Writing for Fun
December 2022
Don't Stop Believing - Jan Norman
Children, did you know that Santa’s workshop in Lapland becomes the busiest workshop in the world just before Christmas? How can you tell? Well, you know those beautiful shimmering green and purple curtains of light that can sometimes be seen in the sky over the North pole in winter, that grown-ups call the Northern Lights? These are really extra big puffs of magic that sometimes escape when Santa and his hard-working elves are making lots of toys. However, this is the tale of one brave teddy bear’s Christmas: a teddy bear who never stopped believing in happy endings . . .
As fast as the conveyor belt deposited newly made teddy bears into huge baskets, the elves wheeled them into a vast cavern and sat each one upon a shelf. Soon the space was full. The merry Christmas music faded away and Father Christmas himself entered. With a flick of his hand, thousands of bears magically woke up and began looking around in wonder. What was this place? Why were they here and who was this jolly, white bearded old man in a red suit?
Santa patiently explained the wonder and purpose of toys at Xmas and wound up his speech by saying that all toys, especially teddy bears, were created to give love and comfort to all children but they had to take their job seriously; they even had to swear an oath to be really good teddy bears and follow the Teddy Laws.
Teddy number 225 blinked his huge golden eyes and solemnly chanted, along with the others, ‘I promise to obey the following laws:
‘Teddy Law 1. A teddy bear may not make a child sad, or, through a miserable face, allow a child to become sad.
‘Teddy Law 2. A teddy bear must obey orders given to it by a child except when such orders would conflict with the first law.
‘Teddy Law 3. A teddy bear must protect its own existence and that of other toys, as long as such protection does not conflict with laws 1 and 2.
Once over, all teddies were allocated space in sacks of toys ready to be delivered on Christmas Eve to all the children who had asked for, or who deserved, a teddy. Teddy number 225 found himself squashed in a hessian draw string bag, with a picture of a reindeer on it, with a beautiful blue eyed doll, number 446, with golden plaits and a huge blue clockwork aeroplane, number 551.
Soon it was Christmas Eve and all the sacks of excited toys were loaded onto Santa’s sleigh. The reindeer were hitched to it with shiny red harnesses covered in fairy lights, all pawing the ground in their impatience to be off. Rudolph was in the lead, his nose lit up like a beacon and the others harnessed behind: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Donna and Blitzen. Father Christmas climbed aboard and gave Rudolph the office to start. With a stomach-churning lurch, the sleigh was airborne. The toys cheered. They were on their way.
Soon the sleigh started to lighten and fly faster as sacks of presents disappeared down chimneys. As it swooped and dipped delivering toys, disaster struck. Teddy’s sack rolled and fell overboard. Down, down it went spinning out of control. Teddy clutched at Dolly and Dolly clutched at Teddy, yelling in fright until, with a thump, it landed in something soft. Snow. Winded, Teddy and Dolly sat up cautiously. Thankfully nothing was broken. They were all intact, including the blue aeroplane. Teddy thought long and hard. He must somehow get all of them to a house with a family in time for Christmas morning, otherwise he had failed in his duty to make children happy but number three of the Teddy Laws stated he must protect the existence of other toys. Here was the dilemma. He had thought of a rescue plan; a really daring rescue plan but it was a little bit too dangerous. Would it put the toys at too much risk of being damaged, thus breaking Law three and would he be brave enough to carry it out? He took a deep breath and made a decision. He would never stop believing in Father Christmas and the magic of Christmas. That would save them.
Undoing the drawstring bag, he helped Dolly out into the snow and then, with her help, dragged out the blue plane.
‘Don’t worry, Dolly, I have a plan. I will fly us in the toy plane to that house down there; the one with the light in the window.’
‘I didn't know you could fly,’ gasped Dolly in amazement.
‘Well, I can’t but it can’t be that hard, can it? he replied.
Grabbing the sack, he folded it up and put it in the cargo hold of the toy aeroplane then helped Dolly climb aboard. He grasped the clockwork winding key and wound and wound until it would wind no more, then scrambled into the pilot’s seat. ‘It’s now or never,’ he shouted as he released the starter handle. The plane jumped into life and they whirred and juddered along the ground and then finally took to the air. With a little bit of Christmas magic Teddy managed to land the tiny plane on the front porch of the house but not without making a bit of noise. Hearing children’s voices in the hallway, Teddy leapt from the plane and fairly dragged Dolly out. Fetching the sack from the hold they wheeled the plane into it then scrambled in themselves. Laying down beside Dolly, Teddy murmured, ‘Happy Christmas and they both went to sleep. The last thing they felt and heard were the hands of the children opening the sack with the words, ‘Santa must have been in a hurry, to have left our presents outside.’