The North Pole Goes Crazy
By Wenona Napolitano
It was the
night before Christmas Eve and nothing was going right at the North Pole. The
candy and toy machines were broken down and no one could fix them. Most of the
elves and reindeer were sick with the flu. Mrs. Claus couldn't get her
Christmas cookies baked because she was busy taking care of all the sick elves
and reindeer. To top everything off, Santa was missing. It was a disaster.
Everyone was afraid Christmas was going to be ruined this year.
Mrs. Claus was
doing everything she possibly could to get Christmas back on track. She called
everyone she knew asking if they had seen Santa. She called anyplace she could
think of that Santa might be. No luck, Santa was not to be found.
She thought
maybe she could figure out a way to get replacements for the reindeer and elves
because she knew they would not be well by tomorrow night, but it seemed almost
everyone in the North Pole was suffering from a very nasty flu bug that was
going around.
Mrs. Claus was
just about to give up and accept that there would be no Christmas this year. As
she sat in her rocking chair with her face in her hands Santa showed up.
"Where
have you been?" cried Mrs. Claus, "Everything has been going
wrong!"
"Sorry
dear, I was in a sleigh race but I hit a snowdrift and wrecked the sleigh. I
had to walk home all the way from the other side of the pole."
"Oh, no!
Not the sleigh too! Everything is going wrong, the elves and reindeer are sick;
the toys aren't finished because the machines are broken, I haven't made any
cookies and now the sleigh is wrecked. Even if the machines get fixed we have
no reindeer and no sleigh to deliver all the presents."
"What
about my old sleigh?" Santa asked Mrs. Claus.
"We
loaned it to my brother a couple of years ago, he never returned it," Mrs.
Claus started to cry.
"Well
now, don't worry. I've never missed a Christmas yet and we've had some tough
years."
"I know,
but things have never been this bad," sniffed Mrs. Claus.
"I'll go
into town and see what I can find to fix the machines and see if anyone is
available to help," said Santa.
"I've
called around but everyone has the flu.”
"Well,
just let me go into town and I'll see what I can come up with. After all, I am
Santa and I've been known to make miracles happen." He smiled at Mrs.
Claus and she smiled back through her tears. "Contact the South Pole while
I'm gone; see if they can send up some polar bears as soon as possible. We can
give them some of the magic feed to make them fly. Thank goodness we still have
Rudolph since he was racing with me."
Santa walked
out the door and Mrs. Claus went right to the phone to call the South Pole. A
couple of hours later Mrs. Claus heard a horn honking from outside. She walked
out into the snow and found Santa in a shiny red corvette with big snow tires.
"What are
you going to do with that corvette?" Mrs. Claus cried.
"Deliver
toys in it," Santa said with a mischievous grin, "It's all I could
find in town. The polar bears can pull it if they get here. Did you call
them?"
"Of
course I called them. They are already on the way. They caught the first flight
out," said Mrs. Claus.
"Wonderful,
I picked up some parts in town now I just have to fix the machines and hope
they can make millions of toys and candy canes by tomorrow night," Santa
tried to sound confident but he was really worried. It was almost Christmas Eve
and there were no toys made, no elves to make them, and no reindeer to pull the
sleigh...corvette. The North Pole had gone crazy.
"Mrs.
Claus could you go into the forest and round up all the friendly creatures,
they will have to replace the elves for now. Have them put up all the
decorations in the forest and around the house while I fix the machines."
While Mrs.
Claus rounded up raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, and foxes to decorate the North
Pole Santa tried to fix the machines. He grumbled and growled while trying to
fix the ancient machinery, "These are so old, I knew I should have ordered
new ones." First, he couldn't get the parts off then he kept putting the
wrong parts on the wrong machines, "I'm out of practice," he grumbled,
"the elves always do this stuff, I guess I should pay more attention to
how things work around here."
Finally, the
machines were fixed. Toys and candy canes were coming out, but it was too slow.
At that pace, there would never be enough ready by Christmas Eve. Santa was
getting worried. Then one of the squirrels ran in to tell him they could not
find the decorations. Santa was so exasperated he kicked the machine. Toys and
candy canes started shooting out at top speed.
"Well,
that's better. Finally, things are starting to go right." He smiled and
looked at the squirrel, "The decorations are in the loft above Mrs.
Claus's sewing room." The squirrel chattered and ran off to tell Mrs.
Claus.
There was
still hope that Christmas could be saved. Santa followed the squirrel to make
sure the decorations were found, then he directed some of the animals to start
wrapping up the presents and loading the corvette with what was finished. While
they did that Santa made the rounds to check on his sick elves and reindeer, he
felt lost without them.
Christmas Eve
arrived and they managed to get all the toys and candy canes made and loaded
into the car, the North Pole shimmered with the sparkling lights and ornaments
and freshly fallen snow, and the air was filled with the scent of freshly baked
Christmas cookies and hot chocolate. There were still a couple problems: the
polar bears had not arrived yet and Rudolph's nose was burnt out and they
couldn't find a bulb to fit.
"What are
we going to do?" Mrs. Claus was practically in tears as Santa paced back
and forth praying that the bears would arrive before it was too late.
"Even if the bears do arrive you have no one to lead the way."
Just then one
of the lookout foxes let out a yip and a howl, "The polar bears are
finally here!"
Everyone
clapped and cheered.
"Sorry,
our plane was delayed, there was a hurricane and somehow we got turned around
over the Bermuda triangle, but we're here now and ready to go. Where's that
magic feed that can make us fly?" said the leader of the polar bear group.
"Get them
the feed," Santa ordered the squirrels, to the raccoons he said,
"help me get these bears hooked up to the corvette."
"We still
haven't solved the problem about lighting, there is no one to lead the way
through the dark," reminded Mrs. Claus.
"I'll
just have to turn on the brights of the corvette and hope it's enough,"
replied Santa.
The polar
bears each touched their collars; they lit up like Christmas trees, very bright
Christmas trees.
"Those
are bright, what are they?" asked Santa.
"Special
LED lights for seeing on extra dark winter nights," replied one of the
bears.
"Wow,
those are amazing. I'm going to have to get some for the reindeer," Santa
said with a grin.
It was getting
really late; Santa should have left hours ago. They scrambled to get things
done. Finally, the bears were all hooked up to the corvette and ready to fly.
It was such a
strange sight they made. Instead of eight reindeer pulling a sleigh, six large
polar bears were pulling a corvette with Santa behind the wheel. They flew off
into the night ready to deliver toys to children around the world.
A long trail
of candy canes trailed behind the corvette hanging out of one of the bags.
Jingle bells rang and Santa laughed a gusty "Ho, ho, ho!"
Christmas was
saved.
If you see
strange sights like this one Christmas Eve the North Pole just went crazy
again, but don’t worry Santa and his crew have it all under control.
(c) Copyright 2020 Wenona Napolitano
