The letter Hedda pasted on the window was glittering in the night. She had sprinkled it with sugar to make it sparkle.
It was written on the stationary Hedda’s father had given her the previous year. The last year she saw him. Now, her Christmas list contained only one thing: for her father to come back. Hedda hoped that when the Christkind came to endow the town with gifts, he would notice her letter glittering in the night.

Seeing her father again would be worth all the presents in Germany, and all the Christmases in the world.