Lily meets a Christmas Elf
Lily meets a Christmas Elf
In the town next to yours lives a little girl called Lily. Her parents work in big offices in the city so every day her granny picks her up from school and hand in hand they walk home for tea.
It is the last day of term before Christmas and the school has broken up unusually late. Granny is waiting on the pavement outside the school as the bell rings. The children run out of the school in high spirits carrying tinsel, bags of sweets and hand-made Christmas cards covered in glitter.
Lily sees Granny and waves.
“Have you had a good day, Lily?” asks Granny as they start to walk home.
“We’ve had so much fun” says Lily “we haven’t done any work. We’ve been playing games, making Christmas cards and singing Christmas songs”.
“No work!” exclaims Granny laughing “Whatever is the world coming to?”
“Granny?” says Lily.
“Yes, my love” replies Granny.
“Who looks after the reindeer while Father Christmas is making all the presents?”
“I’ve no idea, Lily,” replies Granny.
Granny’s kitchen is warm as Lily hops up onto a kitchen stool to eat her healthy snack of carrot sticks and a tangerine. Lily is not very hungry as she has eaten a lot of chocolate during the day so whilst Granny turns to put the kettle on, she puts the carrot sticks in the pocket of her skirt.
When she has finished Granny says “Follow me, Lily.”
The pair walk down the hall to the spare room where there is a single bed, a rug on the floor with a colourful map of the world on it and beside it a comfortable arm chair.
“Sit on the rug, Lily” says Granny as she touches her fingers lightly to Lily’s forehead and says the magic words “Fabulosa fabula.”
Lily feels a cool breeze on her face then she opens her eyes. She finds herself in a large barn which is warm and snug and smells of animals and straw. Through the windows she can see snow in the fir trees and lying thick on the ground. Somebody is sobbing quietly and Lily gets up to investigate.
In the corner of the barn beside the big double doors is a little elf dressed in green trousers, a red tunic top and a red pointy ended hat with a bell on the end. He is sat on the floor, hugging his knees, and crying. As he cries, his head shakes and the bell tinkles.
The Elf is so wrapped up in his misery he does not hear Lily approach.
“Hello, is everything okay because it doesn’t look as if it is?” she says.
The Elf jumps visibly then lifts his tear-stained face to Lily. “No, no, no everything is not okay!” He exclaims “They’re on strike and the boss will not be happy.” He jerks his head towards the barn door.
Lily looks at the barn door but there is nothing to see.
“Well,” says Lily “you are going to have to explain all of that again, because it makes absolutely no sense”.
The Elf jumps up and appears annoyed.
“The reindeer are on strike” he snaps “and Father Christmas is not going to be happy if they are not ready and waiting for him when he comes to get on the sleigh in a few days.”
“What does ‘on strike’ mean?” asks Lily.
“It means” says the Elf angrily “that they are refusing to work so the presents won’t get delivered.”
Lily looks shocked. “Are they allowed to do that?”
“They didn’t ask me if they could” says the Elf “if that is what you mean? They just did it.”
“Oh, dear” says Lily “the children across the world will be so disappointed. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Do you know anything about reindeer?” asks the Elf hopefully.
“Um, no” says Lily slowly.
“Do you know anything about strikes?” asks the Elf.
“No, I don’t but…” says Lily before the Elf cuts her off.
“Then, I don’t think you can help, but thank you and goodbye” says the Elf in a falsely bright voice.
“I could try to speak to them on behalf of the children” says Lily “it wouldn’t hurt, surely?”
The Elf sighs loudly. “I suppose not. Come with me.”
The Elf leads Lily down the barn to where a large area has been penned off. Behind the fencing are nine reindeer munching on hay. They look up and stare as Lily and the Elf approach the gate.
“Hello” says Lily.
“Hello” says the one closest to the gate, suspiciously.
“That’s Dasher” whispers the Elf “he’s the Union leader”
“All the children in the UK are really looking forward to getting their presents” says Lily trying to be friendly.
Dasher chews on the hay and gazes at Lily.
“Not going to happen” he says and grabs another mouthful of hay.
The Elf starts to cry quietly again.
Lily whispers curtly “That is not helping” then turns back to Dasher.
“Is there a problem, I could help with? My name is Lily.”
“We’re on strike didn’t the little grumpy one tell you?” Dasher nods at the Elf.
The Elf pokes his tongue out.
“Very mature” says Dasher.
“I am an Elf; we never age so I do not need to be mature” smirks the Elf.
The Reindeer ignores him.
“What are you on strike about?” asks Lily.
“Where shall I start?” says Dasher and then he starts. “Rates of pay.”
“Rates of pay?” shrieks the Elf “You don’t get paid!”
“Exactly,” says Dasher “night time shift work”
“You work one shift a year” says the Elf.
“Yes, but it’s at night” says Dasher.
“That’s the deal” says the Elf “Father Christmas delivers at night”
“Why couldn’t he deliver during the day?” asks Dasher.
“Because he doesn’t want to” says the Elf.
“Because” says Lily “the children aren’t in bed”
“I knew there was another reason” says the Elf quickly.
“You did not” snorts Dasher.
“I did” says the Elf indignantly.
“Okay” says Lily “stop bickering. That is not going to help.”
Dasher looks around at the rest of his friends who are all slowly chewing on hay and watching the goings on. “Well?” he says in a sing song voice “what do we want?”
The other reindeer reply all together “Snacks” they sing.
“When do we want them?” sings Dasher
“Now” sing the rest of the reindeer. They line up head to tail and start walking around the stall. Dasher singing his lines and the rest replying with ‘now’ and ‘snacks’ when required.
After a few laps Dasher changes his tune “One out” he shouts. “All out” the others reply.
“Oh, dear” says Lily “this is not good.”
“I kind of mentioned that, at the beginning” says the Elf sarcastically.
“Do you know, Mr Elf, that crying and being sarcastic doesn’t help in any situation, especially now?” Lily says.
The Elf wipes his nose and says “Maybe not but it makes me feel a lot better” and he grins wickedly.
Lily says “Why can’t they have snacks?”
“Father Christmas says that they have put on too much weight during the summer and need to be fitter now there are more children in the world to visit. He said they can have snacks when they come back on Christmas morning but they don’t want to wait. They are fed up with just eating hay.”
“Will Father Christmas give in?” asks Lily.
“No,” says the Elf “he can be very stubborn. He knows the children are relying on him.”
“Shall we try and speak to him?” asks Lily.
“Won’t work” says the Elf gloomily.
Lily opens the big barn doors and walks out into a winter wonderland of white snow and twinkling lights decorating the trees around the garden. She marches towards a small cosy looking cottage with brightly lit windows. The elf trails along behind. She knocks on the red front door and a jolly looking lady in a red sweater opens it. The smell of hot mince pies drifts out.
“Hello” says Lily “I wonder if I could speak to Father Christmas?”
“He’s rather busy” says the lady wiping her hands on a tea towel “I am Mrs Christmas, can I help?”
“I was wondering if we could solve the problem of the reindeer being on strike” says Lily “because if we don’t your husband will soon not be very busy at all.”
“He won’t change his mind” says Mrs Christmas “he can be quite single minded when he wants to be.”
“I have an idea?” says Lily “My house must be about half way on the route. How about if I left a nice snack out for them there then they could have a little break before they finish the journey.”
“Hmmm” says Mrs Christmas “I think that might just work, but they will have to agree to the night shift and the usual rate of no pay. Let me speak to my husband.”
Lily remembers something and asks “Mrs Christmas, are they allowed a carrot stick each?”
“Just one” says Mrs Christmas and she closes the door.
Lily and the elf who perks up a little, trudge back through the snow to the barn.
The reindeer were still walking around the stall, nose to tail, shouting their demands.
“Mr Dasher” Lily shouts “do you have a minute?”
Dasher stops abruptly and the other reindeer plough into the back of each other.
“Oof!”
“Mind my shiny nose”
“Ow!”
“That hurt!”
“You might have noticed that I am quite busy protesting” says Dasher tartly.
“And there was me thinking you might be interested in a deal” says Lily.
Dasher squints his eyes. “Go on.”
“You can have snacks at my house on Christmas eve night but you have to promise to be in shape and accept the night shift on no pay.”
“Are we allowed any snacks before then?” asks Dasher showing interest.
“Yes, I have arranged for you all to have one now.”
“You have?” says Rudolph pushing to the front “what is it?”
Lily produces the carrot sticks from her pocket and offers one each to the reindeer.
“Oh” says Dasher downheartedly “carrots”
“Nice healthy carrots” says Lily “don’t you want them?”
“We do see a lot of carrots” Dancer chips in “but we won’t say no” she adds quickly.
“When you get to my house” says Lily “is there anything you would particularly like if you don’t want more carrots?”
Dasher looked around at his friends and they all nodded.
“Chicken McNuggets, please.”
Lily looks taken aback. “Oh, right, I thought you might want an apple or something.”
“Are you back tracking?” asks Dasher staring down his nose at her defiantly.
“Oh no, no definitely not” says Lily quickly. Well, she thought to herself, this is going to be a lesson Granny will not expect me to have learned.
Just then Mrs Christmas opens the barn door and pops her head in.
“That’s all okay with Father Christmas, Lily.”
The reindeer cheer loudly then Dasher says “Okay, guys, here we go. We’ll start with a quick jog down to the bottom of the garden and back” and they all file out jostling good naturedly.
The Elf stares in disbelief “How did you do that?” he asks Lily.
“It’s called a bargain,” explains Lily “which is an agreement between two groups as to what each will do for the other one. In this case the reindeer will pull the sleigh for Father Christmas and they will get the snacks that they want at my house. Now, we must do our bit. You make sure the reindeer look super smart when they set off on Christmas Eve and I will make sure their snack is waiting for them. Happy Christmas Mr Elf.”
Lily sits back on her rug and closes her eyes. She feels wind in her hair and opens her eyes.
She is back in the spare room and Granny is smiling at her.
“Er, Granny, can we buy nine lots of Chicken McNuggets to leave out for Father Christmas’s reindeer on Christmas Eve night, please?” she asks.
Granny stops smiling!