"Santa's Long Journey"

I thought all of you readers would enjoy a story my daughter wrote for Santa.  She and Santa exchanged books for the second time this Christmas.  Enjoy this adventurous story!

Santa's Long Journey

by Miss Huff (4th grade)

This book is dedicated to: My family, Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the elves.  I hope you enjoy this book!

     "Ho, ho, ho!" Santa laughed.  It was Christmas Eve again, and Santa was getting ready to leave the North Pole.  But first, Santa had to eat.  Because he was SO hungry, he was in his red chair drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies.

     Once Santa finished, he was on his way.  He gave the reindeer three carrots each, and then got on his sleigh and was off in the dark blue sky!

     A while later, Santa saw his first house.  Three children lived there.  A two-year old boy, a six-year old girl, and a seven-year old boy.  They were very sweet and loving children, so none of them got coal!  Santa gave the girl a doll, the two-year old boy a bouncy ball, and the seven-year old boy a bike.  He knew they would love their toys.

     But when Santa went down the chimney, his boot got stuck!  He had to use a magic candy cane to get it out.  Then he put their toys in their stockings and then went back up the chimney.  "One house down, many many more to go!" Santa exclaimed.

     Santa got on his sleigh and went to the next house.  When he got there, his reindeer were making a lot of noise.  It was very unusual because they were normally very quiet on the roof tops.  But Santa figured out what was happening right away.  They were very very hungry!  So Santa took care of that.  He gave each of them five carrots!  

     "Phew!" said Santa.  "I thought they would wake up the whole neighborhood!"  Then Santa went down the chimney.  

     But when he got down the chimney, Santa noticed he was very hungry.  "Lucky for me I'm going to get a bunch of cook-" Santa stopped.  There on a tiny plate was only ONE cookie, and it was only about two inches long!  So Santa dropped off the gifts and went up the chimney.

     Then Santa went to another house.  This family had a five-year old boy, a seven-year old boy, and a nine-year old girl.  When Santa got down the chimney, Max, their dog, started barking and trying to bite Santa!  So, he scrambled back up the chimney.  Santa made a plan.  His plan was to give the dog a bone.  

     So he went back down the chimney and threw a bone at the dog.  Santa grabbed his cookies, slammed the gifts into the stockings, and got out of the house.  "Oh my gosh!" said Santa.  "That was a rough dog!"  The reindeer looked at Santa like he was crazy!  

     Santa felt like he lost his magic touch!  "I don't want to go to any more houses.  I'll just probably make a fool out of myself."  But the reindeer told Santa to keep trying.

     Then Santa went to the loving Huffs' house.  He had to go through the door because they had no chimney.  But when he went to their stockings, his bag broke one of the ornaments!  "Oh no!" cried Santa.  "Not another mistake!"  

     So Santa had to sit down and make another ornament for them.  Luckily, the Huffs were very sweet, kind, and understanding.  They had hot cocoa, snickerdoodle cookies (10 of them), and two carrots for each of the reindeer.  So Santa had cookies and hot chocolate while fixing their ornament.  He gave the nine-year old girl a rabbit and rabbit hutch, and also an orange from the North Pole that she had been wanting.  He gave the six-year old boy an orange and some Legos.  He knew they would LOVE their things.

     Then Santa went out the door and back on to his sleigh.  Then the reindeer took off.  Santa was very pleased with the Huffs' loving hearts.

     After he visited all of the other little girls and boys, Santa was very very tired!  He slowly rode back to the North Pole.  When he got there, he had to tell Mrs. Claus about all of the mistakes he made.  But Mrs. Claus said, "It's okay Santa.  You just have to learn from your mistakes."

     "I guess you are right," said Santa.  "I will learn from my mistakes."  

     "I'll make you some cookies.  It's been a long night," said Mrs. Claus.

     "I hope all the children like my gifts," said Santa.

     "I'm sure they do," Mrs. Claus said thoughtfully.

     That night, Santa looked in his magic crystal ball and saw all of the little boys and girls that got gifts.  They looked very, very happy.  "It looks like I did do a good job after all," said Santa to himself.  "Everyone is having a very merry Christmas," thought Santa.

     "Merry Christmas, Everyone," Santa whispered.