For the next six days, Pip worked not with screams, but with stitches. He cut and glued and tied. And on Halloween night, while the other houses on Willow Creek Lane had flashing skeletons and wailing ghosts, Pip’s front porch was… quiet.
One week before Halloween, Pip saw a notice on the town oak tree:
“I’m just not scary,” Pip sniffled, flopping onto his pile of felt. lovely craft halloween
The front yard was a “Felt Forest.” There were no zombies, but there were sleepy, smiling felt mushrooms as tall as toadstools. A crooked path made of brown felt circles led to the door. The bushes were made of piled-up green tulle, with felt fireflies sewn to the tips.
Each scroll was a kind, specific message Pip had written for his neighbors. The “haunted” felt tree was actually a “Kindness Tree.” For the next six days, Pip worked not
And from that Halloween on, Willow Creek had two traditions: trick-or-treating… and the Felt Forest, where every year, Pip and all his friends would gather to make something soft, something kind, and something lovely.
The contest judges came by last: the town mayor, a dignified badger, and the owner of the Giggling Goblin Costume Shop. They looked at the house with the shrieking banshee. They looked at the house with the fog machine. Then they came to Pip’s house. One week before Halloween, Pip saw a notice
Mrs. Hedgehog, the baker, reached up and gently unrolled one. She read aloud, “For the bravest little hedgehog who tried a new candy last year.”