Christmas List Chaos

Do you want to hear a story about what happened this Christmas? It's every child's worst nightmare. Are you brave enough to find out what can happen when things go south in the North Pole?

As you know, every year, children write lists of all the presents they would like for Christmas. Some children write long lists, some children write short lists, they write in their best handwriting and draw pictures of their most wanted presents, hoping they’re on Santa's Nice List.

Santa and his elves look forward to receiving the children’s letters because they remember the presents each child has loved playing with over the years and like to see how the lists change as the children get older.

‘Looks like we've got another bunch of letters coming in Santa’ said Elfie, pointing at the post box in the North Pole's Post Office Arrivals Department. Bells rang and lights flashed as the letters poured in.

‘Thank goodness!’ exclaimed Santa, ‘I was beginning to worry the children were leaving it a little late this year. You know how it makes the Toyshop elves panic.’

‘I remember those days like yesterday’, reminisced Elfie. ‘The longest days and nights preparing the toys for the children, and then they changed their minds, sent their letters in late, or were so naughty that they couldn't receive their presents’.

‘It's a little different now. When Hayden was born, I got my very own child to look out for. It's been 12 years now and every Christmas I spend my days watching over him to see if he's being a good boy.'

‘And is he?’ asked Santa.

‘He's been pretty good so far. Well, most of the time.' Elfie looked down, knowing that he had to tell Santa the truth, ‘Er, well…. there are times when he spends too much time gaming and doesn't listen when it's time to stop and read a book or play outside.’

‘Oh that is VERY naughty’, said Santa. ‘Not listening lands little boys and girls on the naughty list. Let's see how he behaves from now on, then we can decide which list he goes on this year’. He shook his head and went off to find Mrs Claus.

Elfie was worried. He had to find a way to warn Hayden without actually warning him, Elves were not allowed to interfere in a child's behaviour. Their job was to report back to Santa, not give the children tips on how to get on the Nice List.

It was a few days before Christmas and Hayden and Bella had already broken up from school for the holidays.

‘Want to play SleepWars.

‘Na, let's play Fish first’.

‘Aw come on, we haven't played SleepWars together for ages’.

‘OK, same team, we'll dominate.’

The children played for a few hours and then it was time for dinner.

‘Come on you two, dinner is almost ready.’

‘OK’ chimed Hayden.

Five minutes passed by and the children were still playing.

‘Dinner's on the table.’

‘OK’.

No one moved a muscle. They carried on playing.

Elfie was on the shelf, watching. This was his time to step in. He knocked a book off the shelf and stared so hard at Hayden it sent a shiver through his body. He got up quickly. ‘Come on Bella, dinner is ready.’

Elfie smiled and secretly watched them eat dinner. They both ate their vegetables. December is most definitely the time of year to be eating your vegetables. Mrs Claus is particularly interested in children eating their greens.

‘It makes the children strong, smart and sensible’, she always says.

‘I’m not sure children these days care about being sensible’, reflected Santa. He'd been watching the Naughty or Nice barometer. For over 500 years, the barometer showed that most children were on the Nice List. 75% Nice to 25% Naughty. This year the barometer was showing that 90% of children were on the Naughty List. What on earth had they been doing?

Snowflake, Pudding and Elfie had seen the barometer too, they knew that both Hayden and Bella were on the Naughty List.

‘This doesn't make sense, Bella has been such a good girl most of the year’ said Snowflake.

'Yeah, she should be on the Nice List’, said Pudding, looking worried.

‘Hayden too’, added Elfie. ‘Something isn't right and we need to get to the bottom of it. We need to go and see Midnight, he'll know what's wrong with the barometer’.

Midnight was a clever elf whose job it was to look after the naughty or nice list barometer. He'd had it running like clockwork for the past four hundred years. It was so accurate you could set Christmas Day by it. Without Midnight, the Barometer was broken. It was missing the magic that made Christmas.

Elfie and Snowflake ran into Santa's List Room. Only a few people were able to enter this room, because it held the key that unlocked the magic of Christmas for children all around the world.

‘Midnight! Midnight!’ they shouted together. Silence. There was no response. They looked around but the List Room was completely empty.

‘He's not here!’, exclaimed Snowflake.

‘We need to find him, quickly.’

Elfie and Snowflake ran to the Santa Scope, a huge powerful telescope that Santa uses to look into people’s houses and check on the children. ‘Find Midnight’ said Elfie in his most professional Elf voice.

Beep Beep Beep. The Santa Scope scanned the world for Midnight. Thousands of Midnight locations came up. ‘A lot of children must have called their Elf Midnight’ said Snowflake.

‘Really? Laughed Elfie. ‘Imagine how many Elfie’s there are out there, there would be little hope if I ever got lost.’

‘Haha! Me too, there are loads of Snowflakes.

‘Er yeah, how else would you make a snowman?’ joked Elfie.

‘That’s not at all funny’ frowned Snowflake. She didn’t like to think of being squashed into a ball.

‘Come on you two, this is serious,’ warned Pudding. ‘If this list isn’t fixed, Christmas won’t be Christmas for so many children, and a lot of them don’t deserve that. We have a lot to do. Not only do we need to find Midnight, we need to fix the barometer, speak to all the Elves in the world and let them know we need a new barometer readings right now to give it time to recalibrate good and naughty behaviour.

‘We can’t do all of that by ourselves’, said Snowflake. The elves sat quietly, looking at each other, searching for answers.

‘Well… we…. could recruit the children’, offered Elfie, meekly.

‘Absolutely not!’ said Pudding sternly. Santa will be furious.

‘Hear me out. They need to find Midnight. Which means we can fix the barometer, contact all the elves, get this list sorted out and don’t forget, we’ll need to work with the Toyshop elves to fix the problem with the presents’.

Snowflake’s eyes opened wide, she looked from Elfie to Pudding and back to Elfie. It was against the Elf Law to contact the children. Elfie was a very naughty elf to suggest such a thing.

Pudding thought long and hard and looked at Elfie.

‘Could you two stop staring at me and make a decision. I say we contact the children discreetly and get them on the case quickly. What other choice do we have?’

“Ok, but it has to be discreet, you can’t completely break the rules. What do they say, you can bend the rules but not break them.’

‘I’ve got a plan! We can contact them through the game’.

Bella and Hayden were back on the game in Hayden’s room when Elfie hacked into the chat.

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

ONE TWO THREE.

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

‘Look at that idiot in the chat said Hayden, alerting Bella to the chat, someone is trying to do morse code by the looks of things’.

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

FIND MIDNIGHT.

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

ALERT.

FIND MIDNIGHT. IT’S URGENT. CHRISTMAS IS CANCELLED.

‘Find Midnight?! ‘ exclaimed Bella. ‘That’s my elf. I need to go home right now’.

‘What?! Christmas is cancelled! I’m coming too’.

‘OK, let’s go,’ said Bella, packing up her bag. The two of them had never moved so fast off a game.

‘Mum, we need to go to Bella’s right now’.

Back at Bella's house, the children ran from room to room, opening cupboard doors and drawers frantically. They looked under chairs, sofas beds, tables, in the kitchen, in the bathrooms.

'Will you two calm down?’ warned Bella’s mum, looking dismally at the mess they were making.

'Let's go outside, time is running out'. They ran to the pool, looking in all the bushes along the way.

'Hello Bella', said Clara, one of the neighbours as they flew past at top speed. Bella turned to reply and saw her daughter was holding an elf.

'Midnight!' She exclaimed in relief stopping in her tracks. Hayden turned to look at the little girl, who held on tightly to the elf, her eyes narrowing as she turned away.

'You shouldn't touch the elves, they lose their magic', Hayden told her.

'Sorry it's just that my elf has gone missing. Did you, er, by any chance, er find him?', asked Bella politely, not wanting to accuse the child of stealing. That wouldn't be very Christmasy now would it.

'Molly found the elf about a week ago. A cat dropped it over there on the path'.

'A CAT, dropped him!' they screamed in unison.

'Yes, the black and white one that comes to the pool sometimes'.

'May we have him back please?' Hayden asked Molly, looking at her deadpan in the face.

Molly started to cry and ran away clutching Midnight.

'Molly! Come back! Called out her mother, but Molly didn't stop.

'Why did you say that? Now look what you've done, you've made her cry?'

'I only asked for it back' he snapped. Tensions were rising as time was ticking. He didn't want Christmas to be canceled.

'We're sorry but we need the elf'.

'Perhaps we can get Molly a different Elf', offered Bella quickly.

'Molly, come here darling' coaxed Clara to Molly who was now holding Midnight behind her back.

Back at the North Pole, in Santa’s Workshop, the naughty list was getting longer. The barometer flashed 95% in bright red lights, an alarm sounded WOOWOOOWOOOWOO WOWWOWOWOW.

The elves were frantic. Elves with electrical training had opened up the back of the barometer, pushing wires into different connections and taking some out.

'This isn't working. Where is Elfie and Snowflake?'

'I'm here!' 'Coming.'On my way!' 60 different Elfies and Snowflakes ran towards the barometer.

Santa rolled his eyes.

'Where is Hayden's Elfie and Bella's Snowflake?'

Elfie raised his hand. 'I'm here Santa'.

'Elfie, Snowflake, it is very clear you need to go back. You need to go together and you need to be very careful that none of the children see your magic. It is very important for saving Christmas. Go and find Midnight and bring him back to the North Pole. Stay together.'

Elfie and Snowflake reluctantly held hands, sneezed twice and went back to find Bella and Hayden.

Molly was screaming at this point, holding Midnight in the air. 'You can't have him, he's mine now. HE IS MIIIIINE!'

Bella and Hayden were wide-eyed and shocked by this behaviour. It wasn't her elf. What was she thinking?

Elfie and Snowflake arrived at the scene. Hiding in the trees out of sight.

'Psssst Midnight,' they chimed in Elfish. It sounded like little bells.

'What's that noise?' said Molly, startled by the bells. It made her stop crying and look around, wiping her nose on Midnight's jacket.

'Eugh!' Bella gagged.

Midnight seemed to move. Hayden was pretty sure he saw him side-eye the trees.

'Bella!' he said, tapping her on the shoulder. 'Look!'

Bella looked in the tree but couldn't see anything.

'No, look at Midnight.'

As they were looking at Molly and Midnight, the black cat came through the bushes and brushed up against Molly's legs, her tail curling.

Molly screamed, dropped Midnight and ran to her mum.

'Come on, Molly, let's get you home' said Clara kindly. The children watched as they walked away.

When they turned around, Midnight was gone.

'Midnight! What happened? Where have you been? It's a disaster at the North Pole and Santa has sent us to find you. The barometer has broken and most of the children in the world are on the naughty list.' Snowflake was speaking fast as they flew back to the North Pole.

'The Toyshop elves are devastated, Rudolf is panicking, Mrs Claus is worried and Santa is going to cancel Christmas', added Elfie, equally devastated.

'Time is running out'.

The barometer flashed 99% naughty when they arrived.

'Thank goodness!' exclaimed Pudding. 'We are minutes away from Christmas being cancelled.'

The colour drained out of Midnight's cheeks. He flew behind the barometer and set to work. His expert fingers knowing exactly which wire went where, how they connected to different parts of the world and which child was which. I'm sure you can imagine how many wires there were to fix.

95%

92%

90%

85%

76%

They were out of the danger zone but there were still way too many children on the naughty list. It was going to be a long night. Midnight continued his work, he was tired. Elfie took him a mince pie and some milk, whilst Pudding gave him some pudding and custard. This would keep him fuelled overnight.

Soon, the nice percentages had flipped and the nice list was beginning to show progress.

50%

55%

63%

72%

Almost there.

78%

85%

Let's get the lists to the Toyshop so that they can make sure the boys and girls get their presents.

The Toyshop elves cheered as loud as they could when the lists started coming through. They worked as hard as they could to choose the right dolls, games, skates, art supplies, clothes, train sets, books, science experiments and of course, underpants and socks, and wrap them up nicely for all the lovely children on the nice list.

The elves hoped they got it right this year. Did they?