“Have you guys have ever thought about driving Santa around at Christmas time?” asked Raff, the jaunty one.
“What’s the point?” said Lumière. “Santa prefers the female reindeer to take him around.”
“But isn’t it unfair?” persisted Raff.
“Yes, of course, it is. We can’t change the system, can we?” said Magus.
“Let’s go meet Santa and tell him,” said Raff.
And so it was that on a cold November evening, a delegation of 10 reindeer went to meet Santa.
They presented their petition and Santa studied it deeply, his brows furrowed. The reindeer waited expectantly to see what his reaction would be.
They had mentioned their names, their strong points and their special skills because they knew that Santa paid attention to skills and hobbies. He always said developing one’s skills and taking up a hobby was great for character building.
Surprise for Santa
When he had finished reading it, he nodded, scratched his beard and said, “This is a surprise. All these years you never said a thing and now suddenly... But I do see your point.”
Illustration for The Hindu Satheesh Vellinezhi
He hesitated and then said, “Let me think about it. Give me a day or two.”
Santa took the letter to his wife and showed it to her. “What do you make of this, dear?”
“About time. I often wondered how they kept quiet.”
“So, you think I should take them this year? Dasher and gang are not going to give up that easily. It also means having to train a new team and getting them to learn the routes and so on. It’s not as easy as it seems to go sailing through the sky.”
“In that case, they have to fight it out…”
“Oh, you know, I despise violence. There’ll be blood everywhere and…”
“Not that kind of a fight. I meant a competition.”
“Now, that’s a thought,” said Santa. “Yes, we can have competitions to find out who is the fastest, who has the best reflexes…”
Early on Monday, Santa put up a notice. In no time there everyone was reading it. The female reindeer were deeply annoyed. But everyone else was excited.
The competitions were to be held on Saturday. It was to be a whole day event with a break for lunch and tea. The factory would be closed and everyone was expected to attend. The competitions were to be held between Team A of Dasher and gang, and Team B, with Uranus and gang.
Who’s the better one?
Illustration for The Hindu Satheesh Vellinezhi
On Saturday, there was a festive air about the village. The two teams were tense and on edge. The first competition was to check speed and dexterity. Santa had decided the participants were to embroider a napkin with a Christmas theme using 10 embroidery stitches. Dasher and Uranus were the contestants.
Dasher got to work embroidering a Christmas tree in shades of green, using different stitches. Uranus worked on a Christmas wreath. He used several colours and stitches and even French knots for the buds. When the bell rang to announce the end of the contest, they held up their work.
Santa and Mrs. Santa examined the work. After much debate, Mrs. Santa said, “Uranus’ work is absolutely delightful. However, one of the conditions of the competition was that 10 stitches must be used. Uranus used only nine. Dasher has used 10. So, the winner is Dasher.” Team A yelled with joy and danced.
The second round was a two-minute dance routine set to ‘Jingle Bells’. The participants were Dancer and HipHop. In two minutes, they had to display as many dance styles as possible.
As the tune struck up, Dancer started with ballet and moved over to foxtrot and then ballroom and finished with a waltz. It was skillfully executed and everyone clapped. HipHop brought joie de vivre. He came into the ring doing the hip hop and quickly changed to an Irish jig, then a Scottish fling, some Zumba and finished with tap dancing. HipHop’s mood and excitement spread to the crowd and many of them were dancing too.
“This round goes to HipHop,” announced Mrs. Santa. There was wild cheering from Team B.
(To be continued)
