Origin: Unknown

Author: Unknown
Theme: Christmas, Colorado Story

Way out in eastern Colorado, so far east if you fell out of bed you might roll into Kansas, there was a little town named Nicholas. The town was named for Hiram Nicholas, one of the earliest settlers in the area. Hiram had a general store, where he sold eggs from his chickens and milk from his cow, some produce from his garden, and things like needles and thread, lamp oil, and nails.

The town sat in the bend of the river. Hills on the north and west protected it a bit from the wind and weather. It was built around a square with a park in the middle, surrounded by a grocery store, the bakery, a dime store (where you can still buy a needle and thread) on the site of Hiram’s old general store, and a hardware-lumberyard. The courthouse and old community church made up one side of the square. The school was a block or so away, and there was a gas station on the way out to the highway.

That was about all. Nicholas was out on the prairie, all right, without a tree in sight. Unless you count the cottonwoods down along the creek. And cottonwoods don’t make very good Christmas trees!

Winter was always a stressful time in Nicholas. It seems like it was either snowing up and blowing up a blizzard, or so dry the ground was bare and hard as iron. And cold. Always cold. Blizzards, the cows die. Drought, the wheat dies. On this particular year, it was a drought in a long series of drought years. What winter wheat had been planted was dried out long ago and the dirt blowing away in the wind. There was just a trickle of water in the riverbed. Ranchers were forced to haul water to their herds, and the wheat farmers just prayed for moisture.

By tradition, every year in November the good folk of Nicholas would get together and have a big chili cook-off contest and dinner in the school gym to raise money. They used that money, however much they brought in, to buy the biggest, freshest spruce tree from the mountains up west of Fort Collins. They’d buy the best that they could afford. But this year with the drought and all, the economy was so bad, no one really wanted to make a big pot of chili, and not many people wanted to go out in the cold and wind to support the dinner. And one thing led to another, they didn’t raise enough money for a little tree in a parlor, let alone one big enough for the town park. Everyone went home sad and disappointed, most of all the children. How was Santa going to find their little town way out in the middle of nowhere without the lights on the tree to guide him?

Edie was all grown up nine that year, but she still had made out her list and sent it to Santa. She didn’t ask for much, just some new shoes and a dress for her favorite doll. I suppose she figured Santa was maybe having a hard time too! But no Christmas tree? They had to have a tree to light up the night and cheer people up. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without a tree! Then she had an idea. Her daddy was the town water system operator, and he was the owner of the water tower. Well, not really the owner, but it was his, all the same. It was a big square thing on squatty legs, not like your modern round towers, and sat way up on the highest hill in the area so gravity would pull the water down to the town. In huge letters, the town name NICHOLAS was painted across it.

“Daddy, why not wrap up the tower like a big present and put the lights on it? It would be real pretty, and up there on the hill everybody could see it! Maybe a big present will make everyone happy. Come on, Daddy, can we do it? Huh?”

Daddy laughed, but then he thought about it a bit.

“Why not? There’s not enough water in that old thing to last us until Christmas anyway. Might as well get some use out of it!” He talked to some of his farmer neighbors, and some of the town business men, and the more they talked, the better it sounded. What should they wrap the tower with? Why, everyone had a bunch of those ubiquitous blue tarps! With many hands pitching in and yards and yards of duct tape, they soon had a big blue…square thing.

“It needs ribbons”, shouted Edie.

Of course. Ribbons. What could they use for ribbons?

Joe down at the lumber yard had an idea. “How about that silver Tyvec plastic stuff they staple on new houses over top of the insulation for a vapor barrier? I got a couple of rolls of it on hand.”

They loaded the silver rolls on the back of a pickup truck and drove it up the hill. After a few tries, they had quite a nice ribbon wrapped around the blue package, with a bow up on the top where the manhole was, and ends flowing down the railing of the stairway.

“Now it needs lights!”

“Edie, you have more ideas than a dog has fleas! Where are we going to get lights?

“We can use the ones from the Christmas tree last year.”

After a bit of looking, the traditional tree lights were located in the basement of the court house. A team of brave (or foolish) high school basketball players volunteered to climb to the top of the tank once more and fasten strings of lights all along the edges. When they found a long enough extension cord, one heavy enough for outdoors, Sally the town clerk and Mr Edwards the school principal called for silence and officially plugged the lights in. 3-2-1-Lights! Quite a crowd had now gathered to see what all the goings-on were about. A cheer went up as the lights came on.

There, on the hill for all to admire, was a big blue present wrapped in silver ribbons and edged with twinkling white lights! Everyone’s hearts felt a little lighter that night.

December rolled on at its usual fast pace. Seems like the decorating of the water tower did brighten things up. Folks were making fruitcake and cutout cookies and sharing them with their neighbors. Grandmas were sewing away in the bedroom with the door shut, and daddys were sneaking out to the garage late in the evening. School parties were held and vacation came. Christmas excitement was afoot, whatever the weather or the economy or the state of the world.

It seemed as though it would never get there, and then suddenly it was Christmas Eve. After cocoa and Christmas cookies, Edie reluctantly allowed herself to be chased off to bed with the threats of ‘Santa can’t come if you’re not asleep!’

The house was finally dark and quiet. Suddenly, shrilly, the phone rang. Edie jerked awake, and listened. Daddy answered the phone, and he sounded upset and agitated. “What do you mean, fooling with the pipes at the water tower? There isn’t enough water in there to give a dog a drink! …. How many?… Eight? No way…..what’s he look like? A beard…well, is it ol’ man Frederick? …so what, we all got red wool coats….aw, never mind. I’ll take the pickup and run out there and see what it is all about.”

Ah, curiosity! Edie was not about to let her daddy go have an adventure without her, not on Christmas Eve, no way. She pulled on some warm boots and wrapped her quilt around her tightly. Then she crawled into the truck way down behind the seat where she couldn’t be seen unless someone were really looking… and Daddy sure wasn’t looking! Quickly he drove out to the water tower, skidding a little on the frozen hard gravel road, which made Edie a bit scared. He pulled into the yard and up to the outlet valve and opened the window, shouting “Here, you, what do you think you are doing?” He flung himself out of the truck door and started across the dirt lot.

Edie stood up out of her hiding place and peered over the seat and out the open window. There stood an old man with a long white beard and sure enough, a red wool coat. Around him milled a whole herd of …some kind of animals.

“What are you doing here? How did you get in the lot? Guess we left the gate unlocked. What do you want? What are those things? Don’t look like cows or goats. Say, just who are you anyway!”

When Daddy finally quit shouting, the old man answered, quietly, “Name’s Nicholas. These guys here, they were getting pretty thirsty after pulling me around all night across these endless plains. I was right glad to see those lights on the big present, and my name written across it. NICHOLAS.” Edie glanced up at the tower. Surely the name was covered up by the blue tarps?

The stranger continue. “Figured it was a sign I should stop here!” He grinned and the smile transformed his face. “These here animals, they’re not goats. They just happen to be reindeer, from way up north of here. That’s why you never seen ‘em before. Now, come on, my friend, open the valve and fill the tank so we can have a drink of water.”

Daddy was quite befuddled by this all, and began to protest, “But, but…the drought. There isn’t any water in there, hasn’t been for more’n a month now. You’re plumb out of luck. Sorry for your animals there, though.”

“Go on,” said the bearded man. “Open it anyway, give it a try…give us a chance.”

Daddy turned the big brass wheel that opened the water valve, and turned with a gesture to the open tank, “There, see…..” and stammered to a halt as water came out of the pipe…not a trickle or a dribble, but cold, clear, rushing, gushing water!!

The animals crowded round and drank thirstily, and the old man cupped some water in his hand and drank too. Laughing a bit hysterically, Daddy joined him. Then as water began to flow over the sides of the tank, he had the presence of mind to twist the wheel shut.

“Who are you, old man?” Daddy asked in a low, almost frightened voice.

“Why, just what I told you. Nicholas,” the man answered. Then the man turned and seemed to look right at Edie. He chuckled and gave her a wink. “You’d better get to bed now, Santa can’t come if you’re not asleep!”

Daddy looked dumbfounded, but Mr Nicholas, whoever he was, just grinned. “Merry Christmas!” Then he shook Daddy’s hand and went to care for his animals. Daddy and Edie drove home.

That Christmas the little town of Nicholas had plenty of water, and in the spring the drought broke. The townspeople and the cattle and the little wheat plants were all happy that year.