From “The Box of Magic” by Malorie Blackman in Christmas Stories: A Collection of Festive Tales, chosen by Lauren Buckland:
“Peter had spent all afternoon searching and searching for the perfect present for his mum and dad. Something that would stop them quarrelling for just five minutes. Something that would make Christmas the way it used to be, with smiles and songs and happiness in every corner of the house….
“But all the searching had been for nothing. Peter didn’t have that much money to begin with and all the things he could afford, he didn’t want. All the gifts he could afford looked so cheap and tacky that Peter knew they would fall apart about ten seconds after they were handled. What was he going to do? He had to buy something and time was running out….
“Then he caught sight of it out of the corner of his eye. The medium-sized sign above the door said ‘The Christmas Shop’ in spidery writing. The small shop window was framed with silver and gold tinsel and a scattering of glitter like mini stars. At the bottom of the window, fake snow had been sprayed. It looked so much like the real thing that had it been outside the window instead of inside, Peter would’ve been sure it was real snow. A single Christmas tree laden with fairy lights and baubles and yet more tinsel stood proudly in the exact centre of the window….
“He wondered why he’d never seen it before…. Peter looked up and down the street. The few other shops in the same row as the Christmas Shop were all boarded up. Unexpectedly, the shop door opened. A tall portly man with a white beard and a merry twinkle in his eyes stood in the doorway….”
From “Christmas Tree” by Laurence Smith in The Oxford Treasury of Christmas Poems, edited by Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark:
Star over all
Eye of the night
Stand on my tree
Magical sight
Green under frost
Green under snow
Green under tinsel
Glitter and glow
Appled with baubles
Silver and gold
Spangled with fire
Warm over cold.
