Mystery gift arrives on Christmas Eve. I just had to share this with you. Happy holidays!

Usually, this is a place for serious political discourse for thoughtful Floridians. Not today...

Merry Christmas Eve!

I’m taking a break from serious political commentary today (well, as serious as I’m prone to get) to share a little holiday cheer.

To the complete surprise of my wife, Sandy, and I last night, a package arrived from California. It was nothing we had ordered, and while we have friends living on the Left Coast, the odds of them sending us something for the holidays seemed minuscule.

So, with great curiosity and a little hesitancy, we peeled off the envelope. She filmed the grand opening and posted it on her popular TikTok account @SandyatBeach, where, so far, nearly 2,000 followers have viewed it and offered their thoughts, which I will share a sample of below.

First, a reenactment:

It took a moment to figure out exactly what it was, but it became clear that, of all things, it appeared to be a toilet bowl cleaner.

Always a handy thing to have, of course, but not a traditional yuletide gift. In fact, I can’t ever recall asking Santa for a new toilet bowl brush, but perhaps someone had anticipated the need.

Or was this a hint that our housekeeping needs improvement?

But then it became apparent this was no ordinary toilet brush. This was one with a message. To wit:

Yes! A genuine Donald J. Trump toilet bowl cleaner. As I told Sandy, we will doubtless be the envy of all our neighbors.

Especially, here in Florida, where most of them are Republicans. I can only imagine how they will covet this. We’ll have to add locks to the doors now, for sure.

Sandy’s TikTok followers shared our unexpected joy.

“Breathtaking! That’s on my want and need list!”

““Please show us when you use it — and thank you.”

“I have one and use it a lot.”

“We here in Cali are pretty good at knowing the best s**t cleaners.”

And so forth.

So, in closing, let me just say I hope your Christmas presents are as memorable as this. Now, if we can only figure out an appropriate place to display it.

If you have any thoughts on that matter, let me know.

Cheers and happy holidays,

J.C. Bruce

J.C. Bruce is the founder of Tropic Press, a journalist, and award-winning author. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and his native Florida.

---

Santa is now online

You can give yourself or a friend the gift of a paid subscription to Tropic Press at a special holiday discount from now until Jan. 9. Join the growing community of readers who support this initiative. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Coming tomorrow

Miss Mingo is about to depart on a two-week-long cruise, a vacation she had on her bucket list long before the United States decided to blow up floating objects in the Caribbean. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Her weekly advice column will be back on its regular schedule in January. But before she sets sail, she wanted to leave us with a special Christmas Day column. Look for it on Dec. 25.

---

More online

Thank you for reading the Tropic Press newsletter. You also have access to the Tropic Press website for additional and previous posts, an archive of posts from our advice columnist, Miss Mingo, occasional guest commentaries, and information about The Strange Files series of mysterious adventures and other books.

---

Thanks to our sponsor

Today’s report is brought to you by Tropic Press Books, home of The Strange Files. The six-book series makes the perfect Christmas present for the mystery fans in your life. You can find more information about these hilarious stories here: