THE MAGIC HARNESS
By Deb Williams ©2004
Images ©2004 Kathie Cureington
As everyone knows, away up at the North Pole is a very special valley called Christmas Valley. This is where Santa Claus lives with all the elves and the reindeer and me: Mrs. Claus. It is always winter in this valley. All year long, Santa and his elves work on Christmas presents for all the good little boys and girls.
But, what almost no one knows is that there are two other valleys up at the North Pole. If you go to Christmas Valley (it’s easy to find, just look for the peppermint candy cane that has a big "N" on it) you’ll see two big snowdrifts just next door. Behind the snowdrift on the right is Sunshine Valley. It’s always springtime there and whenever Santa gets tired of snow, he can just pop over for a visit. Santa and I vacation there every year, right after Christmas is over. Sunshine Valley is the home of all your favorite story book characters. Mother Goose lives there, and so do Peter Pan, Tinkerbelle, Little Bo Peep and Little Boy Blue, not to mention many others. Why, if I were to name them all, it would take until the last day of forever. Everyone is always happy in Sunshine Valley. No one is ever mean or ever gets switches or coal for Christmas.
What you’ll find just over the big snowdrift on the left is another story. That’s where all the bad guys from all the story books live. You’ll find Captain Hook, the Wicked Witch, the Grinch and that bad, bad cowboy, Black Bart. They call their valley Gloomy Valley, and gloomy it is. Why, the sun never shines in Gloomy Valley. The sky always looks dark and rainy. No one in Gloomy Valley ever laughs (unless it means trouble for someone else) or even smiles. And, most horrible of all, every Christmas every person in Gloomy Valley wakes up to find a stocking full of coal or switches. Of course, they never think they deserve what they get, so they just get mad at Santa.
Now, Santa is really a very kind person, and doesn’t like to leave switches and coal instead of presents. So, every year Santa and Mother Goose (who is also a very kind person) go over to Gloomy Valley and offer the bad guys a chance to reform. Up until now, no one ever took them up on their offer. That is, until this year. Yes, this year one of the wickedest, meanest people in Gloomy Valley has decided to reform! I even had trouble believing it when Santa told me, but it seems like the Wicked Witch is going straight!
When Santa pulled up in the sleigh with Mother Goose and the Wicked Witch, you could have heard a pin drop. Santa jumped down and then helped Mother Goose and the Wicked Witch. He only uses two reindeer for these short jaunts. It’s only the load on Christmas Eve that means he has to use all nine reindeer. Even then, he’d never get off the ground without the Magic Harness. But, there, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Anyway, Santa helped the Wicked Witch out of the sleigh much to the surprise of everyone waiting for him.
"Look there!" shouted Blizzard, one of Santa’s top elves. All the elves have names relating to Christmas or winter.
"Who is that?" asked Rudolph. He was still a very young reindeer and didn’t have much experience with places like Gloomy Valley.
"Why Rudolph," I said. "That’s the Wicked Witch. She must have decided to try to be good."
"That’s exactly right, Mama," Santa said. "Attention everybody, I have an announcement."
Around Christmas Valley, when Santa talks, everyone listens. His word is law around here and no one disobeys. Everyone tries to do what he says even if they don’t like it. They’ve all learned that most of the time, Santa is right.
Santa cleared his throat and spoke again. "Now, everyone, the Wicked Witch has decided to reform. This is not going to be easy for her, but I want everyone to be as nice as they can and try to help her out. Will you do that for me?"
There was a lot of murmuring in the crowd, but no one really said anything that could be heard. Finally, I decided it was my responsibility. After all, no one ever said being Mrs. Santa Claus was going to be easy.
"Of course we’ll help her Santa, dear," I replied. "Won’t we?" I glared hard at Santa’s best elves (Blizzard, Cocoa and Twinkle, by name) and then at his reindeer.
"Of course we’ll help, Santa." They chorused obediently.
"And we’ll help, too, won’t we?" Mother Goose asked her brood.
They took the hint more readily. "Yes, Mother Goose."
Little Boy Blue leaned over to whisper to Peter Pan, Tinkerbelle and Bo-Peep. "I don’t trust her a bit. We’d better keep an eye on her."
I suppose I should have scolded him, but just then Santa and the Witch came up and I lost my chance. And a good thing it was, too, as it turned out.
"Blizzard, Cocoa, Twinkle," Santa called. "Come over here, please."
The three came, somewhat reluctantly.
"Yes, Santa?"
"Friends, I’m going to trust you to do something very important. I want you to show the Wicked Witch around Christmas Valley. Show her where everything is and let her help you with some of the toys or some wrapping. I want her to get started and feel at home here as soon as possible."
The Witch didn’t look too happy about that, but I just put that down to having to change her ways and her home. That wouldn’t be easy for anyone to do. Then, an idea struck me. "Santa, if the Wicked Witch has really reformed, we can’t keep calling her ‘the Wicked Witch,’ now can we?" I turned and smiled at her. "What shall we call you now?"
"Oh, Wicked Witch is just fine Mrs. Santa. After all, I’ve been called that all my life and it would be so hard to get used to something else now. I’ll just be on my way with these nice elves and learn how to make toys. Bye now."
She captured Cocoa and Blizzard, one on each side and nodded to Twinkle. "Lead on, Tinkle."
"That’s Twinkle," she grumbled, but led the way.
"What do you think, Santa? Has she really reformed?"
"We can only hope so, Mama. Now, we have a lot of work to do."
Chapter Two
The Wicked Witch smiled to herself. This was going much better than she had ever imagined. Why these dummies were so goody-goody that they even believed she had really reformed. What a laugh! Bart, Hook and Grinch would certainly enjoy that joke. What a shame they couldn’t be here to see her greatest triumph. But, they’d thought that all of them suddenly deciding to reform would be a little bit hard to believe. So, as usual, the hard work had been left up to her. Of course, being really nasty was what she did best, so they’d picked the perfect one for the job.
Now, all she had to do was find out the secret that allowed Santa to fly through the air with his reindeer and then they could ruin everyone’s Christmas. That would teach the fat fellow to give them coal and switches!
The elves led the way into a large building. It looked like a very big gingerbread house. As soon as they went in, the Witch screeched and clapped her hands over her ears.
"What is that blankety-blank noise?!!"
All the elves stopped working and stared at her. Most of them never even knew words like that existed.
"Oh! I’m sorry. I mean it sure is loud in here, isn’t it?"
"Yes, it is Ms. Witch," Twinkle said, not being sure what else to say.
"It is noisy in here," Cocoa confirmed. "This is where we make all the toys."
"All the toys are made here, that’s why it’s noisy," Blizzard said in case the Witch hadn’t gotten it the first time. Elves do have an annoying tendency to repeat themselves. Sometimes it can be quite provoking.
The Witch must have been somewhat provoked because her smile was getting a tiny bit strained. She’d used those muscles more in the last twenty minutes than she had in the last twenty years. She was beginning to think that being nice wasn’t all that easy. It certainly was hard on the mouth.
"My, what a lot of toys you have. Are there really that many good little girls and boys?"
"Oh yes, Ms. Witch," said Cocoa. "There are millions of nice girls and boys."
"Yes," said Twinkle, nodding her head. "Millions and millions of boys and girls are nice and good all year."
"Millions and millions," confirmed Blizzard solemnly.
"How . . . nice," the Witch said. "Ugh," she added to herself. "I think all this nice is making me sick."
She looked around the very noisy room at all the elves busily hammering and painting and otherwise working hard on toys for Santa to deliver to all the good children in the world on Christmas Eve. The workshop was normally a very busy place, but it is even more so when it gets to be about half past December and Christmas Eve is only a tinsel length away. Oh, yes, December is a very busy month here in Christmas Valley. That’s why Mother Goose and the folks in Sunshine Valley come over to help out. What with all the wrapping and tagging and listing and painting and building; there just never seems to be enough hands.
Some of Santa’s friends from Sunshine Valley weren’t being very helpful right then. Peter, Tink, Blue and Bo-Peep had decided to keep a very close watch on the recently reformed Witch. After all, they’d known her for a very long time and didn’t think she was really going to improve. So, they loaded their arms with various things and followed the elves and Witch around, trying to look busy.
"My," said the Witch to Dasher the reindeer. "You reindeer must be very strong to carry all these packages. How ever do you do it?" She batted her eyelashes at him.
"Yes," replied Dasher. "We are very strong. There are nine of us you know, and we have some help from magic."
"Oh, yes," Cocoa said. "The magic is very important."
"Very important," said Blizzard. "The reindeer could never do it without the magic."
"Yes, yes," Twinkle added. "The Magic Harness is so very important."
"Magic Harness?" asked the Witch. "You mean the story about Santa needing a Magic Harness so the reindeer can lift the sleigh is true?"
"Yes," said Twinkle.
"Positively yes," said Blizzard.
"Absolutely, positively yes," said Cocoa.
"Where is this wonderful Magic Harness? Can I see it?"
Cocoa opened his mouth to say ‘yes’, but Blue stopped him.
"No," Blue said firmly. "You can’t see it."
"But I really want to see it," the Witch begged. "I’ve heard so much about it and about how Santa would never be able to keep his schedule on Christmas if something happened to the Harness."
"Well, I say you can’t see it," Blue repeated. His friends nodded agreement.
As soon as the elves had mentioned the Magic Harness, all of the work in the workshop stopped. The Magic Harness was so special that even the folks at Christmas Valley loved to hear about it. Of course, Santa picked just that moment to walk in.
"What’s going on here?!" Santa bellowed (he gets so nervous just before Christmas, he’s just sure that something is going to go wrong and he won’t be on time). "It’s almost Christmas! Why isn’t everyone working?!"
"I’m afraid it’s my fault, Santa," said the Witch. "I’ve been listening to everyone talk about your wonderful Magic Harness. It sounds so lovely. Oh, how I wish I could see it!"
Santa smiled. He so wanted to believe that the Witch was going to change her evil ways. "Of course, my dear Witch. If you’d like to see the Magic Harness, you shall."
He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled very loudly. "Blitzen! Vixen!"
Two reindeer stuck their heads into the room. "Yes, Santa?" they asked together. Vixen and Blitzen are twins and they almost always say and do the same thing at the same time.
"Bring me the Magic Harness, please."
"Yes, Santa," they said again. "We’ve just finished polishing it and it’s all ready for the big day."
They disappeared and a few seconds later reappeared with Prancer and Dancer. The Magic Harness is quite light itself, but it is long enough that it takes at least four reindeer or elves to carry it. Everyone stared at the beautiful, shiny Harness. It was all made of gold with silver bells that tinkled as the reindeer moved.
"Here’s the Harness, Santa," said Blitzen and Vixen.
"Oh, my," the Witch said. "It’s as beautiful as I’ve been told. May I touch it?"
"Certainly," Santa replied. "You can’t hurt it."
The Witch put her hand on the Harness. She could feel the tingle of the Magic. "OUCH!" she exclaimed suddenly. She pulled her hand away. "That thing bit me!"
"That’s the evil detector," Peter said. "No one who is evil can touch the Harness without using gloves."
"It just may not be used to you being good yet," Santa said. "It takes a while for these things to wear off."
"Oh, yes. I understand."
Santa waved to the reindeer to carry the Harness back to the storage case. "Now, that’s enough of a break. We must get back to work. Christmas is almost here."
The noise started up again as everyone got back to work and the reindeer returned the Magic Harness to its special cabinet away from the main room and all the people. If they left it out, no work would ever get done because everyone would keep stopping to look at it. We tried that one year and were almost late for Christmas. Since then we keep it out of sight.
Blizzard, Cocoa and Twinkle are in charge of loading the packages into the right Magic Bags, clearly marked with the name of the child, the street, the city and the state. These bags shrink everything in them down to almost nothing. That’s how Santa can carry enough packages for everyone on his little sleigh. And, of course, Santa’s Magic Belt enables him to go up and down even the smallest chimney. But, there, I’m getting off the track again.
The elves gave the Witch some presents and showed her how to stow them in the bags. She followed them for the first few trips then they decided to let her try it on her own. Soon, she was doing quite nicely and to be honest, the elves forgot all about her. Fortunately, Blue and his friends did not.
As soon as the Witch thought she was not being watched, she slipped away. Blue and the others followed her. The Witch walked off to a lonely corridor. Once there, she pulled out a radio that she had hidden in her hat.
"W.W. calling Bart. Come in Bart."
The radio cracked. "This is Grinch. Come in W.W."
"Grinch! I’ve seen it! It’s everything they said it is!" the Witch exclaimed. "Bring the others and come over right now!"
Chapter Three
Tinkerbelle flew up and grabbed the radio. Peter and Blue grabbed the Witch. Bo-Peep held up her shepherd’s staff.
"Don’t move Witch, or else," Bo-Peep threatened.
"Tink, go get Santa," Peter said.
Tinkerbelle flew off to find Santa.
"What are you doing to me?" asked the Witch. "I didn’t do anything wrong!"
"Oh?" asked Blue. "Then why are you sneaking off to call Gloomy Valley?"
Tinkerbelle arrived with Santa close behind.
"What is going on here?" Santa asked.
Everyone began to talk at once. Voices rose, but Santa couldn’t understand anyone at all.
"QUIET!!!!!"
Everyone stopped talking.
"Now," Santa said. "One at a time. Peter, you tell me what’s going on."
"We followed the Witch here," Peter explained. "We heard her on the radio telling her friends to come to Christmas Valley. She must be up to something. She told them she’d seen it and it was everything everyone said it was."
Santa turned to the Wicked Witch. "Well, what was it all about?"
The Witch thought fast. "Yes, Santa, I did call my friends and tell them to come over. You see, Peter, I’ve seen the light and I want all my friends to reform, too. I told them to come right over so they can see how much better it is to be nice.
"See there," Santa said. "it all has a perfectly innocent and reasonable explanation. Now, aren’t you ashamed of yourselves?"
The children hung their heads.
"Tell the Witch you’re sorry," Santa prompted.
"We’re sorry, Witch." They chorused obediently.
"Now, let’s join the Witch and meet her friends."
So, when the other bad guys from Gloomy Valley came up, they saw the Wicked Witch waiting for them. They also saw Santa, Peter, Tinkerbelle, Blue, Bo-Peep and everyone else at Christmas Valley. Now, these fellows are evil, but they’re not stupid so they figured out something must be going on and they just waited for the Witch to help them learn what it was. The Witch was no dummy either. She rushed out to greet the dastardly trio.
"My friends, my friends!" shouted the Witch. "I’m so glad you’ve come. It will be such fun to all be good together!"
"Good?" whispered Black Bart.
"Shut up," hissed the Witch. "Just play along."
Santa and the children came up to meet the newcomers.
"Well, ho-ho-ho," Santa laughed. "I’m so happy that you’ve come. Let’s see. We have Captain Hook, Mr. Grinch and Mr. Black Bart. And all of you have decided to be nice."
"Not only have we decided, Santa," Captain Hook said. "We’ve resolved to be good. And, we’re not even going to wait until the New Year to make our resolutions. We’re going to make Christmas Resolutions. Right, everybody?"
"Right!" The others chorused, more or less together.
"How wonderful!" I exclaimed. I’d come out to see who was visiting and had been just in time to hear the news. "I always love hearing Resolutions. Who will be first?"
"I will," said the Witch after a pause. "I was here first after all." She stopped for a moment to think, then held up her right hand. "I hereby resolve to give up my broom and never again think of darkness and gloom."
"Hurrah!" Everyone cheered.
"Me next," said the Grinch. He held up his right hand. "I hereby resolve, and these are the facts, to never be nasty to my doggie Max."
"Hurrah!" We cheered again. Max barked happily and ran around in circles.
"My turn," said Captain Hook. His right hand went up. "I hereby resolve with all of my senses to never kidnap another Princess."
"Hurrah! Hurrah!"
"Now me," Bart said. He, too, held up his right hand. His left hand was behind his back, just as everyone else’s had been. "I hereby resolve on my spurs and chaps to never again shoot at the guys in white hats."
"Hip-hip-hooray!"
Santa was beaming. "Wonderful, wonderful. I always thought you could do it if you wanted to. Witch, you’ve been here a bit now, why don’t you show your friends around."
Now, that suited the Witch just fine. It gave them all a good excuse for wandering all over the place and looking in every door. If someone asked them why they were where they weren’t supposed to be, well, they just got a little lost.
By the time night fell, Christmas Valley’s newest residents knew their way around pretty well. They waited until they thought everyone was asleep. Then, they snuck out of their rooms and headed for the cabinet where the Magic Harness was kept. Silently they moved, looking well ahead of them to see if anyone was coming. Fortunately for us, they didn’t look behind them. If they had, they would have seen they were being followed by Blue, Peter, Tink and Bo-Peep.
You see, the four children weren’t quite taken in by the bad guys’ resolutions. It seems that Tink had flown behind them and seen that while they made their resolutions, they all had their fingers crossed!
Before you could say "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year," the four villains had pulled on gloves and grabbed the Magic Harness.
"Peter! Tink!" shouted Blue. "Raise the alarm. Come on, Bo, let’s catch them!"
By now the four villains realized they were being chased. Well, they took off running as fast as they could. It was pretty hopeless. There was no way for Blue and Bo to catch up. And, by the time Santa, the elves and I were awake, they were long gone. It took a while to sort out the story from the children, but finally we did.
Santa looked very sad and shook his head at their tale. "I had so hoped they had really reformed."
"How are we going to get the Harness back?" asked Vixen and Blitzen in chorus.
"Yes," added Dasher. "We must have it back."
"Indeed we must," Santa said. "If we don’t get it back, we’ll have to cancel Christmas! It’s only a week away and we could never make a new Harness in that short a time."
"Cancel Christmas! Never!" All the elves were talking at once. "How could we ever cancel Christmas?!"
"Now, everyone," I said. "Let Santa think. You all go back to bed, and I’m sure he’ll have an idea in the morning."
Finally, with a lot of grumbling and groaning, everyone went back to bed, except, of course for Santa. He sat up the rest of the night trying to think of a way to get the Harness back.
In the morning, everyone gathered to hear what Santa had decided. He looked so very unhappy that I knew right away what he would say.
"My friends," Santa began. "There is no way to get the Harness back in time for Christmas. The only way to do it is for the folks in Gloomy Valley to return it by themselves. I’ve already called them and they refuse to give it back to us unless I promise to give them all lots of presents every year even if they’ve been bad. You all know I can’t possibly do that."
"Why can’t we just go in and take it back?" someone shouted.
"It would be too dangerous," Santa said. "They will surely be looking for us to try that. I’m very sorry to have to say this, but they are not very nice people and I’m afraid someone would be hurt. It’s just not worth that. We will have an entire year to make a new Harness. I’m sorry, but the decision is made. Christmas is cancelled."
Blizzard, Cocoa and Twinkle were hard at work. Even if Santa said there was no way to keep Christmas this year, they were determined that all the work done in Christmas Valley would not go to waste. They had an idea. It wasn’t a new Magic Harness. It was something quite different. They’d had the idea for a while and a lot of the work was done. It shouldn’t take them long to finish and when they did there was a chance of a happy Christmas after all.
Blue called all his friends together. He had a plan: a dangerous and daring plan. He knew Santa and Mother Goose would never let him try it if they knew what it was. Therefore, he was not going to tell anyone except those who were going with him. When his friends heard his plan, they were surprised. But, it just might work and they were ready to try anything. They would do their best and then there was a chance of a happy Christmas after all.
Chapter Four
Over in Gloomy Valley, things weren’t so gloomy for a change. Everyone was dancing around, waving the Harness in the air and singing.
"There’ll be no more Christmas, you can plainly see.
" There’ll be no snow, no mistletoe, no presents ‘neath the tree!
" We have Santa’s harness the reindeer cannot fly.
"There’ll be no more Christmas, however long you cry!"
The Wicked Witch, Captain Hook, the Grinch and Black Bart were cheered by all the others. Finally, they were going to ruin Christmas for everyone. All the children who worked so hard at being good would now stop trying. It would be even easier than usual to get new residents in Gloomy Valley.
The celebration was still going on when the lookouts reported that four children were coming over the snow drifts. Bart went to see just who the visitors were. To his surprise it was Blue, Peter, Tink and Bo-Peep! He pulled out his six-shooter and took aim.
"Just where do you think you’re going?" Bart demanded.
"Please, Mr. Black Bart, sir," Bo-Peep said. "We want to talk to you and Ms. Witch and Mr. Grinch and Captain Hook."
"You do, huh? Well, I can arrange that." He pointed his guns. "Go that way and don’t try anything funny because I’ll be right behind you. Got that?"
"Yes, sir." They answered.
They headed in the direction he’d indicated. Soon they saw the other three villains who had visited Christmas Valley.
"What are you goody-goodies doing here?" the Witch demanded.
Peter cleared his throat. "Well, we just wanted to tell you what a good job you did stealing the Magic Harness."
"Yeah," Blue agreed. "You should have seen the look on old fatso’s face when he realized it was gone."
"You mean you approve of our little venture?" Hook asked.
"You bet we do," said Tink. "But why didn’t you wait for us? We wanted to come back with you to Gloomy Valley, but you left before we could tell you so."
"Oh, is that what you wanted?" the Grinch asked. "We thought you were trying to stop us from getting away."
"Oh, no," Bo-Peep said. "We would never do that. In fact, we’ve wanted to steal that Harness for a long time now, but we could never figure out how to do it."
"You have?" asked the Witch.
"Yes, we have," Blue said. "In fact, we’ve come now to ask if we could join you. We’ve decided that it will be much more fun to be nasty. Being good all the time is getting boring."
"That’s right," Peter confirmed. "In fact, now that Santa has cancelled Christmas this year there’s no reason at all to be good."
"Yes," said Bo-Peep. "After all, if he’s cancelled out once, what guarantee do we have that he won’t do it again?"
"Hmmmm," hmm’d the Witch.
"So, can we join you?" Tink asked.
"Hmmmm," the Witch hmm’d again. "We need to talk this over. You wait right there."
She motioned for the others to join her. They all huddled together and talked for some time. Every now and then, one of the bad guys would look towards the group of children. This made the children very nervous.
"Do you think they’ll believe us?" Bo-Peep asked at last.
"Shhhh," warned Peter. "Here they come."
"Welcome to Gloomy Valley," Black Bart said. He put away his guns.
"Of course, you’re going to have to prove that you’re really one of us," the Witch said.
"Of course," Peter echoed.
"Now, here’s what you need to do..." The four children listened as the villains outlined the plan.
"Will you do that?" the Grinch asked. He watched them carefully as he asked the question.
"Yes," Blue said firmly. "Yes we will. We want to be just like you and we’ll do whatever we need to do."
Chapter Five
The next few days were among the worst ever experienced in Christmas Valley and Sunshine Valley. Not only had Little Boy Blue, Peter Pan, Tinkerbelle and Bo-Peep vanished, but other strange things were happening.
In Christmas Valley, the elves had continued to work on toys in the hopes that some miracle would have Christmas rescheduled. When they sat down to work that first day, they found someone had switched the labels on all the paint cans. Well, nothing was ruined, but it took several hours before all the cans were correctly labeled. Once that was done, they discovered someone had hidden all the paintbrushes! They were finally found in Blitzen’s bed. That made the elves think that the reindeer were mad about something and causing all the trouble, but then the deer found their missing antler polish in Cocoa’s room. Soon all the elves and reindeer were accusing each other of playing not very funny jokes. So, they all came to see Santa.
Santa was sort of busy right then, himself. It seems that someone had put itching powder in my laundry soap and poor Santa had put on a clean suit before he realized it. That meant all the laundry for that day had to be redone and that is a lot of laundry. You would never believe how many clothes elves can get dirty in just one day!
We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but when we climbed into our beds, every one had been short sheeted.
The next day was even worse in Sunshine Valley. Someone stole all Simple Simon’s pies, pushed Jack and Jill down the hill and hung hundreds of spiders next to Miss Muffet’s tuffet. If that wasn’t bad enough, when Mother Goose tried to call Santa, she found that the radios were out of order.
Since Mother really wanted to talk to Santa, she climbed on her Goose and flew over only to find that Santa had just ridden one of the reindeer over to see her.
I made Mother sit down and sent Vixen and Blitzen over to Sunshine Valley to bring Santa back. We were enjoying our tea when Santa arrived. I poured him a cup and he put in his sugar only to find that someone had put salt in the sugar bowl and ruined his tea. Well, the whole rest of the day went just like that, and that night every bed in Sunshine Valley had been short sheeted.
The next day was even worse with all kinds of pranks being played on everyone, even Mother Goose and Santa! The three of us sat down over lunch and talked about what was going on. Before we ate or drank anything we checked to make sure nothing was hidden in the sandwiches or that no one had put salt in the sugar bowl again.
"I’m very sorry to say this, Mother Goose," Santa began. "But I’m afraid that Blue, Peter, Tink and Bo have gone over to Gloomy Valley."
"I’m afraid you’re right, Santa," Mother sighed. "They were so disappointed about Christmas being cancelled, but I never thought they’d do this."
"Surely they haven’t," I protested. "They’re such good children."
"They must have, Mama," Santa said gently. "Whoever is playing all these tricks knows a lot about Christmas Valley and Sunshine Valley. It must be the children. After all, they’ve run away."
"I know it looks bad, Santa, but there must be some other explanation."
We didn’t have time to discuss that because Blizzard, Cocoa and Twinkle came rushing in.
"Santa! Santa!" shouted Blizzard. "We have a big surprise for you!"
"A very big surprise for you," said Cocoa.
"It’s a big wonderful surprise for you," Twinkle added. "And it will be ready tomorrow."
"But tomorrow’s not Christmas," Santa protested.
"No, tomorrow is not Christmas," Cocoa confirmed.
"Tomorrow is not Christmas, but this is not a Christmas present," Twinkle added.
"No, this is not a Christmas present," Blizzard said. "It is a special surprise and we will give it to you tomorrow."
"Thank you, friends," Santa said. "I’ll look forward to that."
The three elves left, but before we could get back to our discussion, more problems started so the discussion was left quite unfinished.
That afternoon, when the children returned to Gloomy Valley, they told the Witch and the Grinch what they had done. The villains were very proud of their young apprentices and promised them a special surprise for dinner.
That evening, the villains of Gloomy Valley had a party to welcome the four new residents. Beer, whiskey and wine were served to everyone, even the children. Fortunately, the children had more sense than to drink the stuff. When no one was looking, they poured it out. Everyone else in Gloomy Valley drank their fill. So that night, they all slept very soundly.
While everyone was sleeping, the four children snuck around and found the Magic Harness. Ever so quietly they picked it up and left. When we woke the next morning (two days before Christmas) they were there waiting for us.
"Surprise, surprise, Santa!" they shouted.
"How did you get this?" Santa demanded.
Blue explained what they had done, and of course admitted that they were responsible for all the tricks being played recently. Once Mother and Santa understood why the children had been so naughty, they were forgiven.
Chapter Six
Everyone was so excited about the return of the Magic Harness, we quite forgot the surprise the elves had promised. It was only when they came looking for us that we remembered. We followed them outside to a very tall tower, covered by the biggest sheet I’d ever seen.
Once everyone was there, Blizzard pulled a long string and the sheet fell away. There it was. A rocket ship!!!!
We were never so surprised on all our lives. It seems that the elves had decided that reindeer and the sleigh were nice, but old fashioned. They felt that Santa had so many deliveries to make on Christmas Eve that he needed something faster. So, they’d worked very hard and build a full-scale rocket ship.
We knew they could do it, after all elves are the best builders in the world and they’d built thousands of model ships. It was just a matter of making them bigger.
Now, Santa had a very hard decision to make. Of course, now that the Harness was back, Christmas was uncancelled. But, Santa had to decide if he would hurt the elves’ feelings by using the Harness or hurt the children’s feelings by using the new Rocket Ship.
Santa thought and thought and thought the whole day long and most of the night. Finally, very early on Christmas Eve morning, he called everyone together to announce his decision.
"My friends," Santa said. "First, I want to say I am very proud of all of you. Blizzard, Cocoa and Twinkle have worked very hard to build this beautiful Rocket Ship. Blue, Peter, Tink and Bo, you were very brave to go to Gloomy Valley and find the Harness. I don’t quite know how to thank any of you. Now, I’ve had to decide whether to use the new Rocket or the old Harness to make deliveries this year. It has not been an easy decision, but I’ve decided that I will use the Harness again this year."
He saw the look of disappointment on the faces of his chief elves. "I’m sorry, but the children do expect reindeer and a sleigh on Christmas Eve. I promise I will find a way to use the Rocket Ship. I’ll have a whole year to think about it and by next Christmas, I’m sure I’ll have an answer.
"Right now, we have a lot of work to do. Tonight is Christmas Eve! Let’s get busy!"
We got busy. In fact, we got very, very, very busy. There are always last minute changes as some go from naughty to nice and, sadly, some go from nice to naughty. Well, by late afternoon we finally got the sleigh loaded. I’ve never seen it so full. Bags were almost falling out. The reindeer slipped into the Magic Harness.
"Let’s go, Rudolph!"
"Right, Santa!"
The reindeer pulled, but the sleigh didn’t move. They tried again and again, but the sleigh was just too full and heavy. Even the Magic Harness wasn’t enough.
"The sleigh is just too heavy," Santa said at last.
"What shall we do now?" asked Bow.
"Should we take out some bags?" Spice suggested.
"Oh, no," Santa said. "We can’t do that. These children have all earned their gifts. There must be another way."
"I have an idea, dear."
"What is it, Mama?"
"Let Blizzard, Cocoa and Twinkle put some of the presents in the Rocket Ship. They can follow you and fill up the sleigh when you’re ready for more packages."
"That’s a wonderful idea, Mama!" Santa exclaimed. "That’s just what we’ll do."
And that’s just what we did. When most of the bags were loaded into the Rocket Ship, the reindeer had no trouble lifting the sleigh. The chief elves were happy that their idea worked and the children of the world got reindeer and a sleigh and all the presents they deserved.
Well, that’s the story of Santa’s Magic Harness and his Rocket Ship and the Christmas that was almost cancelled. As it turned out, Christmas was not cancelled after all and everyone had the happiest Christmas yet. Everyone, that is, except the folks in Gloomy Valley. All they got were stockings full of coal and switches for yet another year.
In fact, as Santa flew over Gloomy Valley to start delivering, the villains were still celebrating their victory.
"Listen," the Grinch said. "I hear sleigh bells. It must be Santa."
"Impossible," Hook snarled. "We have his Magic Harness. Christmas is cancelled."
The Witch and Bart ran to the place where they’d hidden the Harness. "It’s gone!" they howled in dismay.
As Santa flew by and looked down he could see all the residents of Gloomy Valley shaking their fists at the sky. He could hear them shouting. "Curses! Foiled again! We’ll get you next year!"
Santa shook his head and flew on, waving and shouting like everyone expected. "MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!"
THE END