The Christmas Meaning- Pod C

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‘Maybe it was some sort of event,’ he thought slowly, he had heard that Earth had some of those.

There weren’t many events where he came from – except for the lucky person who got to eat the slimy eye at the start of the New Year. 

Tired, Tommy trudged back to the hut he had made, just behind the town square, deciding to investigate this ‘Christmas’ thing tomorrow. 

He gathered up all the food he needed and rushed up to the till as it was very busy. He sprinted out the doors, barely waiting for them to open. He quickly turned around the corner and, without looking where he was going, he ran into a clumsy boy carrying about eight bags full with wrapping paper and food.

He walked briskly out of the town square and into a snow covered field. Tommy had to run to catch up with him, but finally they reached the field. ‘Building snowmen is a fun way to entertain yourself by using snow!’ He remarked brightly. Ted showed Tommy how to roll a ball of snow.

 Before long, Tommy had whipped up his own snowman. Tommy copied Ted by placing his hat and scarf around the snowman. Unfortunately, the sun was starting to come out from behind the dark clouds causing his snowman to melt. Not only that, but without his hat and scarf he started to feel freezing, too. Ted saw him shivering and decided that maybe building snowmen wasn’t the best idea. He called for Tommy to follow him back to his house. 

He flew from his home planet down to Earth and landed on a tropical island. But there wasn’t a lot to do there except get pinched by crabs and freeze during the long, cold nights, so he decided to gather some hard, strong wood and build a raft and sail away to a livelier place. It was a long and tiring journey, but finally, he arrived at a large town on the coast of Ireland.

Tommy is an alien with dark blue matted hair, light green skin, sparkly black eyes and a pair of antennas on his head. He comes from a far of planet in the Milky way. He came to Earth to experience our culture. It took him five years to build but finally finished making his very own space ship.

 “Sorry”, Tommy mumbled sheepishly as he gathered up the last of the decorations. “It’s okay” the boy said through his thick, woolly purple scarf. “My name is Ted”, he declared.&nbsp;Tommy introduced himself nervously. He had never had a conversation with a human before.

“Just doing some last minute Christmas shopping” Ted stated cheerfully. Tommy must have looked very confused as Ted replied with “You do know what Christmas is, don’t you?” Tommy shook his head sadly. Ted wiped his foggy glasses on his grubby sleeve, set down his many shopping bags near a bush at the end of the path, turned around slowly and cried “Follow me! I’ll show you what Christmas is all about!”

He reluctantly tore the wrapping to reveal a pair of patterned socks, with little reindeer on them. ‘Wow, thanks’ he mumbled quietly. ‘No problem!’ Ted replied happily. Tommy tried them on. The fluff felt weird oh his webbed feet, but not to hurt Ted’s feelings, he decided to keep them on. ‘Well’ he thought angrily ‘this Christmas’ is not as great as I imagined! 

While walking home that chilly evening, Tommy walked past several families strolling around the snowy park. He realised how much he missed his own family and how long it had been since he had seen them. As he sighed, he could see the steam come out of his mouth. Maybe he should return to his planet for the holidays. He trudged inside his house and jumped onto his makeshift bed, exhausted after a long day. 

Illustrations by= Leah Maguire, Ava Monaghan, Daniel Gannon and Riley Jayne

Typed by= Orla O'Donohue, Michal Halota and Riley Jayne

BAM! Tommy crashed into the boy at full speed. The boy’s shopping bags were knocked out of his hand and were now thrown across the damp, stony path. Tommy and the clumsy boy hopped up as fast as the wind and picked up the flamboyant wrapping paper before it got wet.

After they had arrived, Ted told Tommy to wait in his sitting room. ‘I’ll be back in one minute!’ he shouted as he ran through the door. He came back holding a box covered in that colourful wrapping that Tommy had spotted earlier. ‘Open it’ Ted babbled excitedly. Now Tommy thought the box was very pretty and didn’t want to ruin it.

He looked at the piece of paper and suddenly had a terrific idea! 

Tommy was frantically packing up his few belongings and preparing his spaceship for the long journey. He wouldn’t have enough of the rare fuel it ran on to return to Earth. His spaceship’s engine would take it a few hours to warm up.

Meanwhile Ted quickly dialled the number and drummed his fingers on the table impatiently. Finally, a voice answered the phone. Ted briskly explained his plan to them and they agreed to come to Earth immediately, although it would be a tight squeeze.

Light wood

From- Leah, Ava , Riley, Orla, Daniel and Michal

The next day, Tommy woke up bright and early to see snow falling from the cloudy sky. He hopped out of bed, pulled on his worn runners that he had found in someone’s bin and made his way out of the door. While he was strolling to the Town Square, he overheard more ‘Merry Christmases’. When would it end? 

As he finally arrived at the supermarket, he stepped inside the automatic glass doors and made his way down the food isle. More of those Christmas stickers were stuck onto various items such as bread, milk and boxes of chocolates.

It was a week before Christmas Day and curious Tommy was wandering very confused around the bustling festive town square. 

Now, the reason Tommy was so confused was because all of the shops had posters saying ‘Christmas sale now on!’ and strangers were saying ‘Merry Christmas’ to each other. Tommy looked up into the dark starry night sky, trying to figure out what this ‘Christmas’ could be. It was raining, as usual, and he could feel himself getting soaked.

A few hours later, Tommy was preparing for take-off when he saw a very familiar spaceship landing in a nearby field. He rushed out the door forgetting his jacket, but he didn’t care. He hadn’t seen them in ages. 

He ran to his parents and gave them a huge hug. ‘How did you get here-?’ he exclaimed. He looked over at Ted who was grinning from ear to ear. ‘Thank you’ Tommy gushed. ‘No problem, now let’s celebrate!’ he cried.

At this moment Tommy realised what Christmas was all about, spending time with friends and family!

The next day, Tommy knocked on Ted’s door to tell him the news. Devastated, Ted tried to convince Tommy to stay, but it didn’t seem to be working. Tommy gave Ted his parent’s phone number on a piece of paper and told him he could ring him from time to time. Then he waved goodbye and said he had to go pack for the long journey. Ted sadly closed the door.

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