Just ahead of my midweek appearance with Tucker on the telly, welcome to the second episode of our bonus holiday Tale for Our Time - my own short story The Little Christmas Tree, prompted partly by a TV gig a couple of weeks back when Maestro Carlson showed me a rather battered and forlorn New York Christmas tree.
In tonight's episode the Little Christmas Tree arrives to find the holiday season in the big city is not as she had been expecting:
The truck carrying the Little Christmas Tree continued down the very wide road. Every few miles or so they would sight another motor car heading away from the city, but eventually even these few lone travelers disappeared. Finally they came to a large sign that said "Welcome to Zone Five" – and on it was a newborn baby like the one the Little Christmas Tree had seen outside the church in the small village far away behind them, and a reindeer and a white-bearded man in a red suit, but blotting out their faces was a giant red X through them all.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Two of The Little Christmas Tree simply by clicking here and logging-in. Part One can be found here.
Thank you for your kind words about this contemporary short story. Elizabeth, a First Month Founding Member from the state that inspired this tale, writes:
We listened last evening with mixed mirth and sadness to your little tree tale, and marvel not a little (as Runyon might say) at the imagination which can produce such a wonderful story.
I've marveled before at the lengths you go to inform, enlighten, and entertain us, warming our hearts all along the way. Many thanks again, for all of that.
To you and yours, and to your staff, very Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to you too, Elizabeth. I hope the strictures of the Cuomo regime are not too disruptive of the supposedly festive season.
I'll be here tomorrow, Christmas Eve, not only with Part Three of The Little Christmas Tree but also with other seasonal fare which we hope will mitigate the lockdown blues.
If you've yet to hear any of our almost four-dozen audio adventures (all handily archived in Netflix tile format - or, for Mr Snerdley Acorn TV tile format), you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For details on membership, see here - and, if you're seeking a Christmas present for a fellow fan of serialized fiction, don't forget our Steyn Club Gift Membership.
On the other hand, if you'd like a book in old-fashioned book form, over at the Steyn store, there are bargains galore among our Steynamite Specials.
