Christmas is almost here, and while we’re all supposed to be filled with tidings of good cheer and such, some of us are just over it this year.
Yes, the holidays can be magical. But they can also be exhausting. And overwhelming. And expensive.
We’re tired. We’re broke. We’re way behind on our shopping lists, we’re eating too many carbs, we’re drinking too much spiced eggnog, & sometimes we just want to say, “FU, holidays! Not this year!”
You know the other expected part of the holiday season: the school Christmas concerts & plays. They’re our kids & we love ’em, but sitting through those plays sometimes remind us of how painful childbirth really is.
But straight out of the mouths (well, in this case fingers) of babes, our dark, innermost holiday sweariness just came to light. And it was well-lit, too, on a public stage.
A five-year-old girl starring as an angel in a Nativity play spent nearly the entire performance giving the audience the finger, & it definitely sparked a bunch of Christmas cheer (and chuckles).
Little Ella Legge of Essex, England was dressed to the nines as an absolutely heavenly little angel for her school’s annual Nativity play.
But despite her angelic appearance, what Ella ended up (unintentionally) doing was, well, quite devilish.
Ella had an irritated hangnail one of her fingers. A hangnail was simply not going to do for this angel, & she needed Mom to know it.
In an attempt to communicate her plight to her mother, Ella proceeded to flip off the rest of the bemused audience.
I may not have seen this play, but no matter- I can already tell you who my favorite angel is!
Ella wanted to make it clear to her mom that her finger was bothering her. And because mom Carla Bovingdon couldn’t respond verbally, Ella wanted to make damn sure Carla was in the know.
Despite signaling to Ella that all was ok, Carla explained to UK newspaper Independent:
It was pretty much for the majority of it she was there with her middle finger up. Because I didn’t run over there she kept holding it up as if she was saying, ‘mum, look!’,”
The show must go on, but Ella wasn’t going on without someone checking out this hangnail. And to point out that there was an issue with her one finger, Ella raised another, non-hangnail finger to point out the difference.
And believe me, her next attempt was much more effective in attracting the attention of her moth- well, of EVERYONE.
This time, Ella drove the point home by giving the audience a nice double-barreled salute.
Yup, twice the amount of “F-youuuuuuu!s” to anyone who wasn’t comprehending that this angel had a hangnail that needed tending to, and stat, people.
Of course Ella had no idea that her digits were projecting anything dirty; she was merely uneasy about the state of her nail.
But to the adults in the audience, her finger faux pas turned a normally stately Nativity play into a comically cheerful Christmas show.
Rather than be offended, the audience was in stitches. Of course Carla was initially feeling cringe-y, but as the play went on and the Ella’s birds remained staunchly flipped, Carla realized that the adults seated around her were amused:
That’s what made it so funny as well, because she was completely oblivious.
Ella had no idea that her raised fingers were anything but an indicator of injury, and her sweetly childish lack of awareness is what made it even funnier:
Because she was doing it so innocently I think most people were thinking, ‘oh bless her’.
And despite Ella’s hilarious theatrical mishap being shared on social media, she is blissfully unaware of what made it so funny. In fact, her mother Carla explained to The Daily Mirror that:
She wanted to say thank you to everyone for liking her picture, but then she said, ‘I don’t know what’s funny though’.
She doesn’t get what the joke is.
But we do. And sometimes all it takes is some sweet childish hilarity to laugh you out of your doldrums and into some Christmas cheer (and chuckles. Or gleefully amused snorts).