It’s gotten really cold, dear friends, hasn’t it? There’s a lot of snow here in the north. You can’t get warm anymore, the sun doesn’t even warm your fur – you don’t even feel like leaving your den anymore.
Nevertheless, I was out in the forest the other day. I was trudging through the snow, lost in thought, the moon was shining a little, and I couldn’t believe my eyes:
A tree, very bright, with lots of little stars on it, which enveloped everything in a magical light. I had never seen anything like it before. And certainly not in my favorite forest clearing. I looked at the tree very carefully from all sides – it was beautiful.
I kept walking, hoping to maybe find something edible. As I was shuffling through the snow at the edge of the forest, I saw that magical light again, just a little bit, it seemed to be far away. Curious, I looked, and lo and behold, another beautiful tree.
And somehow it smelled really delicious. I carefully crept around the house, because as we know, people are not to be trusted, but I couldn’t figure out what smelled so good.
Instead, I found a warm, dry place – as if it had been made for me. Fighting through the deep snow is pretty tiring, so I thought I’d lie down for a bit and listen to see if I could hear a mouse or two pattering around. Oh, it was wonderfully soft, dry and warm…
I must have fallen asleep. I dreamed that I suddenly had the head of a cow above me, staring at me while it was chewing. And sometime later a donkey looked at me a little askance. And after a while I heard voices. Human voices! I stayed very still, hardly moved, only breathed a little, and they stood around me and smiled and looked down at me and seemed happy.
And then I saw myself as if through the eyes of another fox, and I had seen something similar to this image in a human living room before.
That was totally crazy. I tried desperately to wake up, which I managed, and it took a while before I assured myself that I was back in the barn where I had lain down to sleep. And even though you had a great view of the mice from that wooden thing, somehow it had a strange effect on my sleep. Maybe that piece of wood was magical like the trees outside. No, that was too scary for me, I preferred to lie down on the floor again. It smelled so nice of straw and wood – I can fall asleep wonderfully on that too.
When I woke up in the morning, I quickly stopped by the Hoomans. However, only “Sissy” was in the garden, and she told me that the two of them weren’t at home at all.
She asked me mischievously if I wanted to come in, secretly, so that no one would know. So we both sneaked in and hid in Joey’s office. Then I told Sissy about this magical light and the trees, and she had the idea of ”googling” them. How funny, that’s how my cousin from Saxony always talks.
We jumped onto the chair and then looked at pictures and videos.
“Christmas” is what people celebrate and therefore cover everything in this magical light. And Sissy showed me how you could find out a lot more about it on this Peecee. First of all, of course, I looked for these beautiful trees and found out that the first “Christmas tree”, as they are really called, was probably in a hall in Bremen. Then in 1570. And apparently it was a date palm. A palm tree here in Germany, that’s just a hunter’s tale! Can you imagine that?
And they don’t smell as good as spruces and firs. Oh, that’s just wonderful. I can imagine what the Hoomans’ Christmas tree looks like….
“Look,” I said to Sissy, “it says here that at Christmas time people like to drink cocoa with spices and milk, that’s bound to taste delicious.” “You can forget it,” she said. “Sabine and Joey are vegan, they don’t use any milk.” So what? I also like to drink water, and almond or soy milk with cocoa and cinnamon… I think that would be something for me.
On Christmas Eve and afterwards, people spend a lot of time in front of this TV thing, watching Christmas films or something where there’s shooting going on. I wonder if they ever show anything about us foxes?
At some point a bell will ring and then the Christ Child will have arrived. Is that the little fox that people stare at? Because he used to get presents that he couldn’t do anything with as a baby, he now gives people things that they don’t know what to do with and then exchanges them in the shop. They then hide them in lots of shiny rubbish and put them under the Christmas tree. People then pounce on them and open all the presents.
I would also like to receive presents. But I don’t know how to do this swapping thing, so it should be something I like. But if I’m honest, we’ve actually always received presents from the Hoomans. Sometimes an apple, sometimes an egg. A real egg! Sissy says they buy them just for me, and then they hide something really great inside for me, which is really good for me. Damn… I just kept eating the eggs, maybe I should have looked to see what else was hidden inside. But Sissy just rolled her eyes and said that the tapeworm had probably already reached my brain. She talks like a real human, sometimes I don’t understand a word.
Oh well, if I got as many presents as the people, if I could tear and pick apart this shiny rubbish, and then find something really great just for me, that would be wonderful. Then I would lie down in the middle of it and take a nap. Because we foxes need our beauty sleep too.
Well, let’s quickly see what else this Peecee knows about Christmas.
Oh my goodness – what is that? In Iceland there is a big, fat, ugly cat called “Jolakötturin” (always those Scandinavians, my cousin on my father’s side is called “Musfångare” – no normal fox can pronounce that).
This strange cat is said to eat small children, and to prevent this from happening, people have to give the children hand-knitted socks. Does that explain the small population in Iceland? Because the people there can’t knit socks? But that should be introduced as a school subject, because we have cats like that here in Siegerland too. You can’t mess with them.
And then I read something about a reindeer with a red nose called “Rudolf”. I told you, the Scandinavians really have frozen brains. And this reindeer is said to pull Santa’s sleigh. Through the air. Anyway…. this Rudolf is really famous. There’s even a song about it.
Sissy says I should just identify myself as a reindeer, maybe then they’ll write a song about me. I should pretend to be a reindeer? Nobody will believe me. Sissy thinks lots of people would believe that. They believed every piece of crap by now.
“Coppy, the red-nose reindeer”. Hahaha……… then I’m a reindeer now! And anyone who doesn’t believe that has to eat a can of “Surströmming”. Another Scandinavian invention. But it’s supposed to be delicious. Say “Musfångare”.
No, no…..Shoemaker, stick to your last, my uncle always said. Everyone is what they are, you can’t trick nature. Only people.
OK, I have to go again. Sabine and Joey will be back soon. The sun is shining outside for a short while, I’m going to take advantage of it and close my eyes for a bit. And then maybe I’ll dream about milk with cocoa and cinnamon again……..
“Oat milk” shouts Sissy.
Okay, then I’ll dream about mice again……….
