The story of the Coat Rack Christmas Tree

Once upon a time...two young ladies, named April Ann and Lacey Lynn, met while at school. They became wonderful friends very quickly, even though they liked different things. April Ann was very smart, like to clean things, and hated seafood. Lacey Ly6nn was very goofy, kind of messy, and loved seafood.

April Ann had a extra room in her house and Lacey Lynn needed a place to live. So they agreed to be roommates and Lacey Lynn moved her clothes, her bed, her dresser, her toothbrush, and her coat rack into the extra room at April Ann's house.

They had fun listening to music, playing games with friends, and cooking together.

Christmas time was coming soon and April Ann and Lacey Lynn wanted to decorate a Christmas tree. Lots of trees were for sale in town, but April Ann did not want to get a real tree because the pine needles would make the floor messy. And Lacey Lynn did not want a real tree because the sticky sap would get all over her fingers. Besides, they had no extra money to buy a tree.

Now, you must know that although April Ann and Lacey Lynn were very different, they were both very creative and liked to use their imaginations. "We could MAKE a Christmas tree," said April Ann, "but what can we use?"

They looked around at the things in the house to see what they could use. "How about my coat rack?" said Lacey Lynn. "It can be the tree trunk."

"We can use my hula hoop for the bottom," April Ann replied.

They gathered some string, cut three equal pieces, and tied it to the top of the coat rack. They they tied it to the top of the coat rack. Finally, they tied the other end of each string to the hula hoop until the hoop and the coat rack were in the shape of a tree.
"It doesn't look much like a Christmas tree yet. What about ornaments?" said Lacey Lynn.

Being the smart young lady she was, April Ann ran to her bedroom and came back with her hands full of jingle bell earrings and some Christmas colored ribbon. "We can make our own ornaments!" April Ann said excitedly as she hung the items on the tree.

Lacey Lynn thought of some things she had that would make great decorations for the tree too. She ran to her room and returned with a plastic wreath pin and two candy canes to put on the tree.

They each grabbed any little thing that would hang and put it on the coat rack. It looked a little silly, but they were having fun decorating.

A friend named Charyl came by and saw the make-shift tree and said, "I have some Christmas lights you can use. That will really make it shine." So they wrapped the lights around the strings holding the hula hoop in place. Then another friend, named Darin, saw the tree and said, "I have some apples you can hang on your tree", so they tied the apples to the tree as well.

Slowly but surely, the coat rack began to look more and more like a real Christmas tree. Finally, they all stepped back and looked at the beautiful Coat Rack Christmas Tree they created and smiled.

April Ann and Lacey Lynn continued to add new ornaments to the tree each Christmas. Every year since then, the Coat Rack Christmas Tree has gotten bigger and better. It now has several hula hoop layers, beautiful green garland, hundreds of lights, and is topped with a beautiful star.

The years passed, and April Ann and Lacey Lynn grew up and had families of their own. But they still make ornaments with the children to put on their very own Coat Rack Christmas Tree. Even though it started as a simple coat rack, it became as bright and brilliant as any Christmas tree there ever was, because of two young ladies and their wonderful friends.

Written and Illustrated by: L.L. Smith