Trouble in Santa's Village
You may think it strange to tell this story about Santa in the middle of spring. Santa's helpers work all year long getting all the presents put together and wrapped up so Santa can fly away on Christmas Eve and deliver the presents to all the good Boys and Girls. I am part of the SSS it is a very secret organization. Very few people know about it. It's called Santa's Secret Service. When there's trouble anywhere Santa calls up and we go where ever we have to go and take care of whatever the problem is.
Santa called me the other day and said “Get up here to the North Pole as soon as possible.”
He said “We have a problem. There is a slowdown getting presents ready and if we don't find the problem soon we will never have all the presents ready by Christmas.”
So I said “Yes, sir, I will be on the next plane going North.”
I packed my bags and headed for the airport and I got the first plane to Montreal Canada. When I got to Canada. I rented a car and drove north, up around the west side of Hudson bay. Somewhere near the top of the Hudson bay the roads end. Santa has a ranch there called Santa land. He raises dogs there and he has dogsleds so anybody going to the North Pole can borrow a dogsled and dogs and get to the North Pole. So I got a dogsled and eight dogs and continued north. One week later I was at Santa Village at the North Pole. I went up to Santa's house and knocked on his door. Mrs. Claus, let me in. She said “Santa is out in the back, getting a little sun.” I thought that is strange it is 35°. Why would somebody be out getting sun. I walked on the patio, and there was Santa laying on a lounge chair with only a pair of shorts on, half-asleep. When he saw me, he said “You may think this is strange, but this is a warm day for us and the midnight sun is the best for getting a tan.”
He got up, put his robe on when into the house, I followed him. We went into his office. He showed me a graph he had on the wall. It showed they were approximately one month behind in making toys. “If this continues” he said “we will never have all the toys done by Christmas, you have to help us”.
I said “Santa, I will do my best to help you. Where should I start?”
Santa said “Start with the gift wrapping section and work backwards until you find out what's holding up the toys.”
So I left and went over to the gift wrapping section and saw the elves working hard. I talk to the head elf and asked what was going on. His name is Sam.
Sam said “We're wrapping all the things we are getting, but we are not getting the toys we used to get. We don't know what's going on. You had better talk to James in assembly and see if he knows anything.”
So I went to the assembly plant and found James, the head elf, and asked him what was going on.
He said “We are assembling everything we can. We are not getting all the parts we need. We don't understand it either. Here, let me show you something.”
He took me over to a room and opened the door and inside there I saw a whole bunch of dolls and trains and other toys. All the toys in the room were missing parts.
He said “You had better go to the factory and find out why we are missing so many parts. This is the reason we don't have as many presents finished as we should have. The parts are missing and we don't know where they are. Maybe the factory does”.
So I headed to the factory. When I got there, I asked for the head elf.
An elf named John came out to greet me. He said “I am the head elf what do you want?”
I said “Santa asked me to find out why the elves are so far behind, making presents. He's afraid there won't be enough presents when Christmas gets here.” I said “I went to the gift wrapping section and they are wrapping all the presents they are getting, but they are not get as many presents as they should. Then I went to the assembly plant and they told me they are assembling everything they can, but they have a whole bunch of stuff over there with parts missing. They told me you might know where the parts are.
John says “I don't know what is happening. We send out every part we make. We send them every evening to the assembly plant. If they lose the parts is not our problem.”
I said “Do you keep track of all the parts you send out?”
John said “Yes, do you want to see the lists.
I said “Yes, and I would like copies of the lists. I'm going to take the lists over the assembly plant. Check them against the lists of what they received and see what turns up.”
So John gave me all the lists for the past month, I went back to the assembly plant and asked for all the lists for everything they received in the past month. I got those lists, and compared the two lists. Then the problem started emerging, about every third night what was sent out from the factory did not agree with what was received at the assembly plant.
So I went back over to the factory. I showed John when I found and he looked at his records and found out an elf name Oscar was driving the sleigh every night the parts are missing.
He said “Oscar is driving tonight. Do you want to talk with him when he comes in?”
I said “No. First, let me have about six or eight of your best elves. I am going to send them out on the trail between here and the assembly plant and see if we can figure out what's going on.”
So John made a few phone calls and about two hours later, six elves were sitting in the room as I explained my plan to them. “They are to hide out about a mile apart all along the trail to the assembly plant and watch when the sleigh goes by and see if they can find out what's going on. I told them I would be hiding out just outside the factory and when the sleigh leaves I will be watching to see if I can see anything unusual.
About 30 min. before the sleigh was supposed to leave the elves left and found hiding places along the trail. I was hiding just outside the factory and I saw the sleigh leave. As it got just out of sight of the factory I saw Oscar stop the sleigh. I saw him tie the reins to the sleigh. Then he crawled on top of the packages. Told the reindeer to go and he laid down on top of the packages and took a nap. The reindeer are smart enough to get the assembly plant on their own. So Oscar thought it be a nice time to take a nap.
Later on that night after the sleigh got to the assembly plant. I had a meeting with the elves that were hiding out along the trail. They told me they saw the sleigh go by and there was nobody driving it. Every once in a while it would hit a rock, and one of the boxes would jump out. They waited to see what would happen. Every time a box would jump out the wolves would come along and grab the box and go away. They followed the wolves, the wolves took the boxes into a cave nearby.
I said “Great job! Tomorrow I want one of you to show me where the cave is. I will see if I can talk to the wolves and see if we can get our stuff back. Then we will deal with Oscar. For now, let's all go home and get some sleep.”
The next morning, two of the elves met me factory. They said they would show me where the cave was. So we took off. 30 minutes later I was standing in front of a cave. There were three wolves guarding the entrance. I left the elves and went to the cave alone. I said I want to talk to the head wolf. One of the wolves when inside. About 30 minutes later he came back and he said “Okay, the boss will see you. You are the only one that will be allowed in our cave.”
I said “Okay.”
Then I followed him in the cave. He took me back to a big room near the back of the cave. There was about 15 wolves in there. Some were sleeping and some were eating. Then he took me to a smaller room behind it.
He said “The leader is in their he's waiting for you.”
So I walked into the smaller room alone. Inside that room was the biggest, most beautiful wolf I have ever seen.
I said “Sir, you have some stuff that belongs to Santa Claus and he wants it back.”
The Wolf said “We found the stuff out in the snow. Haven't you ever heard of finders keepers, losers weepers.”
I said “That does not go in this case, those parts are for toys and things the elves are putting together so that Santa Claus can deliver them on Christmas morning to all the kids in the world.
He said “I was just kidding you. We were just keep them until someone came to get them because we were not sure where to take them. You bring a sleigh up here and we will help you load them up. We sure don't want to keep any kids from getting their toys next Christmas.”
Then I left.
The next morning I was there bright and early with the sleigh and some reindeer and half a dozen elves and we loaded up all the parts that the wolves had been collecting and put them on the sleigh and took them to the assembly plant.
Then we talked to Oscar. We told them we knew he had been napping as he took the parts to the assembly plant, and he had lost many of the parts and didn't even know it. That was why Santa Claus was so far behind. We also told him that he will be demoted and would have to work on an assembly line for at least six months. Then he can be a driver again if he keeps out of trouble. If he ever sleeps on the sleigh again, he will never drive again. Oscar promised it would never happen again.
The last thing I did. I set up a computer system and told the factory to enter into the computer every night, the stuff they were sending to the assembly plant. Then I told assembly plant. They have to check what they get with what is on the computer, and if there is any differences get together with the factory right away and find out what's going on. That way they be no more problems like this.
Then I went back to Santa's house to fill him in on what I had been doing. Mrs. Claus, let me in again, and she took me to a little room in the back of the house. When she opened the door, I saw Santa on his knees in front of a manger scene. I waited a few minutes. Then he got up and turned and looked at me.
He said “I come in here every day to pray. I feel closer to Jesus in here than anywhere else.”
I filled him in on everything that I had been doing. Then I told him all his problems have been solved, at least for the time being.
Santa was very happy “He said, thank you very much. Would you do me one more favor?
I said “What?”
Santa said “Remind the kids that they should not worship me, They should only worship Jesus. The baby Jesus was born on Christmas day many years ago and died for us so that we could go to heaven. It is his day, not mine. My job is just to spread the idea of caring and giving. To give you must also be willing to receive so that others can enjoy giving to you. Jesus gave us the ultimate gift . He died for us so that we might go to heaven and live with him there. All we have to do to get this gift is to worship Jesus and to love Jesus with all of our soul and all of our heart.”
I said “Sir, I will be glad to spread your message and thank you, it is a pleasure knowing you.”
Santa said “Have a good trip back. Thanks again for all you did”
We shook hands. Then I left his house got my dogsled and headed south. Santa went back outside to get some more midnight sun. He knew everything would be ready in time for Christmas.
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