JUDGE'S SELECTIONS
Festive True Fairy Tales
Three winning entries as judged by Emergency Room Dr. Dustin Ballard, MD and his family. Please see the Judge's comments below for each entry.
See all the submitted stories here...
Thank you to our sponsors Good Earth Natural Foods and Costco, Novato
MOST TOUCHING STORY
Judge's comments: This story really spoke to me because, one way or another, I think it’s safe to say that most of us have found ourselves hanging by a thread or just getting by during this pandemic. I just might tie a shoestring around my wrist to remind me that everyone I see in the store, on the street, driving by has their own struggle. Won’t it be great when we can give each other hugs again?
Prize: $100 and $200 voucher from Good Earth
The Shoestring
This year has been astonishingly unforgettable. It almost seems like an entire decade of events all happened in 1 year.
I was blessed enough to be able to find a beautiful rough collie late last summer. He has and will continue to make my life amazing! He has literally made me a better person. He has already opened so many wonderful opportunities to me.
We were sitting in front of Rite Aid one evening when we met Penny from Good Fairy. She told me about Good Fairy and asked what I needed. She got Bailey a bag of dog food and a new bed. I mentioned that my shoes were in bad shape and very shortly later I received a brand new pair.
It's really wonderful that when there has been so much suffering this year that good people like Penny go out looking for people that need help. I don't think anyone will be able to forget this trying year but I will be hanging a shoe string on any future Christmas trees to remember how Good Fairy helped me and so many people this year.
Rob, Terra Linda
Fairyland note - we will hang a shoestring on our Christmas tree every year until Rob lets us know he has his own. Pictured above ...we found a nice red one!
This story was related to Margueritte from Fairfax by her good neighbor as they sat on her roof (!!!) eating snacks on New Years' day. A nice touch, she brought the flowers which arrived with her Good Fairy holiday meal (shown on left) up to roof with them!
FUNNIEST STORY
Judge's comments: I just love the idea of using a pizza like a hot water bottle to keep the baby warm. This gives me many new ideas for pizzas! Hand warmers? At the foot of the bed? A seat at a football game (if/when we are spectators at such events again)?
Prize: $100 and $50 voucher from Costco
A very pizza Christmas
Should I say the coldest winter in 1000 years or just an average snowfall in Colorado.
It was the first Christmas for little 5 month old Carolyn. She had received a sled which was the first present opened, just one mind you on Christmas Eve.
In the afternoon the snow piled high, closing down icy roads, making Moms shopping for Christmas Eve dinner impossible. Stuck between home and the store, she started her way slowly back.
Expected guests would not be able to get through either. With a heavy heart their gathering was canceled.
Snowed in
Truly a very white Christmas.
Dad like Santa's elves was very clever, he bundled little five month old Carolyn and secured her on the sled and pulled her on the sled to the pizza parlor in the next block. Carolyn had a warm pizza box like an electric blanket for the return ride home where mom was now waiting.
By Margueritte's neighbor ...and Dad in the story
BEST NEW TRADITION
Judge's comments: Baby Faith will certainly be a “decoration” that will grow and change in charming and unexpected ways. And eventually she will be able to join her family in creating decorations and gifts of her own. She’s a little reminder that not everything in 2020 was bad. The family’s ideas for the fairy lights filled with wishes and their commitment to share creativity and crafting with others are traditions we can each adopt in our own way.
Prize: $100 and $50 voucher from Costco
Faith ...and Joy
This year was a year of firsts for so many reasons but focusing on our baby Faith (who celebrated her first Christmas holiday ) we decided to start new traditions for the holiday. One for our family inside the home, others to reach out to the community.
Inside...
We also turned one of this years' presents into an annual tradition for inside our home. Let me tell you about it. My mother passed when I was just 8 and a lovely woman “adopted” me as her own and lovingly named me her goddess daughter. This year she gifted one of our daughters a fairy light kit. We decorated it and added some details to it. We wrote wishes and added them. We choose to turn into our special yearly ornament because this year we were blessed with fairies that became family, and we were given the gift of hope for brighter days.
Outside..
We spent our days before holiday creating gifts for others...Christmas cards and thank you cards from scratch, ornaments and hand made wreaths. (note from Fairyland ..yes they did and we got a beautiful card!). We felt it was important for our kids to feel how wonderful it is to give from the heart to express your creative side with love to people you miss to people you want to show love to.
It was magical, there was a huge learning curve doing all the crafting!!! but it was so well received. So yearly we will also continue to do this.
We spent part of our holiday singing to others including participating in the Good Fairy festive singing 'fairies on the phone' and even took a video which we shared with dear ones despite our insecurities!
As well as decking out our house as much as we could, we and put together a basket for our postal workers with treats guarded by Joy the reindeer to show our appreciation. See Joy in the picture...the basket is empty as the treats were good lol...
Christina, Terra Linda
Good Fairy Ella (from Children for Change) popped round to surprise 112 years-young Pauline on Christmas Eve… with a popcorn and cranberry garland...just as she remembered from her childhood holidays OVER A HUNDRED YEARS AGO!
HONORABLE MENTION: SIMPLE IDEA FOR DECORATIONS
Judge's comments: this is a tradition nearly all of us can try, even if we just string them outside as a little gift for the birds and other critters.
Popcorn and Cranberries
When Fairyland asked our cherished one and only 112yr old fairy, Pauline, if she had an ornament story. She didn't think she had. We asked what she remembers from childhood Christmases and it was pretty strange to realize she was thinking back to events from over a hundred years ago.
Her father was one of the original homesteaders in Oklahoma, living in land also occupied by American Indians. She was the middle child of seven. They had a Christmas tree each year but she didn't remember ornaments until she recalled that they made them new each year from corn cobs. Later in the conversation, while talking about something else, she suddenly thought of how her family made garlands to decorate the tree by stringing popcorn and cranberries together. She also remembered with a little laugh getting into trouble one year as she was caught surreptitiously eating the goodies rather than adding them to the garland.
Pauline, Corte Madera ( related to Fairyland on the phone)
NB: If you know her don't let on - but on Christmas Eve this year a fairy family from Children For Change will be surprising Pauline with some treats and a garland of popcorn and cranberries.