and she looked full of energy. All the while, the sparrows kept tweeting away.
“We’re near the front!” said Hannah. “Look, there’s Angelina!”
Angelina was busy elbowing other trees out of the way, either unaware of everyone around her or not caring. One of them was an artificial tree with shiny purple needles, which fell to the hard ground with a wail.
“That wasn’t very nice!” said Alex.
“Angelina never is!” said Christina, stopping briefly to help the purple tree stand up before running ahead again. They watched Angelina enter the woodland near the bottom of the South Downs and followed her.
“We’re near the end of the hills now!” said Alex. “That means the ice skating’s about to begin!”
Christina muttered breathy “excuse me!”s and “passing through!”s as she caught up with Angelina, pushing shrubs and bushes aside and kicking up puffs of chalkdust and clumps of mud.
If they disturbed the occasional sleeping bunny or mole as they went, they didn’t notice. Everything was a blur and Hannah and Alex laughed and shrieked, their breath making icy trails in the night air.
“Just a little further and we’ll be caught up with Angelina!” said Christina triumphantly. She arched lower and ran even faster—a bit too fast. With a gasp, Alex started to fall out of Christina’s branches!
Quicker than blinking, Hannah stretched out her arm and grabbed her brother before he could tumble to the ground. She just about managed to pull him back while keeping her own seat in Christina. Alex thanked Hannah and gratefully grabbed another branch as he caught his breath.
“We’re here now!” said Christina. She’d been concentrating on running so hard, she was completely unaware of all the drama. Instead, she pointed forward.
They’d reached the end of the woods where the South Downs finished and the streets and roads to Lancing started. It was time to go ice skating!
Just like the map had shown, the ice skating route started with a very steep hill. They watched as Angelina ahead of them leapt towards it.
“Look!” said Alex, pointing to Angelina’s roots. They were spread out, like a ballerina leaping across the stage, and thick needles suddenly sprouted from the bottom of them.
“They’re like the blades you get on the bottom of ice skates!” realised Hannah.
With a satisfied thud, Angelina and her new, bladed roots hit the ice and skated off down the steep hill with ease.
“Op là!” cheered Christina as she flew through the sky like Angelina had, only when she landed, it wasn’t as gracefully. She wibbled and wobbled like nervous jelly and spun around like a spinning top. It reminded Alex of when he’d watched ice skating on TV, only without the music playing in the background, just the sound of him, Hannah and Christina all screaming.
“We’re going to fall over!” said Hannah.
“Never!” said Christina. She pulled two thick branches out from near Alex and dragged them across the icy ground, leaving skid marks behind them. It was Hannah who thought of watching TV at home this time. The sight of the branches reminded her of watching skiing, and how skiers use their poles to help them jump off slopes.
Christina used her branch poles to regain her balance and once she had, they started going down the steep hill.
It was easily the scariest and most exciting thing Alex and Hannah had ever experienced at the same time in their whole lives. They’d been fast when running down the South Downs, but that felt as slow as a creep compared to how quickly they were going now. Parked cars sat frozen by the kerbside and Christina’s branches grazed their wing mirrors as they plummeted downhill. Wind whipped Alex and Hannah’s cheeks. Houses either side of the road looked blurry, and street lights streaked ghostly tails of sickly yellow.
The blackbirds with the cameras flapped their wings as fast as they could to keep up with the two trees as they reached the bottom of the hill. They whizzed past a church and ducked down quiet streets. All the while Angelina remained ahead, churning up a blanket of icy flakes as she skated. Even from this distance, they heard her deliver a bragging cackle as her lead increased.
“We need to catch her!” said Alex.
“Christina’s trying her best,” said Hannah, “but Angelina’s just too fast!”
Christina said nothing, but Alex and Hannah could feel her starting to sag as her confidence waned. They stayed silent as they slalomed down the road towards Lancing high street.
Finally, Christina let out a sigh: “I fear I will come second again this year,” she confessed. Her arms drooped and she let her two branch poles drag across the ground. “I’m sorry, this is not the glorious victory I wanted.”
Alex decided he should try and cheer Christina up: “Don’t worry!” he said encouragingly, the wind whipping his hair back. “Second place isn’t bad, and this is really fun!”
“It is!” said Hannah. “Just because you might not win, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t good. This is great!”
“It is?” asked Christina, uncertain if they were just being kind.
“It is!” confirmed Hannah.
“It’s like watching it on TV, only we’re actually doing it!” said Alex.
“That’s just what I was thinking!” said Hannah. And then she paused for a moment and thought some more. She was starting to have an idea. It wasn’t quite a full idea yet, just the very start of one, but it was growing and the more it did, the more excited she grew.
She went to tell Alex, but one look at his face showed her that he was having the exact same idea! They looked at each other and silently tried to work out if what they were thinking could possibly work…
Chapter Four
One Giant Leap for Treekind
Christina had now reached Lancing high street and was racing her way down it with renewed purpose. Alex and Hannah were right: so what if she came in second place? Second place was really good! And the RATTY Race was fun, wherever you ended up!
She had heard the phrase ‘It’s not the winning, it’s the taking part that counts’ before, and deep down had never been sure she’d really believed it, but now she was racing and seeing how much fun Alex and Hannah were having, she knew it was true. First place, second place, last place—none of it mattered so long as she was enjoying herself, and she was.
Strangely, the more she enjoyed herself, the faster she went and the closer she got to Angelina. Angelina was wheezing away, full of fiery determination to win: but she didn’t look like she was happy. She didn’t care about the fun of the RATTY Race at all. She just wanted to win and brag about it afterwards.
Hannah and Alex looked at Lancing high street as they skated down it. It wasn’t long ago that they’d been walking through it as part of the Midnight March, and now it was rushing by. The shops all had Christmas decorations up in their windows and some of them still had their Christmas lights on, twinkling away in the early hours. All around was silent, apart from the sound of two racing trees and a handful of blackbirds with cameras capturing the image for the spectators on the South Downs to see.
“We’re catching up!” said Hannah. They definitely were. The lead between Christina and Angelina was getting shorter and shorter now.
“We’ll be near the beach soon,” said Alex, “and then the RATTY Race will be over!”
Alex and Hannah looked at each other. It was time to put their idea into action.
“Christina!” whispered Hannah urgently, afraid her voice would carry on the wind over to Angelina. “We have a plan!”
“We think it’ll help you get ahead!” said Alex.
“It would?” Christina sounded interested. “What is this plan?”
“We jump!” said Hannah.
“Jump?” Christina was intrigued.
“Yes! Jump!” said Alex. “When we spun around earlier, it made me think of ice skating and how those skaters jump and twirl.”
“And when I saw your branches, I thought of ski poles, and that made me think about the slopes people use when skiing!” continued Hannah.
“If you could launch yourself, you could go flying, and you might get further than Angelina!” concluded Alex.
“I suppose it could work…” mused Christina, “but how will I get high enough?”
“That’s easy!” said Alex. “There’s a broken down transporter really close to the beach with its ramp down: that’ll give you the height you need!”
“I remember!” said Christina. “I saw it from your car earlier!” She fretted. “But will it work?”
Before anyone could say anything else, Hannah gasped: “Look!” She stretched up as far as she could without falling out of Christina’s branches. “I can see the sea!”
“And I can see the transporter!” said Alex. It was still on the side of the road, with its ramp down and frozen traffic cones dotted around it.
“You need to make a decision, Christina!” insisted Hannah. “Are you going to jump or not?”
“It’s now or never time!” said Alex.
“Now or never time…” repeated Christina.
She looked ahead. The start of the Beach Green was approaching, a large stretch of grass that eventually led to a pebbly beach and then the sea, and between there and Christina was Angelina, flagging but still in the lead. Christina looked carefully. The approach to the Beach Green was a slight hill going downwards where vans would normally drive to drop supplies off to the nearby café.
Christina knew enough about skiing to know that once people jumped off slopes, they needed to ski downwards when they landed to lessen the impact and stop themselves being injured. This hill could be just what she needed!
“Now or never,” she said again, and made her decision.
With a movement so sudden that the blackbird filming her nearly dropped the camera, Christina steered away from the middle of the road towards the transporter. A minute ago, she hadn’t even had the energy or will to hop, but now she had her heart set on winning. She sent traffic cones scattering as she used her branch poles to get into position and propelled her way up the broken ramp.
“Here goes nothing!” she said and with one final push of her branch poles, she launched herself off into the sky with an almighty cry!
For a moment there was silence. Even the blackbird stopped flapping. If anyone in any house or flat close by had opened their curtains, they’d have seen a graceful Christmas tree with two ski poles made of wood flying through the air over the length of a broken transporter stacked with broken cars, while two children grabbed on for dear life, too shocked to even scream.
At first they lost speed and Alex and Hannah wondered if it had all been for nothing, but then they started to descend, accelerating faster and faster, the ground racing towards them quicker than seemed possible, until with an almighty bump they crashed back onto the hill leading towards the Beach Green, neck and neck (or trunk and trunk) with Angelina!
She turned, surprised and appalled, and tried desperately to get ahead again, but Christina had the momentum from the jump and adrenaline behind her. She zoomed faster and faster, digging her branch poles into the ground to push herself ever onwards.
The hill down ended and they were on the Beach Green. It had a skate park and great stretches of grass on it but no trees normally: and now there were two! They skied along frozen grass, taking a quick breath before ascending a hill up to the start of the beach. Christina felt her entire bark ache with effort as she forced herself up it, but even with fatigue setting in, she was way ahead of Angelina now.
The Beach Green ended and they reached the beach itself. They started skating downwards again towards the sea, jolting painfully with every bump over the ice-strewn pebbles and stones and rocks.
“Al-most-there-now!” stammered Christina between bumps.
“Never!” screamed Angelina behind her. “I’ll beat you, Christina!” And just like that, she gave it her best attempt. With one final snarl, Angelina tried in vain to launch herself into the air like Christina had done off the transporter’s broken ramp, jumping into the sky from the top of the beach. For one brief second it looked like she’d done it, but she didn’t have the height or the balance. Just as quick as she’d jumped, she fell. She tumbled to the ground, rolling forwards painfully, twigs snapping, and with one last indignant whimper she smacked straight into Christina.
“Argh!” cried Alex, Hannah and Christina as they were pushed over. They bound across the frozen beach like a bowling ball until, with a triumphant splash, they crashed into the sea.
The blackbirds with the cameras zoomed in on them and even from here, they could hear the faraway cry of cheering trees from the South Downs and excited sparrows commentating about their victory.
“Yes!” cheered Hannah soggily. She waved her arms around, sending sea all over the place.
“Urgh!” groaned Alex, sticking his tongue out and clawing at it to try and scrape away the taste of saltwater. He soon gave up and splashed his sister back.
“We won!” said Christina, simply, and Alex couldn’t tell if that was a tear rolling down Christina’s bark or just the sea.
The three of them carried on splashing and didn’t notice Angelina sulking nearby.
The RATTY Race was over, and they’d come in first place.
Chapter Five
Home
By the time they’d stepped out of the sea, Alex and Hannah were shivering. In all the excitement, they’d forgotten how cold it was and were grateful when a flock of starlings arrived with towels and hot drinks.
“What happens now?” asked Hannah as her teeth chattered.
“We wait,” said Christina. “The other Christmas trees need to finish racing first, and then all the birds and trees who were watching us on the South Downs need to join us on the beach.”
They sat down. Dozens of Christmas trees soon joined them, some of them ice skating quickly, some of them ice skating slowly, and of them reaching the sea with a smile. One of them slid into the sea like a sea lion and everyone laughed.
Soon after, they spotted the first of the spectators coming towards them. It was like watching the Midnight March all over again, only in reverse this time as they headed away from the South Downs. Oakley was one of the first to arrive, jogging to greet them and hugging Christina so hard, he shed conkers everywhere. Larry was one of the last to join them.
“I’m not a young sapling, old chums,” he chuckled, “and I can safely say that in all my years, that race was the best I have ever seen!”
Once everybody was gathered, it was like a forest had grown overnight. The trees not only covered Lancing beach but the Beach Green, too, and even some of the road. Hannah pointed, and in the distance they saw a llama and a moose cheering. It looked like they’d made it in time to watch the race after all.
There was an old bandstand at one end of the Beach Green and it was there that the prizes for the RATTY Race were given out. A podium was placed in the middle of it, the blackbirds did their usual job with the cameras and the seagulls with the white sheets acting as large cinema screens, and the sparrows tweeted their observations.
Finally, a couple of the starlings ushered Christina, Alex and Hannah onto the top of the podium, in first place. Second was an extremely grumpy Angelina, and third was the tree with the purple needles Angelina had knocked over and Christina had helped stand upright. His name was Tariq and he was very grateful to Christina for her assistance earlier.
A silence descended over Lancing as Robyn Robin flapped up to hand out the winning prize. She tweeted a speech just as she had done before the RATTY Race started and the assembled trees all clapped. Alex was dying to know what she had said, but didn’t want to be rude and interrupt the ceremony.
Robyn Robin finished her speech and presented Christina with a large, glass bauble. Inside it there was a drift of pretend snow and models of a Christmas tree and two children: one girl and one boy, just like Hannah and Alex. When you shook the bauble, it was like a snowglobe. It reminded them of the ice whizzing through the air as they’d skated and leapt their way to victory in the RATTY Race. That couldn’t have been more than an hour ago, but it felt like it had happened days before.
“Well done, Christina!” said Tariq, but Angelina stormed off the podium with bad grace to the sound of trees booing.
“How rude!” said Hannah, and Alex agreed.
Robyn Robin tweeted, Christina bowed, and the crowd cheered. Alex and Hannah took a bow, too, and the trees stomped their roots and flashed their lights. Eventually the cheering stopped and one by one, the birds flew away back to their nests and the trees started the long walk back to their homes.
“We’d better get back home, too,” said Hannah, “before Mum and Dad wake up and wonder where we all are!”
“Good idea,” agreed Christina.
Alex was already asleep in Larry’s branches so they walked back slowly with Oakley by their side, stopping every so often so a tree could congratulate Christina and admire her new bauble. Everybody agreed it was the best RATTY Race they’d ever seen, and everybody was happy Christina had won it.
“I wonder where Angelina went,” pondered Hannah between yawns. She could barely keep her eyes open.
“Back to her house to sulk, I reckon,” said Oakley.
“She’ll be back next year, you mark my words!” said Larry. “She won’t like the taste of defeat one little bit, deary me no!”
Eventually, they were home. All around them more trees came back and stopped moving, pretending they couldn’t walk at all. Larry carefully woke Alex up and put him onto the ground, then he and Oakley resumed their places by the school and street, as still as mountains.
Christina, Alex and Hannah tiptoed back into their house, shutting the door behind them. Christina settled down back in her bucket in the living room and her lights pulsed contentedly.
Alex looked thoughtful. “Will you do the race again next year?” he asked.
“Of course,” said Christina.
“And will we be back to watch it?” he asked. “Me and Hannah, that is. Will we be back next year, or will we be too grown up?”
Christina mulled it over. “I think,” she said at last, “that the RATTY Race is like an amazing game and remembering it is like telling an amazing story, so as long as you keep your imagination young, never stop telling stories and never stop playing games, you can come to watch every year.”
“Why would we stop playing games or telling stories?” asked Hannah.
“I don’t know,” admitted Christina, “but most adults do, and so do some children.”
“We won’t!” said Alex.
“Don’t be too sure,” said Christina. “Maybe you’ll think this was all a dream by the time you wake up!”
“No,” said Hannah, “we won’t.”
“I certainly hope not,” said Christina. She stretched her branches with a creak. “Now go to bed, before someone hears you!”
Hannah and Alex said goodnight and walked away, and Christina wondered if she’d ever talk to them again.
Alex and Hannah supposed they must have reached their beds but they couldn’t remember doing so, and they supposed they must have fallen asleep as well but they couldn’t remember doing that either. All they knew was that when they woke up, the first thing they did was rush to the living room to see Christina. Dad and Mum were very confused when they found Hannah and Alex there, staring at the Christmas tree.
“Why do you both smell like the sea?” asked Mum.
“I don’t know,” lied Alex.
“And why are your pyjamas soggy?” asked Dad.
“I don’t know that either,” lied Hannah.
“I’m amazed you slept in as long as you did,” said Mum. “After all, it’s Christmas Eve!”
“Oh yes!” said Alex. “I’d forgotten!”
“Forgotten?” Dad laughed. “How on earth do you forget something like that? Honestly, you two!”
And with that, Mum and Dad walked out of the living room leaving Alex and Hannah to look at Christina. She was perfectly still.
“She’s not moving,” said Hannah. “It did all happen… didn’t it?”
“Of course!” said Alex. “I think so anyway.” He turned to where Mum and Dad had gone. “They’d never believe us if we told them what happened, would they?”
“No,” said Hannah. “They’d just say it was a story we’re making up. That’s what Christina said, remember?”
“I think I remember,” said Alex, but he wasn’t sure. “Maybe we shouldn’t tell them then.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t tell anyone,” said Hannah.
Deep inside, a tiny part of them grew colourless and cold, as if they were forgetting something important that they’d never remember ever again. Hannah looked at the Christmas tree. She was sure there was something about it that was special, but she couldn’t for the life of her work out what it was.
They went to walk away, when Alex kicked something on the ground. He bent over and picked it up: “What’s this?”
It was a large, round bauble. He was sure he’d never seen it before. He went to put it back when he saw snow fall inside it.
“Hey, Hannah, look at this!” said Alex. He shook the bauble again, and more snow fell. Inside he saw a Christmas tree and two children. Suddenly, he felt colours bursting inside him and the coldness disappeared.
Hannah took the bauble and felt the same thing happen to her as her memories rushed back: “The RATTY Race! It’s the prize!”
They laughed and shook the bauble and remembered it all: the Midnight March, the RATTY Race, Larry and Oakley and Angelina and Robyn Robin. It all came flooding back.
“Let’s tell Dad and Mum!” said Alex.
“Yeah!” said Hannah. “It doesn’t matter if they believe us or not, does it? Remember what else Christina said? All places, loud or noisy or big or small, have stories to be told, and I think last night was the best story ever!”
“The story of the RATTY Race and how we won it!” smiled Alex. “You’re right. I don’t care what they say, we’ve got to tell them, haven’t we?”
Hannah agreed and they ran off to find Mum and Dad.
Christina watched them go and stayed quiet, but deep down she cheered.
“I think,” she thought to herself with a smile, “that I’ll definitely be seeing them at the RATTY Race next year after all!”
The End
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