12 Stories of Christmas: Story #4

Christmas Drones

Santa was nodding off when the TV ad caught his attention.

“Are you tired of making deliveries or paying someone else?  We have the product for you: delivery Drones!”

A drone carrying a box flew across the screen.  Then it lowered and dropped the box on someone’s doorstep.  A man stepped out and looked up. “Thanks, delivery drones. I would’ve waited another week to get this package from the post office.”

A series of drones delivering various sized packages flitted across the screen. “With our delivery drones, you’ll never have to deliver your own packages again.”

Santa jumped out of the chair, knocking over the plate of cookies on his lap. “That’s it!”

Mrs. Clause sprang into the room to see what was the matter. 

“My problems are over. If I get these delivery drones, I won’t have to bring the gifts anymore.”

“But what about the reindeer what will they do?”

“They’ll be fine. I’ll give them a generous retirement package. I think they’ll be relieved, honestly.  We can’t keep up at this pace.  Do you know with the blizzard delay last year, do you know what our total hours came to? 25 hours. We worked 25 hours in only a year’s time. We can’t keep up this pace.”


Santa was drifting asleep when the TV ad caught his attention.

“Are you tired of making deliveries or paying someone else?  We have the product for you: delivery Drones!”

A drone carrying a box flew across the screen.  Then it lowered and dropped the box on someone’s doorstep.  A man stepped out and looked up. “Thanks, delivery drones. I would’ve waited another week to get this package from the post office.”

A series of drones delivering various sized packages flitted across the screen. “With our delivery drones, you’ll never have to deliver your own packages again.”

Santa jumped out of the chair, knocking over the plate of cookies on his lap. “That’s it!”

Mrs. Clause sprang into the room to see what was the matter. 

“My problems are over. If I get these delivery drones, I won’t have to bring the gifts anymore.”

“But what about the reindeer what will they do?”

“They’ll be fine. I’ll give them a generous retirement package. I think they’ll be relieved, honestly.  We can’t keep up at this pace.  Do you know with the blizzard delay last year, do you know what our total hours came to? 25 hours. We worked 25 hours in only a year’s time. We can’t keep up this pace.”


When the big day arrived, all the North Pole residents gathered around for the launch. There hadn’t been this much excitement since Rudolph’s first flight.  At midnight Santa hit the launch button to cheers. A fleet of drones took off grasping bags with toys for their territory. 

To celebrate, they all started singing, “Here comes Santa Drones”.

Five minutes later, Santa’s phone rang, and the person started talking before he even said hello.  “It’s Maria with the aviation department.  Mr. Claus, what’s going on?  We’ve cleared our flights for your usual path, but there seem to be drones launching from the North Pole.”

“Yes, we’re switching it up this year. Trying something new. You know going with the times.  Can’t stop progress and all that.”

“Sir, you need to give us notice on these things. Your drones are disrupting our flight paths. I’m going to have to ask you to call them back and use the reindeer.”

“We don’t have enough reindeer power to make the flight. Dancer is visiting his cousin in Alaska, and Dasher has hockey tickets. You’ll have to reroute your flights.  We can send you the drone paths.”

“No, you are going to have to call this off. It’s too dangerous.”

“We can’t disappoint all of those kids. Maria, I remember the Christmas you asked for a Cabbage Patch doll. How would you have felt if it wasn’t under the tree?”

“Send the flight information. But you’re on our list now, you won’t get a second chance if something like this happens again.”

Toby rushed the list over to air control, and they gave him access to their monitors so they could both reroute as necessary. Santa stayed up all night helping, and they brought Rudolph in for guidance. 

Santa stumbled home early the next morning after the final drone had returned. Mrs. Claus was waiting up for him, just like every other Christmas morning. “How did it go?” she asked.

“It worked out once we figured out the flight paths.”

“It’ll be better next year now that the airports know. You won’t have to work so late.”

“It’s not that.”

“You missed working with the reindeer?”

“No, it’s not that either.”

“You missed seeing the kids.”

“No, it’s not that either.”

“What is it, dear?”

“I miss the cookies.”

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