The magic of a childhood Christmas

[Stephen Hunter King]

Stephen was too busy making his scary bunny to even think about eating any, even as delicious as all of it smelled. His artistic talent an passion was reckoned to come from his mother's side although Jacob had aesthetic eye too and both could h old a tune when singing. Granted, his parents rarely sung outside of the privacy of their home. Unlike his sister the boy wasn't eager to do much visual art, though, unless it involved something more than pen and paper. This cookie art he found perhaps the most fun which is why he'd never skipped a chance to do this since he was two years old. After the bunny's elf-hat was done he positioned the creature against the wall to guard the door to the gingerbread house and the hat on its head.

As he did this he took a look around at the others' creations. It was quite a range of different achievements and not everyone looked happy with theirs. In his eyes most were much more complicated and nicer than his bunny but then again most were by children many years older than he and he'd faced similar situations before so he didn't mind. One boy near him seemed particularly displeased with his Christmas tree cookie. An amused smile curved on Stephen's lips but it was warm and friendly.

The old woman approached the table while counting heads. She brought over to the table a large basket of gingerbread cookies shaped into stars and hearts. It was supposed to be there from the very start because naturally kids would want to also eat some instead of just decorating - but the woman who'd promised to bake them did not have time until this morning.

"Here, darlings, you can decorate and eat these," she said as she laid the basket on a little side table nearby. "But," she added before any tiny hand could dive in them, "there's only three for each of you. Miss Claire is baking more right now."
Stephen hopped off his chair and hurried to grab two stars and one heart and then quickly back before someone could steal his seat. On his way he took another look at the disaster tree. The lad still had on his mind hopes of making decorations more real and lively with magic, but as that would not be possible right now his mind wandered to other options.

"Hey," Stephen said when the other little artist was at the table, "Try to make more branches with the icing? So it would be like a real tree shape instead of a flat cookie?" he suggested as he looked from the cookie to the boy. It would require loads of icing but he supposed it didn't matter how much of it they used as there was a whole pile of tubes on the table.