Christmas Writing 27: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

 

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

The Naughty or Nice List

December 16, 2024

“They're all naughty?” a distraught Santa called out in disbelief. “Are there no nice ones?”

The Letter Elves looked rather sheepishly at Santa, His face was red with intrigue and not so jolly. “Not in this batch sir,” they replied. “There are still days to go.”

“My word. It’s never been this bad. Some years you will get more naughty than other years.” He thought about it for a minute. “It’s not like we are confessional or anything. They don’t have to announce their sins for penance.”

“They do if they don’t want that lump of coal,” replied another Letter Elf.

“Well, there is that,” replied Santa. “Let’s send this to the Integrity Office. We need to look at the implications if this trend continues and find a way to fix it,” he stopped thoughtfully. 

“Another batch of letters Santa,” said Domino, the Delivery Reindeer as he stuck his head through the doorway.

“Let’s see what we’ve got here.” Santa picked up a couple of letters and read them. “Egads! This is worse than I thought!” he exclaimed. “Letter Elves, I am going to let you do your jobs,” Santa said as he strode from the room following Domino. Santa could move rather stealthily for a big man. 

Domino took his time walking back to the Post Office. He stopped by the water fountain for some gossip. He wandered over to the stadium to check out the reindeer games. He ate lunch at Chez Hay! bypassing the other reindeer eateries. He even visited Hoofing It, for a little line dancing.

Santa knew that Domino was new to this work but felt that Domino needed more guidance and made a note to discuss this with Donner. 

While Domino was on his way back to the Post Office, Santa noticed the furtive glances and the over the shoulder looks Domino was giving off.  

Santa was puzzled when Domino entered his reindeer house at 16 Reindeer Way and quickly came out with another mailbag filled to the brim.

“Hmmmm,” thought Santa as he followed Domino back to the post office.

There was a hush when Santa entered the building. Usually the opened letters were brought to him after cataloguing. His being there was a huge deal to the Letter Elves. The head Letter Elf came bursting from his office with signs of sweat trickling down his face.

Santa spoke gently but all could hear him clearly. “Domino.” All heads turned in the direction of the delivery reindeer. He turned nervously with the bag still on his back. 

“Santa,” he replied. “How can I help you?”

I think we need to talk,” he said, motioning the reindeer to the huge meeting room. 

The Head Letter Elf spoke at last. “What is happening Santa?” as the not so Jolly Man entered the room and took a seat at the head of the table. All the other Letter Elves continued to stare until Santa made a motion directing them to return to work. They kept glancing at the open windows while doing their jobs, slowly.

“Domino, place the mail bag on the table please,” he intoned with some conviction. 

The reindeer gulped and did as was requested. Santa dipped his hand into the mailbag and pulled out a few letters. A smile crept over his face. 

“Care to explain?”

“First I want to thank you Santa for taking me in when the Reindeer Pizza Delivery Service folded in Tokyo. It was depressing to be out of work so when you invited me to join the herd I was overjoyed.”

Santa smiled a knowing smile. The reindeer would have blushed if he had been capable. He looked away to steel himself and then looked back at Santa. “First it started as a way to pay back those who allowed my last job to disappear. But then I became over wrought with grief and decided that everyone had to pay for what they did.”

Santa smiled a knowing smile.

Domino continued. “I know what I did was wrong. I got carried away with my anger and it got out of hand.”

“I’m sorry Santa. I will pack my bags and go.”

“Go?” asked Santa.

‘That is usually what happens when someone does something wrong,” replied Domino.

Santa grinned. “Not at the North Pole. We should have been monitoring you more as you came from outside our world. Here, we pride ourselves on honesty. I detect that you are quite honest in your explanation. We will put some barriers in place so that it won’t happen again, but you will stay with some modifications.”

“Modifications?”

“You will need more training to help you understand how our world functions. You will need some people to help you grow. Hopefully you will develop some friendships that will help you in both of those areas.” 

“Thank you Santa.”

“We will also find another job for you to do, something more suited to your talents. There will be some thought given to this. Our Head Letter Elf will personally oversee the growth you need to undertake.” The Head Elf nodded vigorously. 

“Are there more letters at your house?”

“Yes,” he replied. “There are too many bags in my house, which is why I was bringing some back here.” 

“We will send a couple of other Delivery Reindeer with you to help return them” said Santa. Is there anything else?” he inquired.

Domino looked at Santa and knew he had to ask, “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“You really don’t know, do you?” he asked in return. When Domino indicated no, he continued. “Because here at the North Pole we operate on an “everyone has good qualities that they bring to the table” philosophy. I know that other places where you worked do not work in this way but here we do. We are concerned about you but we want you to be successful. We need to demonstrate to everyone that they are valued by us all. In doing this we will lead the way to positive change. It is our priority.”

Domino nodded gratefully that the North Pole had accepted him for who he was. He would work hard from here on to show that he appreciated their trust. It was the least he could do.