DING-DONG!

The doorbell rang out, summoning a trio of middle-aged women who answered the door. One of them was named Flora who wore red/pink-colored clothing who was the de facto leader of the three. There was Fauna who had on green-colored clothing and then there was the short one named Merryweather who donned blue clothes and was the feisty one of the three.

"Wonder who that could be." Flora said opening the door to see Jack, Maria and their two friends, Manolo and Joaquin, standing there. "Hello there, children. Are you here to read to us?"

"Uh, no. We hear that you three know something about this man here." answered Jack who showed them a newspaper article about Angus who was spotted near Toonville. The three women gasped when they saw it.

"Angus?" Flora asked, squinting her eyes to read the article closer. "He's been here?"

"My, my! It's been forever!" Merryweather cried.

NARRATOR: Jack Frost had some questions
in his curious heart.
Why did Angus hate Christmas?
Where did it all start?

With his dad's recorder,
there's nothing he would miss...

"In your own words, I want you all to tell me everything you know about Angus." Jack and his friends told them, sitting on the couch and holding a microphone connected to the recorder on the coffee table while the trio sat in front of him. "Where did he come from?"

"Is he a wizard?" Joaquin asked offhandedly.

"Is he immortal?" asked Manolo also, causing Maria to shake her head in amusement.

"Oh!" Flora cried with a chuckle. "He came the way all Toon babies came."

"That's right." Fauna agreed.

Many Christmases Ago...

"On calm nights, baby Toon girls and tiny Toon fellas drift from the skies in their own umbrellas." explained Flora.

It was a chilly Christmas night when the small baskets carrying Toon young floated through the dark skies on umbrellas to be delivered to their expecting parents. One of them landed on the doorstep of a house as the baby let out cries. A man opened the door to put out empty milk bottles for the milkman when he spotted his new child.

"Hey, honey! Our baby's here!" He called his wife inside the house and leaned down to get a closer look at the baby. "He looks just like your boss."

"So that's how it works." Jack grinned, understanding.

"Indeed." Merryweather nodded. "That's how you were born too."

"I always thought the gods and goddesses delivered the babies to their parents personally." replied Maria.

"That's a bunch of baloney and you know it." Joaquin retorted, earning him a playful, albeit forceful shove from the girl.

"Anyway, it was Christmas Eve and a strange wind blew that night." Flora continued.

Amongst the rest of baby carriages, one basket contained an infant with pale skin and black hair. The child cooed and squirmed from the wind which increased and made his basket collide against another basket, sending him into the direction of Toonville. The baby's coos turned into a whimpers as his basket landed carefully into the branches of a tree outside of someone's house.

"It was that moment that we were having our annual holiday get-together." spoken Merryweather.

Everyone inside of the house was having a wild party inside with loud, booming music, laser light show and intense dancing. It was more like a teenager throwing a party after being left home alone by his parents rather than your average Christmas party. Even the trio were enjoying themselves. However, no one was aware of the baby outside the window. Everyone was too distracted having soo much fun, the baby was left outside to freeze. Feeling all alone, the baby whimpered and start to break down into tears and cry.

"It wasn't until the next morning when someone knew he was out there." added Flora with symphony.

"The poor dear." moaned a saddened Fauna.

"But we knew right away that he was special." Merryweather added.

But every cloud had a silver lining, for the baby was found by the trio and taken into their home were they raised him as one of their own. Merryweather had given him the name "Angus Black" after a literary character from a favorite novel of her's called He Who Follows the Wind: A Sailor's Tale. The infant giggled at that name and had reached his arms out to her. Flora and Fauna had suggested other names, but the child was already named before they had a chance so they ran with it. Little four-year old Angus sat in his high chair and belched, making the three women giggle.

"Do you want a Christmas cookie?"

They surrounded him with a Santa Claus-themed plate of cookies.

"Which one would you like?" asked Fauna.

"Santa." replied Angus for the first time, making the women gasp with surprise.

"His first word!" Flora chirped.

"Yes, you wanna hold the Santa plate?" Merryweather asked in her baby voice.

They brought the plate closer to him, but as soon as he got a look at the Santa-shaped glass plate, his little baby mind went wild with nightmarish visions and he squirmed and whimpered, pushing the plate away. At first, he had tiny childhood fear of Santa Claus.

"No Santa! No Santa!" He fussed fearfully.

They instantly pulled the plate away from him with concerned looks.

"Oh, no. It's okay. It's okay. Santa won't hurt you." Flora assured the child, stroking his hair.

"Yes, Santa is good. He gives you toys." Fauna agreed with her.

"Here you go." replied Merryweather as she grabbed a cookie with green frosting from the plate and handed to Angus. He accepted it, starting to calm down and started eating it.

6 Years Later...

"He was a wonderful young lad and we raised him like any other Toon child. With a deep love for Christmas." Flora elaborated.

Angus was 10 years old now and in the 2nd grade in elementary school. He sat at his desk with the rest like the rest of his classmates drawing in his notebook. 6 years and he was still afraid of Santa Claus and he drew scary pictures of him. Right now, he was sketching Santa as a dangerous creature that devours children with a shadowy appearance, sharp claws, fangs and glowing red eyes. He even drew himself cowering in fear at his presence.

"Don't forget, children. Our big Christmas gift exchange is tomorrow!" Their teacher, Mrs. Oxana Hauntley, announced. "Everyone bring a special gift for that special someone."

A shade of red decorated Angus's pasty white cheeks. He didn't really have a special someone, but he wished that he did.

"Angus Black?" asked Jessica.

The four children all nodded in response. They was now inside Jessica's house, interviewing her next, since she also happened to know Angus since childhood. But from her personal point-of-view, she didn't just know him. She wasn't ready to admit it, but she felt a fixation towards the boy in his young age.

"Well, he had no sense of color coordination. Although, I hardly remember him. I didn't have time to socialize. I was always busy with my...studies." explained Jessica with slight hesitance in her voice, hdiing a blush on her cheeks.

Sitting at another desk across from Angus's was a young 11-year old girl named Jessica with a perfect soft face, red hair tied into a fluffy ponytail and wearing her school uniform. She was more focused on the black-haired boy as she smiled at him flirtatiously while licking a red lollipop. This girl's heart went out to him and she felt feelings of affection towards him.

"Now, class, is everyone almost finished?" asked Mrs. Hauntley.

Angus felt eyes on him and looked to his right at the grinning face of Jessica who winked at him. Angus's lips parted and his face heated up. Was this girl trying to come onto me?, he asked himself. Somewhere in the front row, a redheaded boy named Hans Westergaard looked behind him to see his crush, Jessica, giving Angus flirty smiles and saw Angus returning a smile and waving at her. This made Hans feel jealous and his chance to ask Jessica out being jeopardized.

"And if the truth be told, he liked Jessica." added Mayor Westergaard while the Duke polished his shoes. Although he was not a fan of the whole Angus Black subject, he was okay with sharing a little bit of info regarding his backstory.

"Now Jessica was my girlfriend. I don't really like discussing Black so very close to Christmas, but maybe if you hear the truth, you'll understand why-Put you're back into it!" He ordered the Duke who got distracted and picked up the pace.

"I tried to take him under my wing."

After class was over, everyone grabbed their stuff and was about the leave. Angus went to follow Jessica to talk to her, but was stopped when Hans and his buddies blocked his path.

"You don't have a chance with you, weirdo. You're only 10 years old and you're a rarity with a rug for hair." Hans gripped at him and laughed along with his friends and the rest of the class, but not Jessica.

Angus felt his face and his stroked his black hair, beginning to doubt his features as well.

"That hair, not very pleasant. His skin, not right." bragged Mayor Westergaard.

Jessica sat at her desk when Angus walked up to her. She looked at him and smiled.

"You know, Christmas is my favorite time of year." She told him.

Angus had no words to come up with as he stood in front of the girl who stole his heart.

"I just love the colors. Red, green." She continued when she rubbed a warm hand against his cheek and gently flicked a piece of his hair. She waved at him daintily and left after winking at him. Angus felt his heart began to beat like drum in a marching band.

"Did I have a crush on Angus?" Jessica chuckled in denial. "Of course not."

"That wasn't our question." corrected Maria.

"Oh." Jessica blushed with embarrassment "Right."

Anxious and desperate to impress a certain girl, Angus searched through a garbage pail for something to use, something make for her.

"For some reason, when he came home that day, he really got into the Christmas spirit for the very first time." Flora replied.

After a while, he finally settled on a miniature tuba.

"Perfect!"

Back at home, he pulled out a whole drawer of silverware and dumped them out on the table. Next, he went to the book shelf and open one book, which was a compartment filled with jewelry.

"Ah-ha!" He exclaimed and grabbed an heirloom. "What a lovely family heirloom."

He took out a hammer and smashed it into little pieces and used tweezers to place them into the holes of the flaps of a colander. Then he started a small fire inside of a pot which he used to melt some metal pieces.

"The fires of love." He grinned. "This'll be perfect on the top of a tree. Oh, Jessica. Oh, Christmas!"

Putting on the finished touches of his little project, he placed on the counter a beautiful Christmas angel ornament he created that goes on the top of the tree. Angus looked at his reflection in the mirror, seeing his usual pale skin and and messy hair.

"I want you all to look your best tomorrow."

"You don't have a chance with her. You're 10 years old and you're a rarity with a rug for hair."

This made him wonder and ponder. Maybe Hans had a point. Maybe Jessica wasn't going to choose someone like him. But he was still determined to prove to her that he had a place in her heart. He pulled out an electric shaver and some face paint with Caucasian colors to make Angus's skin pigment more Caucasian. He had a bad feeling about this. Of course, he wasn't like the rest of the Toons. There wasn't any Toon for miles with messy black hair complete with pale, ghostly-white skin. But he wanted to do it all for Jessica. So against his better judgement, he grabbed the shaver and turned it on as he slowly began to work.

The next day during the gift exchange, everyone has gifted their gifts to each other. But there was one person missing from the line-up.

"Has everyone given their gifts?" Mrs. Hauntley asked and everyone nodded.

"I haven't." Angus's voice responded and the kids looked towards his direction, confused.

He came out of hiding from behind the coat rack wearing a paper bag on his head with eye holes and holding his gift for Jessica. Although she seemed pleased by the hand-made Christmas angel, she was taken aback by the bag he was wearing.

"Merry Christmas, Jessica." He said, presenting her with the angel.

"Why do you have a bag on your head?" asked Mrs. Hauntley.

"Probably because he's embarrassed by the hideous mess of a gift." Hans jabbed mockingly while everyone laughed.

Angus sat at his desk, trying his best to ignore the humility and insults. The teacher insisted that he took the bag off his head.

"Mr. Black, please take the bag off." She urged.

He was about to, but hesitated. Angus put a book in front of him, then took it off, but still covered his face, fearing what they would say.

"Put the book down." Mrs. Hauntley urged further.

He put it down to show he put his foot in front of his face, still hesitant about revealing his looks.

"And you're foot."

Angus finally had to face it. Preparing for what Jessica might say, for what the entire class had to say, he reluctantly removed his foot from his desk to show his work; he shaved his hair a little too short that he looked bald and painted his face to look more normal, but the silliness of it made everyone snicker.

"Look at that hack job!"

Then everyone laughed hard at him, lead by Hans, the worst offender of them all. Jessica looked concerned and looked at Angus. At that very moment, everything changed. Took a turn for the worst. Angus's world had come crashing down. He finally got into the Christmas spirit and for what? He worked his butt off to make this delicate present to Jessica and tried to fix his "ugliness" for her as well, only to be laughed at for it. Never has been humiliated in all his life. Something inside of him finally snapped! As his classmates laughed, his face contorted into a furious glare and his face scarlet with rage. Enough was enough! That was the final straw! All this Christmas spirit never did him any good. And how Angus was finally fed up with it all! He got up from his desk and grabbed the angel.

"Stupid presents!" He bellowed and throw the gift into the stack of presents, knocking them down, causing everyone to stop laughing and gasp with terror.

"Stupid tree!" Angus picked up with with a brutal amount of strength as his heart finally shrunk down and his psyche broke apart.

"I HATE CHRISTMAS!"

The anger, the fury, the muscles. Christmas was no longer left in Angus Black's heart. At the sound of the boy's roar, everyone scattered, ducked for cover and ran away once Angus tossed the tree at them. The children panicked and Angus ran out the classroom and into the mass hysteria. He looked back at Jessica and saw the fear displayed on her perfect face. He almost cried, seeing her like this, but he was done caring and ran out of the school, not looking back. Jessica picked up the pieces of the destroyed angel and frowned with sorrow. She never wanted it to come to this.

"It was a horrible day when they were so cruel to him. I could hardly bare it." Jessica mourned.

Now that he was on his own now, Angus climbed the hills of Mt. Krumpit, ignoring how cold he was. He never wanted to go back to Toonville, never wanted to go back to the trio back home, not after everything that transpired at school. It was too much. He just couldn't go back now. He was actually starting to like Christmas, but no one cared. He was just too different for them. He couldn't evade the word, "ugly" for a Toon.

"I hate Christmas! I hate it!" He growled with a tear-stained face as he climbed.

JESSICA: And that was the last time we ever saw him. The very last time.

Angus made it to the very spot where he would like in solitude away from the dumb Toons. He panted and wiped the tears from his eyes and he gazed upon the town below as he reflected on the events. He always feared Santa Claus since infancy. No on knew he was outside the minute he arrive in his basket. No one even bothered to acknowledge him. Not until the following day when the trio took him in. Jessica. Oh, how he thought about her. The way she looked at him with that perfect smile and how he saw the fear in her eyes during his meltdown. His love for her helped him grow out of his fear for Santa and become interested in Christmas. Sadly, it was all for naught. Nothing lasts forever.

"I can't believe it." Maria commented, gobsmacked by the whole story behind the Man in the Snow, while she and her friends were hiking back home together through town. All her life, she was told Angus was an evil, vicious monster who did nothing but eliminated the joy on the holidays, but now after diving into his history, she finally saw that he was nothing more but a misunderstood man who was been tormented and harassed at such a young age that it drove him off the deep end until he could stand it no more. Never did she imagine that he would have a good reason to hate Christmas.

"My whole life as been a lie." Manolo shook his head. "Are we really the bad guys?"

"What makes you say that?" asked Maria.

"All this time, we were told to be afraid of Mr. Black, but now, why should we?" Joaquin responded. "Perhaps he's been the real victim all along."

"I'm so conflicted." sighed Maria, hugging herself. "What can we do to make this right?"

"What really can we do?" Jack asked them matter-of-factly. "That hole is already deep enough and he won't crawl himself out so easily."

"If we were to show him what he's missing, maybe he'll change his mind." Manolo suggested, hoping it was that easy.

"Maybe, just maybe." muttered Jack as he looked up to have a gander at Mr. Krumpit above their beloved town, where Angus himself lived now. Maria placed an arm around him for comfort as his mind raged on for some way to convince him that Christmas wasn't as bad he believes.