A Fiddle and Dee Christmas by Lindsay Dawn

Fiddle and Dee are two fluffy brother bunnies who are always up for adventure. They love to hop through the forest and look for fun things to do together. You never see Fiddle without Dee, or Dee without Fiddle.

Fiddle and Dee could always see bright colorful lights in the distance around this time of year. They could see them blinking through the fog on frosty mornings. One day Fiddle’s curiosity got the best of him and he said to Dee, “Hey, why don’t we follow the lights and see what they lead us to?”

“Okay, said Dee. Let’s do it.” Then we won’t have to guess anymore what they might be for. Fiddle always thought they were the lights of spaceships. Dee figured they were stars that had fallen out of the sky and changed colors the closer they came to earth. They decided to try to figure out once and for all what these lights were for.

They set off on an adventure. This would be the furthest they had ever hopped before. They were a little afraid to be travelling so far from home, but they knew as long as they had each other that would be enough. So off they went!

They hopped and hopped for days on end. They only stopped for water and food as needed along the way. They barely slept. They were far too excited to rest! The closer they got the brighter the lights became. They realized that they were approaching a town. They could hear people hustling and bustling through the town. It seemed they were preparing for something, but for what?

Fiddle and Dee soon hopped close enough to the town to figure out that the lights they saw from afar were in fact lights strung on trees. “That’s strange. We don’t have trees like that in the forest”, Fiddle and Dee proclaimed in unison.

“Those trees are so beautiful, Dee!” exclaimed Fiddle. “Wow!” said Dee. The two brother bunnies still couldn’t understand what the trees were for. All they knew was that these trees inspired happiness among the people of the town.

Fiddle and Dee were starting to feel a little home sick. Now that they’d found where the lights were coming from they couldn’t wait to go home and tell their forest friends about their discovery. So Fiddle and Dee started off in the direction of home, and hopped with such energy that they made it back a few days earlier than expected. Fiddle and Dee were so glad to be home. They bounced up and down hugging each other, saying “There’s nothing better than home”.

Then feelings of sadness overcame both Fiddle and Dee. They felt like something was missing. It was the lights, and the happy feelings that they brought to them. They decided that they needed to decorate their own tree as a reminder of their amazing adventure, and as a way to spread joy throughout the forest.

They began thinking of ways to decorate the tree. Fiddle got discouraged, he said to Dee, “Our tree won’t be very exciting because we are only going to be able to decorate as high up as we can hop!”

Dee had an idea. “Let’s ask some of our friends to help us!” They could ask Candy the cardinal to help with stringing some lights on the tree. Squizzy the squirrel could hang some ornaments on it. Bernie the bear could clear a space in the forest so that we can gather around our tree. Ethan the eagle could put the star atop the tree.

“Great thinking Dee”, said Fiddle. “I’ll go gather our friends.”

While Fiddle was gone Dee took it upon himself to search for the perfect tree. He hopped and hopped, and then he saw it. It was so big and beautiful that it took his breath away. He knew it was the one.

Fiddle came back a short while later with their forest friends. Like Dee, he loved the tree too. “Okay let’s begin”, said Fiddle.

Dee said, “What can we use for lights? We don’t have bright and colorful lights like in the town.”

Candy had an idea. She had seen some very bright red berries over on a bush just past her nest. She offered to get them and bring them back. She also knew of a way to string them together because she had seen some yarn that someone had left at the edge of the forest. Off she flew in search of materials to create the lights.

Fiddle said, “Okay now that Candy has gone off to get some lights, we need to find some ornaments.” Squizzy offered to get some acorns from her stash and create some nice ornaments to hang from the tree.

Now all that was needed was the star. But what in the world would they use to create a star? They were starting to feel discouraged when suddenly Bernie the bear said he remembered seeing a flower that was shaped like a star near his den. He waddled off to find it.

A few hours later all the forest friends met back at the tree. They each had their piece to add to the tree and could now begin decorating it. Candy began by flying around the tree and with each swoop she took around the tree they began to see that the string of berries did look like lights. Then Squizzy began to climb branch to branch and hang her acorn ornaments  Fiddle and Dee pitched in by putting the decorations on the lower branches. As they worked, Bernie the bear was busy working away to clear a nice circle around the the tree. Lastly, all that was needed was the star. Ethan the eagle flew to the top of the tree and attached the flowery star.

Once the tree was decorated all the friends stood back and formed a circle around the tree. They were so filled with joy at the sight of this tree. This tree that they had created together. It was a sight more beautiful than anything they had ever seen. The way the sun shone though the trees made it appear as if the berries were glowing, and the star was ablaze.

Fiddle and Dee still didn’t know exactly what the lights on the tree stood for. All they knew was that the feeling in their hearts as they stood staring at their tree was enough to get them through what was at first shaping up to be a long and cold winter.