Day Eight: Codbells of Tullyport Bay

This story is a part of Martin & Sylvia's Twelve Days of Christmas Story Collection.

In these stories, Martin and Sylvia explore what it means to celebrate the traditional "Twelve Days of Christmas," inspired by twelve delightful tales from 18th century Maine. Each story contains a "story-within-the-story" - about the colonial town of Tullyport as the founding families create Christmas traditions and celebrations that are unique, delightful and rich with community connection.

This story is Day Eight: Codbells of Tullyport Bay.

On this 8th day of Christmas, Martin is feeling overwhelmed with Sylvia’s plans. He is tired and doesn’t really want to commit his day to preparing costumes and building sets — but he also doesn’t want to hurt her feelings. After listening to the Tullyport story, however, brother and sister are inspired to tell each other the truth and then enjoy a day outside working on fairy houses.

From “Twelve Tales of a Tullyport Christmas”: “The Codbells of Tullyport Bay” There is a tradition in Tullyport in which the fisherman cease fishing during the Twelve Days of Christmas. They only put out to sea once during the season, on the 8th day of Christmas. And that is not to fish, but to address the “Codbells”, or sea fairies that tend to the cod. Whether they believe in the fairies or not, they all go out into the ocean, and declare their wishes for the coming year. This year, Francis’ Tully’s oldest son Carrick is 18, and he goes out alone to address the Codbells. When he makes the mistake of forgetting the Codbells and throwing in a line, it seems his hopes and dreams begin to unravel. Or do they?

This story addresses the value of being honorable and truthful.