I’ve been thinking a lot about Christmas stories lately. There is something magical about them. They are one of the few types of story where we permit ourselves to enjoy unabashed joyfulness and positivity. I decided this year to try to write my own – a story about a little star who has only one wish to bestow on Christmas night and finds herself in a predicament when five people wish on her. Can she find a way to make all the dreams come true?
I’ve decided to put The Wish Star up here, for you all to read, as a sort of late advent calendar. I’ll add a bit more of the story every day in the run up to Christmas Eve, and then put the whole story up. I really enjoyed writing this, sat with the Christmas tree glistening and some festive music on. I hope you enjoy reading it.
The Wish Star and the Five Wishes
The Star
‘Wish Star, Wish Star,
Brightly shine
Grant tonight
This wish of mine.’
One dark Christmas night a little wish star was born. She appeared in the northern part of the sky, next to the great constellation of Perseus. The wish star’s older sisters had shone for many winters, granting wishes to people on earth and the little wish star was so excited knowing she would spend her life making people’s dreams come true.
In this, her first year, she only had one wish. On her first year in the heavens a wish star is given one Christmas wish to grant to whoever she chooses. Each year she gains another. The oldest wish star in the night sky could grant wishes all day long, every day, but the new little wish star had only one.
‘Choose wisely’, her sisters told her as they placed the glittering wish into her hands.
The little wish star looked down at earth far below, and waited for someone to notice her, and wish.
She saw people bustling in and out of shops, doing their final preparations for the great feast of Christmas. She saw a tree decked with candles and sugared candies in the middle of a town square, and a church lit from within and full of the sound of merry caroling as the choir practiced for its evening service.
And she heard her first wish.
The Boy
‘Wish Star, Wish Star,
Brightly shine
Grant tonight
This wish of mine.’
The first wish she heard was from a small boy sat at a table in a small house in the middle of the town. He was wrapping Christmas presents for his little sister and was wishing very hard. It was a wish that he made every day. The little boy had wanted a pet for as long as he could remember. He loved animals very much and every weekend he would take his little sister down to the park to feed the birds and watch the squirrels in the trees. He would have given anything to have a pet of his own. A dog or a rabbit or a hamster. Not a cat though. His mother did not know it but he secretly fed a mouse that lived in the kitchen cupboards. The mouse’s name was Boris and he liked porridge oats and dried apricots.
As the boy wrapped his presents he thought of how much he wanted a pet. He knew it was against the rules. Pets were not presents, his mother had warned him, and he would not be getting one on Christmas day. Still, he thought, there was no harm in seeing if a miracle could happen.
So he closed his eyes and wished.
‘Wish Star, Wish Star,
Brightly shine
Grant tonight
This wish of mine
So my joy will never end
Bring me now my longed for friend.’
The wish star heard him and she thought ‘That is the first wish, but perhaps there are others. My sisters said to choose wisely,’ and she waited.
Sarah Todd Taylor 