baby it's cold outside

one christmas when polly was even littler she made a bunch of stars out of tin foil & old cereal boxes from the recycle. it was hard to cut the stars because the cardboard was thick & the scissors made her fingers hurt. but then mama said we’re a buddhist family & we’re not gonna get a tree because we don’t celebrate christmas. polly was disappointed but she said ok mama & put the stars in the recycle & tried not to think about christmas anymore. polly was pretty sure santa couldn’t find them anyways because their apartment didn’t have a fireplace or a chimney.

that saturday papa woke polly up & told her to get dressed & put on your coat & boots & hat & mittens. he took her uptown & they spent the whole day looking at all the christmas window displays. papa asked her if she wanted to see santa but polly said santa looked really busy & didn’t know what to say anyway so they went ice skating instead.

but the real surprise was papa took her to a christmas tree lot & bought a tree that was almost as tall as polly! what will mama say, polly asked. it’s ok, papa told her. we’ll just tell her it’s a bodhi tree. only you me & santa will know it’s really a christmas tree.

by the time they bought the bodhi tree it was already dark & time to go home. but they wouldn’t let papa on the subway with the tree. or the bus. it started to snow & none of the cabs would stop for them. polly said maybe we should just throw the tree away right here on the curb. but papa said don’t talk that crazy talk how is santa supposed to find us if we don’t have a tree?

polly said it’s no use, he’s not coming because we don’t have a fireplace. papa said in the city santa uses the fire escape or the super keeps the roof access door open so don’t you worry about that.

polly & papa started to walk the 30 blocks home. polly got really cold & tired but didn’t want to say anything because she was so happy about the tree. then papa picked her up & carried her AND the tree. he taught her the words to baby it’s cold outside & they sang it together.

mama called on the cellphone wondering where everybody was and after a while she met them & carried polly until they all got home. polly was so tired she went straight to bed.

in the morning polly woke up & ran to the living room & there was the tree! all her stars were on it, along with lights & ornaments & sparkly stuff that she didn’t even know they had! polly got a lot of presents, like sweaters & new boots & wizard of oz dvd but her favorite was a stuffed cat in red overalls that she decided to name clickitty.

that was polly’s first christmas. now every year they burn incense under the bodhi tree & sing baby it’s cold outside!