Dear Tinsel Post Readers,
We are now officially two weeks into “summer mode” here at the North Pole, which means three things: the sleigh wax has melted off the reindeer, someone swapped the bell-ringer’s gloves for fingerless fashion mittens, and I—Jingle P. Peppermint, your glitter-glued editor-in-chief—have found myself pondering life’s deeper questions.
Why, for example, do we stock popsicles at the North Pole? They freeze on the shelf, melt in your mitten, and cause more stickiness than a candy cane in a toddler’s pocket. I found myself holding a half-melted cranberry swirl pop on Tuesday, watching it drip slowly onto my stack of editor’s notes, and thought, “Is this metaphorical? Is this life?”
Then again, maybe it was just a sticky popsicle.
Still, these are the things that keep me up at night in my peppermint-striped pajamas. We elves are creatures of ritual—tidy schedules, clean workbenches, symmetrical snowflakes. But summer brings disruption. The cocoa dispensers start offering “iced” options. The workshop interns ask for sun breaks (sun! In June! Imagine!). The tinsel inventory is somehow four metric tons off because someone decided to build a pool float shaped like a narwhal.
And yet, despite the unpredictability, summer teaches us a little something every year. We remember to breathe. We loosen our scarves. We let the wind muss our pom-poms and call it fashion.
So, if this week has you a little melty, a little messy, or mildly stuck to your desk (thanks to rogue fudge pops), take it from me—embrace it. Schedule a hammock nap. Redesign your snow boots for beach wear. Eat the popsicle. Let it drip.
The schedule will realign. The glitter will settle. The interns will stop crying (probably). And you, dear reader, will still sparkle.
In reflective stickiness,
Jingle P. Peppermint
Editor-in-Chief
The Tinsel Post
P.S. If you hear a low humming in the newsroom, it’s the desk fan I’ve named “Sir Breeze-a-Lot.” He’s the only thing standing between me and spontaneous cocoa evaporation.
