19 December 2020

Dear Santa,

I am back ! Before I start explaining, how much do you know already? I hope you know that I have been good all year. Well Most of the time. Kidding you know me...once in awhile. Okay never mind, I'll buy my own stuff! Seems like yesterday I asked you to bring me cool stuffs before I know it its Christmas in a blink! Hope Rudolph and other reindeers are well. This year please be on time....i don't want any spoilt milk or saggy cookies on the stool and you giving excuses like you're late!. I have prepared a story for you since you said that you would prefer a story over the milk and cookies . I am sending you my story earlier since you will be busy on Christmas day sending gifts and you will have no time to listen to my story then. So here I go.... "A long long time ago ....." Or do you prefer once upon a time? Anyway let's continue.....! "...In the land of enchanted forest where all the fairytale characters lived.... The time when magic was believed in and Christmas spirit was protected by both villains and heroes. It all came to an end as humans started to loose their belief in Christmas magic. Slowly all the magic in the enchanted forest faded away and the place was forgotten by the humans. As the years passed, no magic was seen around and gradually it became a forgotten myth and a few who remembered bits and pieces wrote it down to what its called today - a fairy tale!

In New York , the year 1898

A 13 year old Rose is seen staring out of the window looking at the starry sky and hoping to meet the Santa clause, the one , her parents said was a fairy tale. Every year she would look out off the window to catch a glimpse but couldn't. She would always leave him a note , a glass of milk and some cookies which is always left untouched She has read many stories about him. Some like Santa only eats cookies, he only wears red, only comes down chimneys, he has claws for hands, he stays in the North Pole year-round and above all he is a jolly man in red who brings toys to good girls and boys on Christmas Eve! She read books about him but all she could find out was that Santa Claus is often depicted as flying from his home to home on Christmas Eve to deliver toys to children. He flies on his magic sleigh led by his reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and the most famous reindeer of all, Rudolph. The same stuffs again and again. "Rose, stop staring at the sky and go to sleep" said her father " this year he will surely visit and will leave you a present" She did as he said knowing very well that the only Santa is her father....the secret Santa who leaves a gift under the tree for her. Its not the presents she wished for but something else.. something so precious that she never shared this with anyone. She saw her parents switch off the lights and the fairy lights on the tree running around in a rythmic pattern. She then slowly drifed off to sleep with the thought of meeting the Santa clause. She was woken abruptly by soft knocks on her window. She could clearly make out an outline of something humanly yet a bit weird. She started to drift off again when the knocking started again.she went to her window and opened it. ....she saw a tiny man.. more like a boy with pointy ears jump in!

An

elf

!!! "Don't screem...! I am Santa's ne- wait.... you are Rose right?? " She nodded her head with her dove like eyes wide open in disbelief..... An elf is in her room and talking to her!

To her!

"Okay Rose we don't have much time.....as i was saying I'm Santa's new chief helper - Rustin....keep it in mind it's Rustin not Bustin or Justin just Rustin!" Before she could process he had already taken her to the roof thru' the window while blabbering off about his name. There she saw a small sledge , barely enough for two of them and a reindeer. Still there was no sign of Santa. She was so awed that she let him pushed her around to do what ever he wanted. He tossed her into the sledge along with him and shouted " woshhhhh.... believe...i believe...to the north pole!" The sledge thus begin its journey to the north pole. Understanding that Rustin is a chatterbox she asked him about his family , work and life .....to which he gladly began blabbering ....."as you know most businesses start small and Santa’s magical workshop is no exception. It is said that Santa initially employed just six elves. We , the elves are intelligent and highly skilled. We help Santa to design and make toys and deal with the millions of requests children send Santa every year. Without the us , he and Mrs Claus will not have been able to make their Christmas dream reality. We make the magic of Christmas come alive every year for children around the world. We elves are picked out from here and there, usually tied up as brothers or sisters. First we have my older brother 'Alabaster Snowball' He is quite a character. Friendly and good hearted, he is entrusted with one of the most important jobs. He is the Administrator of the “Naughty or Nice List”, so you definitely want to be on his side. He has even developed an elaborate computer system that updates each child’s Naughty or Nice rating five times a minute, all year around.Thanks to him, Santa has the latest updates on everyone and can adjust the toy production and deliveries right to the last minute. You better be good for goodness sake! Then we have my second elder brother Bushy Evergreen. He is a skilled engineer and the inventor of Santa’s magic toy-making machine. He came from a family that lived in the forest way up North. Like most forest creatures, Bushy became skilled in the art of woodcarving at an early age. By the time he was a boy of 103, he had carved millions of wooden trains, cars, dinosaurs and other toys. He is now the head Toy Maker for Santa and keeps on developing his famous toy making machine to meet children’s endless demand for new toys. Then comes Pepper Minstix. He is the protector of Santa’s magic world, and has worked his way up to being Head of Elf Security. He is entrusted with the important job of watching out for the well-being and safety of Santa Claus and Mrs Claus. He is also in charge of guarding the secret location of Santa’s Village and magic workshop. Billions of children, not to mention adults, would love know where it is, so he has his work cut out. Pepper likes to model his outfits after that of the military and patrols around the Village with a chest full of Elf Medals and a makeshift armour made of kitchen pots and pans. He owns a one-of-a-kind bubble gum firing machine gun and no-one would dare mess with him. Be sure to be nice with him and a few compliments would do the work! Then there is Shinny Upatree who is the oldest resident of the North Pole Village – even older than Santa. He’s no taller than a four year old, skinny and as wrinkled as an old apple. Under his rugged appearance and cranky manners, he has a good heart and is totally devoted to Santa. He is the leader of the all the Elves and Santa’s oldest and most trusted friend. In fact, he co-founded the Magic Workshop with him! Everyone puts up with his moodiness because without the old Shinny Upatree, there wouldn’t be a Village, Workshop, Christmas and maybe not even Santa. Then there is Sugarplum Mary. Mary is said to originate from a far away Asian province. She is tiny with dark hair and skin and awfully pretty. Head of sweet treats, Mary is the most marvellous of cooks and is the top assistant to Mrs. Claus in the kitchen. Our Christmas Elf, Elfin adores her and learned most of his recipes from her.If Santa has ever brought you chocolates and other sweet treats Sugarplum Mary will be behind the original recipe. She also teaches Kung Fu to the young elves every Friday afternoon. The one who is kind of forgotten is Wunorse Openslae . One of the few old native Nordic Elves, Wunorse is in his middle years, around 600 years old. Akin to his Viking ancestors he is tall and strong with long blonde hair that he wears in thick braids. He wears dozens of tiny jingle bells sewn onto his clothes, so the enchanting sound of magic Christmas bells follows him everywhere. He In charge of the reindeer, Wunorse is also a true inventor and craftsman, and he always carries with him a pencil and notepad for doodling, sketching and dreaming up new inventions. It was him who long ago created Santa’s magic sleigh. Then there is me! Well there is not much since I'm new in this field. But i can do better like bring back the magic that is dying like so fas-"

What

! "Magic is dying?? "She shouted "Yes! Thats why i ...no we need you...the number of humans that believe in magic is the source of the true Christmas magic....but its long forgotten like....last year and years before , we had aleast just enough magic to travel half of the world and thanks to Tinker Bell ,Peter Pan and the lost boys who had faith and belief....but this year its so so so bad that the machines are not working....we elves are loosing our powers and Santa! Ohh.. Santa! He is aging fast and is currently bedridden...so its your belief and faith in magic that would save the day! " He rambled. " Please understand, your the only one after all the years still continued to believe in it. " "How do you know that?? He never visited me! " She asked him only to see a glimmer in his eyes and a smirk. "Who said that? He sees everything. Its just that you are not seeing what in front of you.....any way hold on tight.... We are landing." Rose looked around to see a snow covered land filled with pine trees , reindeers and other creatures that she have read before. She embraced the sledge to protect herself feom the landing impact. The landing was not so smooth and hit a small snow hill infront of a small red house oozing warmth and love. Together they entered the house. The small house was just an outer illusion. It was actually much much bigger! There she saw Tink and Pan along with the elves and reindeers. "Dearie, oh you look so cold. Come sit by the fire and warm yourself . I'll bring a cup of hot cocoa." A voice said . She turned around to see Mrs. Clause getting her warmer clothes and getting a cup of hot cocoa. She was again briefed on the crisis - the magic was dying and she coukd save the day if she could make two others to believe in it too or get the spiri-meter (a device used for converting believe into magic) above 70 percent. Her belief itself was about 40 percent, the highest seen in that century! She was taken to Santa to get his blessings and a set of rules was given to her by Santa like ' she was not to force anyone to believe , she was not to lie or promise anything untrue' etc... Rose had her mind set on the mission. She is going to save the day and Christmas spirit. She didn't want to spoil the happiness or let down other children like she had been. She got on the slege along with easter bunny, Jack Frost and Rustin . Her first stop was her class bully Jasmine which didn't work just like all other ten classmates ; not the way she wanted bit to work....the meter only showed a fraction of deflection. Now she understood how hard it is to get someone to believe in something like magic and Christmas spirit.

No she can't fail. She have to save the magic.

Her next stop was her grandmother's house, the one who made her believe in it in the first place. The sledge landed on the rooftop and she slid down the burning chimney without any scratch. Magic! Its here! She was surprised to see her grandmother sitting right in front of her not at all surprised at her entry or visit. Rose started to explain when she was cut off by a sentence " i believe Rose , i always have and always will" Rose smiled at her grandmother lovingly, this old lady knew , knew about

everything

! " We all do, now go save the Christmas" grandmother said , calling out all her other friends from other room. Rose looked at the spiri-meter to see it rised to 57 percent. "Hi everyone , good to see you all again " said grandmother to the other with her which earned her a warm reply. " Please keep her safe!" In a swishh they where back on the sledge ,on the way to next stop, her top secret stop- a place called Topanga , a beautiful name for a something you love. There she saw the person she was searching for - her depressed friend Sophie. She had to face her alone, all alone that she sent the others to do something to make the magic started. She saw Sophie, sitting on the bed , staring at a blank wall without any hope of life. she met Sophie on a camp two years back. They were roommates for a week that instantly clicked and turned into a good friendship that was lost on the last day of the camp when she chose popularity over true friendship , when she told Sophie many hurtful words even though she didn't mean it and accidentally pushed her into the pool where she nearly drowned and died. She regretted it everyday she lived. She wished she hadn't done it. She was only trying to protect herself from the hurtful words of others by inflicting it it on Sophie. Sophie lost her cheerfull attitude after she was released from the hospital. Rose tried to visit her but Sophie shut her down . Every year Rose would sent Sophie gifts which is always returned unopened. Every year she would wish that Santa could help Sophie to believe in the magic of life again. This was why she always wanted to meet Santa ;she wanted to correct a mistakes and regain her once lost friend. But now she knew that Santa wasn't the one to bringing back Sophie to Life but she itself. Rose sat next to Sophie , held her hand and said " I should have believed that you had always seen the best in me and I should have known that you had the best interest in mind for me when you said you should be belive in magic and fairy tales as it gives you hope ; Spark of hope is all it takes to make your life love itself. The thing is I never meant any of the hurtful words I said that day and I wanted to say that I am sorry and I missed you and your optimism that helped me get through my hard times. Please forgive me ....and continue to believe in what you used to believe in - in us, in goodness, in whatever that made you happy. Please?" Sophie squeezed her hand and Rose saw a tear run down Sophie's face. " It's you that made me believe in magic , in fairy tales, in Santa Claus and now I need your help to restore the dying Christmas spirit and magic because you are and always has been my happiness" Sophie hugged Rose. Then they heard a whizzing sound so loud that they had to cover their ears and her companions came rushing into the room only to see spiri-meter fly out the window , cracking up noices and spitting out golden dust. They all followed it outside to see it splash up magic... Christmas magic and see the deflection above 90 percent. Sophie and Rose looked at other

. I will explain it all to you later

Rose

mouthed

.

Sophie believed, she believed in magic ;in what I said!

Rose thought out aloud. "

Yes ! now I can save Christmas!"

S

he saw the spiri-meter shoot up a golden beam that began to spread around the world and silver snowflakes begin to fall. Again in a swish, they all where back at the big red Santa house. She introduced Sophie to everyone in there. Sophie was so excited Rose could see that, everyone could and she was the reason for it. She gave the spiri-meter back to Santa and the elves begin the usual work as they had only one hour before the clock strikes twelve and had to send the gift to the children. Santa congratulated both of them for saving the Christmas magic. He send them back to their home with the help of Rudolph who regained his abilities due to powerful magic. She got into her bed on reaching home, feeling satisfied that she saved the Christmas magic and slowly drifted off to sleep feeling like a hero. The next morning she saw presents under the tree but they were not from Santa. The gift had 'from her father ' written all over from the way of packaging. She sighed. She looked out of the window just in time to see a carrier pigeon. She took the note from the pigeon and let it free. She saw that it was a note from Sophie inviting Rose over to her house for Christmas dinner. She then realised that she actually got the Christmas present - she got her friendship back and fixed her friend back to who she used to be. She asked her parents for permission to go to Sophie's house which they gladly allowed while they where ate breakfast inside the house and the snowflakes were seen floating in the air outside the window... Reminding Rose that the true magic is seen in friendship, in forgiveness! And she was happy to know that she always had the magic in her and that she always saw Santa but couldn't actually see him for who he actually is - the goodness in other people. Slowly the Christmas magic begin to rise from Rose's and Sophie's family lane to what it is today. And thats how the magic was restored! The end of the story Well not actually the end since the story is continuing on and on..... Hope this letter get to you on time! Please do convey my wishes to Mrs Clause for the hot cocoa powder she sent last year and all others for helping me spread the Christmas spirit! Until next time ,then! Topanga Matthews (Great- granddaughter of Rose whitehert) Toronto, Ontario Canada Submitted by MINNA MIRIYA CEMARAJH St.teresa's college B.voc food processing technology I DC student