“Can I play?” It was the first day of school and Rudolph couldn’t wait to join in the reindeer games.
“No, you freak!”
“This game is only for reindeer with normal noses.”
“Go find your own kind.”
Rudolph put his head down and slipped away before the other reindeer saw him cry. It wasn’t his fault that his nose was red. He was born that way. It wasn’t fair.
Rudolph tried a few more times, but the other reindeer always responded the same way. He learned to avoid others and keep his head low. He pretended it didn’t hurt when they made comments about his nose. In time, they left him alone for a while. Then came Click Clop. They posted pictures of him photoshopped with a red curly wig and giant shoes to go with his “clown nose”. Everywhere he went, people laughed and called him names.
So, he stopped going anywhere. Rudolph stayed in his house. Every Christmas Eve, he watched them take flight. The reindeer who had brought him nothing but misery were revered for carrying joy to little kids everywhere.
Then, one Christmas Eve, he couldn’t see through the fog to watch the flight. The view from the window was pure white. He gave up and settled into a game of solitaire. An unfamiliar sound called him from his game. It took a moment for him to recognize it as a knock on the door. He opened the door to find Santa and eight tiny reindeer.
“Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide our sleigh tonight?”
“No, you’ve been nothing but mean to me,” Rudolph said and slammed the door in their face.
The kids didn’t get any gifts that night, but they did learn a valuable lesson about bullying.
The writer sits staring at the blank screen. She looks around the room for inspiration. Two Christmas trees and a mantal full of Christmas knick knacks give her nothing. What was she thinking? Twelve stories of Christmas.
She is full of ideas which with time and nurturing would develop into great stories. But, there was little time for revision. These ideas must be quick and efficient stories to write. A haiku might work, she thinks. But, she didn’t say twelve poems, she said stories. A haiku won’t cut it.
Then, inspiration
She won’t just write a haiku
She’ll add some prose too
This is perfect, the writer realizes. She could write a few lines, count a few syllables and she’d be ready to post. Then she can focus on other Christmas activities.
The reindeer’s red nose
Guides Santa’s sleigh through fog
Can’t disappoint kids
Long ago baby
Brought hope for peace to the world
Jesus Christ was born
Girls’s out of his league
But she’s under mistletoe
He can steal a kiss
That should do it. The writer formats the post, and schedules the post. She’s off to bed where visions of holiday stories will dance in her head. Six more to go.
Thanks for stopping by my 12 stories of Christmas challenge. I wanted to experiment with different formats, and this seemed like a perfect way to poke a little fun at the formulaic Hallmark Christmas Movies, which I watch religiously every year.
Hallmark Movie Recipe
Ingredients:
One Grumpy Character (GC)
One Perky Christmas Lover (PCL)
Child with a single parent
Puppy
Small Town
Combination of at least three winter/holiday customs: (examples: skating, baking, skiing, sledding, building snowmen, decorating, cutting down tree, ice sculptures, drinking, ugly sweaters, hot chocolate)
Directions:
Preheat the oven at 200 for a low heat romance
While the oven heats, prep the characters, by creating a scenario where the GC returns to their small town from a big city
Create a meet-cute dough for the GC and the PCL characters will hate each other
Mix in puppy and child to your taste
Roll out dough and divide into scenes where GC and PCL discover they have similarities
Add to heated oven fueled by a disaster which threatens to ruin Christmas celebrations. GC and PCL will need to work together to overcome the heat and save Christmas. Movie is ready when the GC has discovered the meaning of Christmas
Top with a love declaration between GC and PCL which results in GC moving out of the city to the small town
Suggested optional toppings:
An ex or boss who shows up to convince the GC to return to the big city
Kindly old man with a white beard who is secretive about his job
Royalty from a fictional country
Christmas themed competition
Parent who can no longer run the family business and needs GCs help
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.”
Welcome to the third installment of my 12 stories of Christmas. This was inspired by my dislike of a certain Christmas Carol for it’s promotion of rude behavior. The basic idea came from one the writing prompts at our B &N writing group. I reworked it for this challenge. It’s not to late to share your own stories in the comments.
Christmas Carol Law
My hair refused to cooperate. It was as though the rebellious follicles knew that I was in a hurry. I gave up and grabbed a headband with snowflakes. It would have to do for tonight.
Will was pacing in the living room when I came downstairs. He glance at the clock, but knew better than to comment on my tardiness when he saw the headband. The performance of A Christmas Carol started at 7 PM. We would make it with a few minutes to spare. He just liked to be early so he could stop at the concession stand.
The doorbell rang and Will grumbled.
“Don’t be such a Scrooge. It’s carolers. We have time for a song,” I told him.
I opened the door to a burst of cold air and a melody of Christmas. We listened to the song and then explained that they were wonderful but we had someplace to be.
The carolers shoved us aside and burst through the door. Will repeated that we had somewhere to be in a firm voice. Then they sang the second verse again. We looked at each other in horror as realization dawned.
We tried shooing them out, but they stubbornly refused to leave until we gave them what they wanted.
“We don’t have what you’re looking for,” I said.
“No! We did our part, we sang the song, now you know what you have to do yours,”
“My wife just told you. We don’t have it. You need to leave.”
Rick grabbed the lead and pulled him toward the end of the door, but the man broke through.
“That’s it! I’m calling 911” I said.
A tiny woman with short, white hair stepped forward and crossed her arms. “Go for it, the law’s on our side.”
We stood glaring at each other, waiting for the cops to arrive. We watched in horror while strangers took over our home. Some of the guys turned on the game. They sat on the couch and put their dirty boots on the coffee table.
A woman spread out blankets on the floor. “Kids it’s almost bedtime. It looks like we’re going to be here for a while, so go brush your teeth.“
They were oblvious to our protests. Finally we just gave up and huddled in a corner. Finally, we heard sirens and a police officer rapped on the door.
I answered, and before I could explain to officer the carolers jumped in and started giving their side. The cop stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled for everyone to stop. We all froze in place. He pointed to me and asked me to talk first.
“These carolers came into our home and are refusing to leave even though we’ve asked several times.”
He nodded and took notes. Then asked the lead caroler to tell their side.
“I’m sorry ma’am you know what the song says. These people wished you a Merry Christmas. Now, they have the right to stay in your home until you give them figgy pudding.”
Welcome to day one of my 12 Stories of Christmas Challenge. If you want to participate, add your story or a link in the comments below. This is a poem I wrote during Covid.
The North Pole has received communication from both of your sons requesting a puppy. We are not authorized to fulfill such requests without permission from parents. Please reply by December 23 to inform us of how you would like us to proceed.
Thank you for reaching out. We thought Ben and Sam had given up on getting a puppy. It seems their hearts are set. I’m sure they won’t forget to feed him like the fish. You have our permission to process the order.
It has come to our attention that the elves have agreed to send a puppy to Ben and Sam Parker. After last year’s incident at the Miller house, we made it clear we will no longer transfer dogs.
Sparky the chihuahua was intolerable. He gave out a high-pitched bark every time Rudolph’s nose glowed. He chewed on Comet’s harness resulting in him breaking loose from the sleigh. Then, he relieved himself in your bag, resulting in a list of gift complaints. Then, when we were finally rid of him, he started yipping and woke up the family. You had to rush out without getting the carrots they left for us (although I seem to recall you had time to get your cookies).
We insist that you cancel the order for the Parker’s puppy.
I sympathize with your concerns. However, I cannot disappoint the kids. They are at the top of the nice list. I will make sure the Parker’s puppy is better trained than Sparky.
Letter addressed to Heather Parker, left in stocking labeled “Mom”
Dear Mrs. Parker,
I regret to inform you that we were unable to complete your order due to supply chain issues. We apologize for the inconvenience and have replaced your order of one live puppy with two dachshund beanie babies left wrapped beneath the tree.
