Author: Susan Minarik

Little Pine’s breakfast was waiting for him on the table when he got up, and his mother seemed to be bubbling with excitement. “Good Morning, Mother,” he said, wondering what was going on.

“Good Morning, Little Pine. You need to eat your breakfast quickly. A blue jay stopped by with a message from the elves. They have a surprise for you, and they need you to meet them at the end of Holly Trail as quickly as you can.”

“The surprise!” Little Pine said, taking a big bite of his winterberry muffin. “I’d almost forgotten all about it! What do you think it could be?”

“Well, with your little elf friends, I suppose anything is possible,” Mother Pine said.

Little Pine quickly finished his muffin, took a big swig of spruce juice, kissed his mother on the cheek and ran out the door.

Holly Trail was a long trail, weaving up and down through the wooded hills. But Little Pine was so excited that he felt as if he was flying as he ran along. As he neared the end, he saw twinkling lights and bits of bright colors shining through the trees. “They must have decorated a special one,” Little Pine thought, racing over the last few bends in the trail.

“Oh!” he gasped when the tree came fully into view. It was the most spectacularly decorated tree that he had ever seen. Just then he heard the elves calling his name.

“Little Pine! Little Pine! Come see!” they called.

He ran toward their voices, and then all of a sudden he came to a screeching halt and his heart pounded with fear. Right there on a tree branch sat a small white-bearded human. “Oh, no!” Little Pine thought. “He must have seen me running!” He had broken the Number One Rule.

The elves burst into gales of laughter. “It’s okay!” the youngest elf called. “He’s not a human. He’s our Grand Old Elf, our Elf King. He just wears a human disguise because the humans love him. He’s famous among their kind. They know him all over the whole world!”

Little Pine stood stark still as the little elf’s words sunk in. “Are you sure?” he gulped.

“Hello, Little Pine,” the bearded figure said in a surprisingly warm, deep voice. “It’s true. I’m an elf. One of the oldest in the world. I’m known by many names, but in your part of the world, they call me Santa Claus, and so may you.”

Something in the old elf’s voice assured Little Pine that he was telling the truth. Little Pine stepped nearer and with a little bow said, “I’m so pleased to meet you, Santa Claus. It’s such an honor that you would come to our Festival! Welcome!”

“The honor is mine,” said Santa. “Your Festival has quite a reputation. I understand that it’s one of the most joyous and sincere Festivals anywhere. Besides, I had a couple tasks to do here.”

“Tasks?” said Little Pine. “Can I help you with them in any way?”

“Ho-ho-ho!” laughed the old elf. He turned to the oldest brother. “He’s just like you said he was!”

Little Pine wondered what his friend had told Santa. But it wouldn’t be polite to ask.

“Little Pine,” his friend said, “we first learned that Santa would be visiting when the bears started coming. See, every year on Festival Day, Santa flies around the world leaving gifts for everyone—for the humans and all the other creatures of the earth, to remind them that they are all dearly loved. He needed to check his list so he would know which bears had come here so he could deliver their presents to the right place. We were just going over it with him to be sure it was complete.”

“You mean this is the REAL Santa? The one who leaves gifts for us all? Wow! I never dreamed that I’d get to meet you in person!” he said to the Elf King.

Santa laughed his “Ho-ho-ho!” again and said, “My second reason for coming here does involve you, Little Pine. When your elf friends here learned that I was coming, they asked if you could meet me and if I would bring you something special. They told me you were the finest of friends, not only to them, but to every creature in the woods. You are always kind, willing to lend an ear and a helping hand. And not only that, but you bring happiness to everyone you meet. They said you are a Prince among trees.”

Little Pine didn’t know what to say. He never thought of himself as being any more special than anyone else. And all of his friends brought him as much happiness as he gave to them.

“So,” Santa Claus continued, “At the request of your elf friends, and because I can see that everything they have told me about you is true, I have a special gift for you.” He reached into a big bag that was balanced on a branch near where he was sitting and rummaged around in it a bit.

“Ah, here it is!” he said, pulling out a beautiful golden star with blazing streamers falling from each of its points. “Come stand in front of me, Little Pine, and bow down your head.”

Little Pine did as Santa instructed. “In the name of the Love that is Friendship,” Santa said, “by the powers vested in me as King of the Elves, I hereby grant you the title of Prince Little Pine, Ambassador of Friendship to all.” With those words, he fastened the star to Little Pine’s head, and the elves flung glittering confetti in the air and whistled their very best song. And Little Pine’s heart filled with joy.

Little Pine had only gone a few steps down the trail when he spotted two more little bears playing in the branches of one of his cousin pines. He introduced himself and welcomed them to the Festival.

“Hi, Little Pine! We’re the Wuzzy Bears. I’m Fuzzy and this is my little brother Buzz,” said the older bear. “We’re so happy to be here for your Festival. The trees in your woods are so, so, um, fluffy! Their needles are so long and soft! We love playing in them. Where we live, the pines all have short, bright needles, like yours. They’re easier to grip, I must admit. But these long ones tickle and make us laugh!”

Little Pine giggled. This was the most talkative bear he’d met yet. “Well, just be careful. Only a few minutes ago I met a little bear who took a tumble from one of these trees and bumped his head.”

“Oh, we’re adept climbers,” Fuzzy said. “Don’t you worry about us.”

“Say, I like your name, Fuzzy. It suits you,” Little Pine said.

Fuzzy giggled. “Thanks,” he said. “My fur came from a wish. When I was born, for some reason I didn’t have much fur, just a little bit of fuzz. So Mom and Dad called me Fuzzy, and they made a birthday wish that my fuzz would turn to fur. And as you can see, their wish came true, even though it took a full year, and by then, of course, it was too late to change my name.”

“That’s a great story,” said Little Pine. “I believe all wishes that are made from the heart come true in one way or another. Sometimes they take a while, and sometimes they don’t turn out quite the way you expected. But sooner or later, they’re granted. At least that’s what I believe.

“And how did Buzz get his name?”

“Well,” said Fuzzy. “His story is kind of funny. Just after he was born, he went for a little stroll and somehow he tumbled into a pool of honey. He thought that he’d been born into the sweetest world! He ate as much as his baby tummy would hold, and when he came back from his adventure, he was covered in sticky honey and a bunch of bees were buzzing around him. Then when he tried to say how fun it all was, his mouth was so sticky that all he could do was buzz.

“And you know what? To this day, when he’s really, really happy, he buzzes with joy.”

Buzz buzzed, and Little Pine laughed.

“Are you two in the choir?” Little Pine asked. “I heard some of the rehearsal last night.”

“Oh, yes!” said Fuzzy. “All the bears are taking part. It’s our special gift for Festival Day.”

“Well from what I heard last night, it’s going to be very special indeed,” said Little Pine.

“Sugar Bear is teaching different groups of us every night because bears keep arriving. And on Festival Day, we’ll put all our parts together. So until then, even we don’t know how it will sound, but we sure are excited,” Fuzzy said.

“Everyone is excited,” said Little Pine. “Festival Day is the best day of the year. The Light begins its return and it plants the kernels of new dreams in everyone. Then we rest and let the kernels grow, each of them taking its own special shape for each of us, all of them helping us reach for our own best possibilities for the coming year. It’s a gift from the Yes, and that’s why we celebrate with so much joy.”

“It happens that way where we live, too,” said Fuzzy. “The Light brings the Life of the Yes to us to show us what we can be.”

“Well whatever dreams it brings you,” said Little Pine, “I bet they’ll be wrapped in fun.”

“I hope they’ll be drenched in honey!” said Buzz, buzzing a little and smacking his lips.

Little Bear laughed and reached in his pocket. “I’m going to see if I can meet more bears,” he said. “You are one of the friendliest species I’ve ever met! Here’s a little present for you, just to thank you for coming.” And he gave them each fun bubbles that burst into the sounds of a laughing kazoo and spun strands of honey candy all around them.

After breakfast the next morning, Little Pine headed out to see if the elves needed any help. His mother told him that she had heard the singing during the night, too, and she was humming some of the Festival songs as he left. The whole woods felt happier somehow as he scampered down the trail.

The elves had already gone out to deliver more treats to the tree hollows when Little Pine got to their house. But Jeffrey Gingerman was out in the yard looking at an enormous pile of seeds. “Hi, Jeffrey!” Little Pine said. “Where did you get that all those seeds?”

“Hi, Little Pine. A flock of blackbirds brought them early this morning. They heard we needed more supplies to feed the bears,” Jeffy laughed, “and they scoured all the fields at the west end of the woods and scooped up every seed they could find. I think we’re set for the whole Festival season now!”

“I guess so!” Little Pine laughed. The seed pile was as high as the roof the elves’ house. There would be no hungry bears here! “You and Mother Elf certainly have your work cut out today. Is there anything that I can do to help you? Or do the elf boys need me?”

Jeffrey Gingerman smiled and said he and Mother Elf had a great system going, and were having a ball baking up all the treats. The little elves were happily at work, too, and said a little dancing horse named Penelope had come with a cart to carry more batches of goodies for them. But if Little Pine wanted to take a basket of lunch to them and tell them hello, Jeffrey could pack one in a jiffy.

Little Pine was glad he could do that, and soon he was skipping down the trail in pursuit of the elves and Penelope. He found them, whistling as usual, and they all greeted him with big smiles when they saw him. He was happy to see Penelope again, too. “How nice of you to help!” he told her.

“Thanks, Little Pine,” she said. “I never dreamed that I would get to play with elves! When I get back to the stables after the Festival, the other ponies won’t even believe all the stories I’ll have to tell!”

“And you haven’t even see the best of it yet,” one of the elves chimed in.

It was too early in the day to eat lunch yet, so Little Pine just left the basket with his friends and wished them a happy day. Then he headed down the back trail to the pond’s edge to meet some of the newly arrived bears. Maybe he’d even get to see Sugar Bear, he thought. He wanted to tell her that he had seen her directing the choir.

He was almost to the edge of the encampment when he spotted two little bears sitting in a tree. “Hello,” he said. “I’m Little Pine. Welcome to the Festival!”

The girl bear, who was the bigger of the two, said, “Thank you, Little Pine. I’m Milly Bear, and this is my little brother, Billy.”

Little Pine’s heart was touched by the sight of Billy Bear. He had a big bruise on his forehead and he looked very sad. “What happened to Billy?” he asked.

“Oh, we were playing and he fell out of the tree and bumped his head. He started howling and I was scared. But all of a sudden a bear named Tuffy showed up. She looked at his head and kissed it and gave him a big hug and said he would be perfectly fine in no time at all. Then she gave him an apple. She was sweet.

“He stopped howling after he ate the apple, but he saw his reflection in the pond and now he’s sad because he won’t look pretty for the Festival.”

“Hi, Billy,” Little Pine said gently. “I’m so glad that you could come to our Festival. I’m sorry you took a tumble and banged your head. But everybody has accidents, you know. Especially the most daring and playful among us.”

Little Pine told Billy and Milly how just yesterday two big brown bears had to rescue Atlanta Bear and Marvin Monkey after their sled got stuck in a tree. Billy laughed at the story, despite himself. “ I think your bruise is a sign that you are a bear who knows how to have fun,” Little Pine said. “And merriment is a big part of what our Festival is all about.”

Little Pine’s words cheered Billy so much that he turned a somersault right there in the tree. Then he leaped onto one of Little Pine’s branches and give him a tight, happy hug. It was the first bear hug that Little Pine ever received. And he left the pair hoping that one day he would get many more of them.

Little Pine was half asleep by the time he got home.   But he revived as he shared supper with his mother and told her about all the adventures his day had held.

Every day was an adventure, of course.  You never knew when you got up in the morning what the hours would hold.  But Festival season seemed to overflow with surprises.

Mother Pine laughed at her son’s stories.  He was having such a happy time meeting and greeting all the guests as they arrived.  She was proud of him, too, for taking time to help the elves before he went to meet the bears.  He had a good heart, she thought, a heart full of kindness.

By the time he finished telling her about Penelope the Pony, Little Pine was yawning.  His mother gave him a small maple leaf candy for dessert and then tucked him in for the night, kissing his forehead and wishing him sweet dreams.

He fell instantly asleep.

Then, long about midnight, he woke to a moonless sky glistening with stars.  As he lay there gazing at their beauty and thinking about how marvelous it was just to be alive, a faint sound of music floated across the pond.  It was quiet, but very rich, and like nothing he had ever heard before.

It went on for a while and then stopped.  His mind was still trying to figure out what it was and where it was coming from when it began again.  Drawn by its haunting beauty, he decided to follow it to its source.  He stood at the edge of the pond and listened.  It seemed to be coming from Grandfather Pine’s end of the pond, from the bears’ encampment.    As he headed in that direction, he almost felt as if he were floating on the enchanting sound.

Then it stopped again.  And he stood still, wondering if he was really awake or if this was a dream.  No, he was pretty sure he was awake.   He kept walking toward the camp and after a short while a new song started.  He was even more curious now about what it could be.

When he got to the camp, he saw a light gleaming from the big clearing behind the main cave.  Quietly, he tiptoed toward it, all the while lost in the wonder of the sound.   At the edge of the clearing, he stopped and parted the branches of a tree just as the music stopped again.  And what he saw astonished him.

Dozens of bears were seated in a big semi-circle, quiet, and gently smiling.  Sugar Bear stood before them with a wand of some kind in her paw.  “Very good,” she was saying to them.  “You’re getting better with every song.”  The bears’ smiles broadened and their eyes twinkled at her praise.

“For this next one, I’d like the younger girl bears to sing with just a bit more volume so their part sounds as if its dancing atop the rest.  Let’s imagine that their notes are snowflakes falling, and that the older girl bears are the treetops, and the boys are the woods, the earth and its waters.”  

She smiled at them, tapped her wand on a little log in front of her, then raised it in the air.  Every bear was watching her intently.  When she began to move the wand, the young girl bears began to sing a high, sparkling line of music.  Then softly, the others chimed in and the song grew in depth and richness.  It was a song about peace, and comfort, and joy—a perfect song for bears to sing, Little Pine thought.

He stood perfectly still, listening, and his heart filled with sweetness and love.

When the song finished, he turned to tiptoe away, casting one last glance in Sugar Bear’s direction.  He could hear her voice giving the choir more direction and he thought she sounded like the brook in springtime as it danced over the pebbles.

His eyes were filled with happy tears as he once again returned to sleep.  This was the best Festival season ever, he thought, and he fell asleep with a smile on his face and the sound of distant singing floating through his boughs.  

It was late afternoon when Little Pine and his new friends got to the end of the pond where the bears were gathering. A happy noise that sounded like a mixture of bear-talk and singing grew louder and louder as they neared the cave-like shelters that the elves had built for the guests.

“Lunchtime!” one of the big brown bears said, sniffing the air.

“Yum! Yum!” said the other, and the two of them quickened their steps.

Atlanta, the Sailor Bear, stayed by Little Pine’s side, but the little monkey leaped into the trees and began swinging toward the main cave, a large construction that could hold dozens of bears. Atlanta pointed to the ground and said, “Look at all the tracks! A lot more bears must have come.”

Then she wiggled her nose and breathed in the air. “Honey!” she said. “My favorite thing! And am I ever hungry after spending the night stuck on that sled in the tree!”

“Who’s cooking for everyone?” Little Pine asked. He couldn’t even imagine making treats for dozens of bears.

“Oh, all your little woodland creatures have been bringing baskets of nuts and dried berries and things. And someone named Josie is doing the cooking.”

“That would be Josie Gingerman,” Little Pine said. He told Atlanta how the Gingermans were food experts and loved to help feed people. It gave them, he told her, great joy.

They were nearing the encampment now and Little Pine saw a long line of bears of every color, shape and size outside the main cave. But walking toward him was a pretty white bear, smiling, and calling his name. He felt his heart do a little dance at the sight of her.

“Hi, Little Pine,” she said.

“Hi, Sugar! I’m so happy to see you! Let me introduce you to Atlanta Bear. She’s had quite an adventure and I’m sure she’d love to tell you about it.”

They had reached the end of the food line now, and after Sugar and Atlanta chatted for a moment, Sugar said she had to be off. She was teaching the bears to sing a couple Festival songs in the clearing behind the main cave. As each group of them finished eating, they would come to the circle and join in learning the songs. It was almost time for the next round of lessons.

Sugar said goodbye and hurried down the trail. And Little Pine said goodbye to Atlanta, too. The sun was already sinking in the sky and he was getting hungry himself. Besides, he wanted to stop and see Holly Tree and hear how she was enjoying the Festival activities. She lived across the pond from him, right next to one of his cousins, and was a longtime friend. Often, hers was the very first song he heard when he woke on Festival Day morning. He had time before dinner. And anyway, friendship was even more important to him than eating.

As he neared the place where Holly lived, he heard her musical voice. She seemed to be chatting with someone. When he got to their curve in the pond, he saw that his cousin was all decorated for Festival. The elves picked out different pine trees to decorate every year and it was a special honor to get to wear the berries and bows. Little Pine was happy for his cousin.

“Hi, Little Pine!” Holly called when she spotted him. “Happy Festival! Come and meet one of our new guests!”

Little Pine scampered over to her side and there, nestled in his cousin’s branches, he saw a darling little horse. At least he guessed it was a horse. He’d seen humans riding them on the trails sometimes. “This is Penelope Pony, Little Pine. She came to represent the family of horses this year.”

“Welcome, Penelope,” said Little Pine. “Yours is a magnificent family. I’m glad you could join us.”

“Thank you, Little Pine. I’m delighted to be here. Everyone is so friendly! I especially like the chipmunks that I met this morning. They let me give them rides and they clicked and chirped with glee as I danced them around the trees. I love to dance.”

“And I would love to see you dance sometime,” said Little Pine. “I have always been impressed with how gracefully your kind moves. The horses that come to the woods with their humans are much, much larger than you and yet they move as if they are dancing to some beautiful music that only they hear. Maybe you could dance for everyone on Festival Day! Would you like to do that? I would be happy to have you added to the program.”

Penelope was thrilled with Little Pine’s offer and nickered a happy acceptance. “Consider it done, then,” Little Pine said.

He visited with Penelope and Holly and his cousin for a while, telling them the story of Atlanta Bear and Marvin Monkey, and then, as the sun sunk behind the trees, he wished them a good evening and said he had to be heading home.

But of course before he left, he gave each of them a fun bubble. “Gifts for you,” he said laughing, “from the Spirits of Fun.” He tossed the first one to Penelope and it burst into lights that looked like carrots and apples. It gave off a happy tune that set her to dancing in delight. Holly’s bubble sang Festival tunes and sent ribbons of gold light swirling around her adorned with holly berry wreaths. And the one he gave his cousin played sound of trumpets and sent a rush of white doves circling him in ribbons of light.

“Happy Festival!” sand Little Pine as he scampered away. “See you later!”

“Goodbye, Little Pine,” they called. And he heard the music and their laughter all the way home.

Little Pine worked all morning tucking freshly baked treats in the hollows of trees. He was just finishing with his seventh basketful when he heard the whistling of the elves coming down the trail.

“Hey, Little Pine!” one of the shouted to him, waving. “It’s lunch time!” They skipped over to him and handed him a big mug of hot butternut stew.

“Thanks for your help, Little Pine. Mother said you have been out here for hours.”

“You’re welcome. I’ve had fun. I got to chat with some chipmunks and mice, and a couple squirrels and even an opossum. They were quite curious about what I was doing. So I explained about the bears and they said they wouldn’t eat the treats we hid in the hollows since they were meant for our special guests. I promised them that Mother Elf was making plenty for Festival Day, too—enough for them to take plenty of them home after the feast.”

“We finished decorating the stumps today,” the middle elf said. “So we’ll be able to hide the rest of the treats that are ready if you have other things that you’d like to do.”

“Thanks!” said Little Pine. “I would like to see if more bears have come. They’re wonderful creatures, you know, and I want them to know that they’re welcome.”

As they ate, he saw a look on the eldest elf’s face that he had noticed the other day. It was kind of smug and mischievous and he wondered what it meant. “What’s going on?” he asked the elf. “You’re wearing a most peculiar expression.”

“Oh, nothing,” the elf said, smiling. The other two elf-brothers giggled. “It’s a secret,” the youngest one said. “You’ll see. It’s a surprise.”

Little Pine knew better than to try to get them to tell him what it was. Elves were some of the best secret-keepers in the world, especially when they had surprises up their sleeves. So he told them about meeting Tuffy Bear and Sugar and how sweet they were, how full of affection. And the elves told him about the red-headed woodpeckers and how they were inviting all their aunts and uncles and cousins from the nearby woods to join in the drumming on Festival Day.

When they finished their lunch, Little Pine told them goodbye and headed over to the end of the pond where the bears were staying. He kept thinking about the elves’ secret and grew more curious with every step, trying to imagine what it could be.

He had just reached the edge of the pond when he heard a tinny, clanging sound up ahead. “What could that be?” he wondered out loud. He quickened his pace. The noise seemed to be coming from a tree down the trail and it was accompanied by the funniest chattering sound. Then he saw a flash of red and looking closer saw a bear and some other kind of little animal sitting on a sled way up on one of his cousin pine’s branches.

“Hello!” he hollered up to them. “I’m Little Pine. Welcome to our Festival. What are you doing up in that tree?”

“Hello, Little Pine,” said the bear. “I’m Atlanta, the sailor bear, and this is my friend Marvin Monkey. We went sledding yesterday when the snow was still here and we went flying over the top of a big hill and ended up in this tree. Now we’re stuck, I’m embarrassed to say. We’ve been here all night.”

“Oh no!” said Little Pine. “How can I help you?”

“Help is on its way,” Atlanta Bear said. “Sugar Bear heard Marvin’s cymbals this morning and she went to get some big brown bears who came in last night. They’re very tall and clever, and I’m quite sure they will be able to get us safely down.”

“I’m sorry you had to be stuck all night,” Little Pine said with a soft laugh, “But I have to tell you that you two look pretty funny up there on a sled in a tree!”

“I’m sure we’ll be the talk of bear town for days,” said Atlanta. “Marvin thinks it’s marvelous. He lives to amuse. And I must admit that I’m an adventurous sort of bear, and now I have another yarn to tell when I get home. So no one is the worse for it.”

Just then the two brown bears arrived and in no time at all, they rescued Marvin and Atlanta. “Grandmother Bear will be relieved to see you safe and sound,” one of the big bears said. “She was concerned. She had Tuffy on standby, and she’s made a special lunch to feed you when we get back.”

Little Pine introduced himself to the brown bears and thanked them for their help. Then he gave everyone fun bubbles as he accompanied them back to bear town. They walked along in the shower of dancing lights from the bubbles and laughed at the song that filled the air: “Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house we go . . . “

“Wow! It skips!” the bear said when he saw Little Pine coming down the trail.

“Hi, Mr. Bear! I’m Little Pine. Welcome to the Festival!” Little Pine said.

“You move! I mean, you don’t just bend in the wind. I saw you skipping right down the trail!” the bear said.

“Well, don’t tell any humans! Only their children know, and by the time they grow up, they think they made it up. We work hard to keep it that way. They can be unpredictable, those human grown-ups, you know. Our number one rule is never to let them see us move—except, as you said, to let our branches dance in the wind.”

The bear blinked and then smiled. “Oh my! Where are my manners! Thank you for your welcome. I’m Tuffy, a healing bear. And I’m delighted to be here for your Festival season.

“I totally understand about the humans, by the way. My kind has the same rule, and only the wee ones know that we’re alive. The big ones think we’re toys.”

“What do you mean when you say you’re a healing bear?” Little Pine said. “And where did you get that big apple?”

Tuffy Bear laughed. He liked this little tree. “Well,” he said, “all bears have healing power. A hug from a bear can do wonders to soothe anything that ails you. That’s because we’re all made with love. But some bears have special healing powers. We get to go to humans’ hospitals and are given as gifts to people of all ages who are sick or injured and scared. We let them know that they are loved, and that everything will be okay, no matter what. We whisper comforting stories in their ears when they sleep so they will have sweet dreams.

“Of course we help all kinds of critters; not just the humans. Wherever there’s hurting, we’re at work.

“I brought this big apple from my special supply. It’s a tradition among healing bears to give them to those who have recovered their health. We tell them ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ They’re always happy to hear that and pay us back with hugs and smiles. This one is going to be my Festival gift. But I brought a whole sack of them with me. You never know when somebody is going to need a healing bear, after all. I wanted to be ready.”

“That’s a wonderful talent you have,” Little Pine said. “Grandmother Bear told me that my special gift is Friendship, and I am proud to have you as my new friend.”

“Oh, you’ve met Grandmother Bear, then. Do you happen to know where I can find her? I want to let her know that I’m here,” Tuffy said.

“Sure. See that path down by the pond? Follow it to its end. It will lead you to our Grandfather Pine’s area where all the visiting bears are staying. Grandmother Bear will be there. She’s greeting all the bears and helping them settle in. My mother told me that she’d heard quite a few have arrived now, and that they’re having great fun.

“I’d go with you, Tuffy, but I think Mother Elf and the Gingermans need my help this morning. Maybe I’ll stop by this afternoon and see how you’re doing.

“Oh, and before you go, here’s a little welcome present,” said Little Pine, reaching in his pocket for a fun bubble.

Tuffy looked at it with big eyes. It was wiggly and shimmering and so very pretty. “Why, thank you! What is it?”

“Take it! You’ll see!” giggled Little Pine.

And when Tuffy took the bubble it burst into an enormous shower of apple blossoms that filled the air with music and a wonderful perfume. And whenever they landed on Tuffy, they turned into kisses, and sang ‘Thank you! Thank you!’ making Tuffy so happy that he almost cried.

“Have a beautiful day, Tuffy,” Little Pine said, touched by the sight and turning down the trail to the Elf house. “And if you see Sugar Bear, tell her I said hello!”

Little Pine fell asleep thinking about Sugar Bear. What a sweet creature she was! He wished bears like her would come to live in his woods. Then maybe, when he was bigger, they would climb his branches, hugging him with their furry limbs. Bear hugs, he thought, must be wonderful. Especially if the giver was a bear like Sugar Bear.

Soon he was sound asleep, his mind full of nothing but star-spangled sky. He drifted there for quite a while before he began to dream.

At first the dreams were replays of the day’s events. He dreamed he was in Mother Elf’s kitchen and that fragrant freshly-baked treats were stacked in towers that reached to the ceiling and pressed against all the walls, making them bulge. As fast as the elf brothers could haul them away to hide in the tree hollows, Mother Elf and Jeffrey Gingerman would pull more of them from the oven. He dreamed he was running through the forest with the elves, helping them hide the maple leaf candies and the winterberry muffins in every nook of every tree. And then he dreamed about the fun bubble exploding and the elves laughing as they rode its light streams around and around the decorated tree by their tool shop.

Finally the dreams faded and once more he drifted through a deep darkness lit only by twinkling stars. He floated there for a long time before a faint pink light began to fill the space. He dreamed that the pink was filled with rosy pine needles and streamers of some kind, and then, as the vision came into focus, he saw a beautiful bird in its center. Its wings were lavender and pink with a whisper of pale gold, and its body was pale gold, too, and reflected the lavender and pink. He had never seen anything like it in the woods. It must be a creature of the dream world, born of the starlit sky.

“Greetings, Little Pine,” it said to him in his dreams. “I am a messenger of the Great Yes, sent to tell you that the song of your heart fills your woods with joy. You lift the spirits of all you encounter with your cheerfulness and your respectful manner. And we thank you for that.

“It may seem to you that you are nothing but a little tree, one of many in a woodland full of trees. You do not think of yourself as important or special, and that is part of your sweetness.

“But your cheerfulness matters a great deal, Little Pine. It helps to balance the hurt and suffering in the world, and more of that exists than you will ever know. Because your heart sings with friendship and love, Little Pine, you add to the healing of the world.

“I have come to thank you for being exactly who you are, and to tell you that you are known, and loved, more than you can even dream. Carry on, dear child, with your mission of joy. Be undaunted in the face of darkness. Even as you celebrate the life-giving of the Great Light’s return, we celebrate the light in your heart. May it shine brightly forever.”

And with that, the vision began to fade, and Little Pine felt his heart float high, high into the nighttime sky. And when he woke the next morning, he was bursting with gladness.

The day’s light was dimming quickly when Little Pine said goodbye to the elves. He was thinking about how fun it would be to tell his mother about his day’s adventures as he turned homeward. Then he remembered that he was supposed to stop by the Elf house to pick up treats for her.

Mother Elf had a fancy package wrapped and ready when he knocked on the door. Little Pine thanked her and said he had to hurry home or he would be late for supper. “Wait until you hear about the elves adventure today! Be prepared for extra laughter!” he said as he told Mother Elf and the Gingermans goodbye.

He had taken only a step or two away from the door when he heard a little, “Hello!” coming from the decorated tree at the bottom of the porch.

“Oh! Hello!” he said. “I’m Little Pine. Welcome to our woods!” He recognized the creature as a bear, even though he didn’t know they could be all white.

“Thank you, Little Pine. I’m Sugar Bear, and I’ve come for your Festival. Would you happen to know where I can find Grandmother Bear?”

“I’m so glad you could come, Sugar. This is a wonderful time of year for us, and your company will make it even more fun.

“Our oldest pine, Grandfather Pine, has invited all the bear guests to stay with him. So far, Grandmother Bear is the only bear I’ve met, until you. But Grandmother said a lot of bears are coming from all over.

“Walk with me and I’ll show you the path to Grandfather’s end of the pond. It’s right on my way home.”

Little Pine and Sugar Bear ambled down the trail chatting with each other. Sugar said she loved the snow. It matched her fur and when she walked through it, she felt as if she were a giant snowflake. She liked to catch the big, lacy flakes like the ones that were falling around them on her tongue. “Me, too!” said Little Pine, and the two of them laughed as they walked along with their tongues out, catching the flakes.

“I got three that time,” said Little Pine.

“I got four!” sang Sugar Bear with glee.

Sugar Bear hadn’t met the elves yet, she said. The only creature she saw was a squirrel who directed her to their home. She was just about to knock on their door when Little Pine came out.

“Where did you get the big candy cane?” Little Pine asked.

“Oh, I brought it with me from home to give as a gift at the Festival,” Sugar said.

“It’s beautiful,” Little Pine said. “And I’m sure you’ll receive something wonderful in exchange. The gift-giving is a special part of the Festival ceremony. You’ll see.”

It was almost dark when they got to the branch in the trail where the path led around the pond to Grandfather Pine’s home.

“It’s an easy path to follow,” Little Pine said. “Even in the snow, you shouldn’t have any trouble. But if you like, I’ll be happy to go with you.”

“Oh, I can see in the dim light very well, Little Pine, and you need to get home for supper. I’m sure I will be fine. But thank you for your offer. I’ll look forward to seeing you again.”

“I’ll look forward to seeing you, again, too,” Little Pine said. “And before you go, I have a present for you.”

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a fun bubble. It glowed with light and wiggled in his hand. “What’s this?” she said as he handed it to her. But before he could even answer, the bubble burst, and dozens of tiny white birds appeared, twinkling with an inner light, and singing “Follow me! Follow me!” as they headed down the path toward Grandfather Pine’s home.

And that’s just what she did.