The Christmas angels are busy yet again, gently descending from a cloud of festive green and red. They hold a huge advent calendar in their hands, a wooden plaque with enticing doors. They gently place it near the Christmas tree, a new friend to play with, and attach log holders behind it, ensuring it is firm and secure before stepping back in happy admiration.

A green, gold and red mosaic of little doors, the advent calendar shines with a hidden light. A different crystal adorns each door. Reindeer and sleighs are pictured behind, Christmas stockings and logfires too. It is a picture of pure Christmas joy.

Fairies flock to the glade and stare in excitement. “Who shall go first?” they whisper. “Tourmaline Tina!” shouts someone. She blushes. “Very well then.”

The first door is bedecked with a tourmaline crystal: purple, green and blue. Tina opens the door cautiously.

A vial of white dust confronts her. “Why it must be magic snowdust!” she cries, taking the little bottle and sprinkling its contents all around.

The dust forms a cloud, growing bigger and then erupting in to tiny white fairies. “Snow fairies!” cries Tourmaline Tina in delight.

They fly around the glade, taking it all in with the joy of infants. Some fly higher, with a few reaching the star on top of the Christmas Tree, and disappearing inside. Where have they gone?