The forecast for the 2022 Christmas season was not looking so good by the end of November. For one thing, over the past year there had already been five elf protests against the minimum wage they were receiving. The elves were calling it a form of slavery. By October, the pay had been raised and was now accepted by the elven workers.146Please respect copyright.PENANAaN0zID9lDP
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Furthermore, Santa Clause has been absent from the North pole for over a year as well, this was due to what he called "the violent elven protests" but also due to his divorce settlement between him and Mrs Clause.
It has been a rough year for Santa's old workshop; machines are breaking down, conveyor belts are slowing, and not many goods are being constructed due to an increasing elven labor shortage.
Additionally, since the world population has now officially reached 8 billion people, the elves are finding it hard to keep up with all the presents that are supposed to be delivered. The number of presents that the elves made by late November was about 4 billion which has raised many alarms over the past few weeks. In the North Pole, everyone is getting increasingly worried for this Christmas. Will this problem ever be solved?
2:00 am Dec 1st
The reindeers and Santa's red coloured sleigh touched down on the cold frosty runway, the golden rails skating across the ice. Usually, when Santa lands he lets out a brief Ho Ho Ho! Yet this time there wasn't any laugh, just dead silence and the faint wind. Santa dropped down from his slay, unhooked the reindeers from their leashes and led them inside the workshop. After 54 years of being Santa, he knew exactly where the location of the underground workshop was, even in the pitch black dark. The white bearded man stamped his foot on a section of the frozen ground three times, until an huge elevator came bursting through the compact ice. Santa and his eight reindeers then boarded the elevator and went down forty floors.
The tune on the elevator was Jingle Bells, but Santa wasn't in the mood so he turned off the music. This action made all of the reindeers heads turn.
"What? I can't have any peace and quiet?" Santa said while looking at the reindeers expressions.
Once the elevator came to a halt and the doors opened, Frederick, a rather young and noble elf greeted them.
"Santa! You're finally back!" Frederick exclaimed as he ran towards him and hugged him with a surprising amount of force for an elf. Matter of factly, Fredericks arms could barely wrap around Santa's belly so I guess you couldn't even call it a hug.
"How are you doing?" Frederick asked him.
"Oh I'm fine, not the best but...fine." Santa sighed.
"I'm so sorry Santa, I know how much this year has put you through."
"No, it's ok, I think I might go lie down pretty soon. It's been a rocky year."
"Ok! Whatever you say!" Frederick said in a high-pitched squeal. Santa and the reindeers walked around Frederick and went up the stairs toward Santas chambers. As they went past, Frederick almost felt like crying. Frederick has always been an optimist, this past year he was the sole reason the elves even reached the 4 billion present mark. He had always encouraged the elves keep going and how they were almost done with this year's presents. However, this optimism that Frederick still had left inside his soul was deteriorating. 4 billion presents was still 4 billion away from their targeted goal and they only had 23 days left.
Frederick began to weep.
8:30 am Dec 1st
Santa woke up in his alaskan king size bed all alone in the darkness. For a while, he stared up at the ceiling thinking about his past events over the year. His year long divorce extravaganza and disputes with his wife Ms Clause down in South Africa were something he wanted to forget. The papers, the letters, and the documents he had to fill out while crying his heart out seemed so distant yet so close. Yet, now he had to get back to his job. He had to be the leader in face of the impending doom that may fall upon Christmas this year. He had dreaded this. It was the first time he had dreaded something. He didn't want to do anything.
Yet a little voice in his head told him to get up out of bed and go be the leader amongst hard times. So he did.
When Santa arrived in the gigantic elven workshop. which looked eerily similar to some sort of IKEA or mall, he did not expect it to look this bad. Over the years he had seen the workshop in bad states but not in something catastrophic such as this. As Santa looked around, he could see some machinery had been destroyed and work desks flipped over.
Frederick came from behind him, "Sir, the protests caused an ungodly amount of damage to the workshop, we are very sorry."
Santa couldn't believe his eyes, how long would this take to fix? A year? Even magic couldn't fix it in a day.
"Ok, ok, we can still fix this. Oh I know, I have about 3 billion unopened presents that are in the stock pile room. Do you know where that is? I usually keep it hidden." Santa said.
Frederick gulped and a frightened expression escaped his eyes, "Sir, uh, I know where it is, it's just that..well, the entire stock was burnt down to the ground by one of the elves..Stu, he's in our elven prison now.
Santa's legs felt like noodles. He looked around him, everything ruined. His entire lives work ruined. As the huge clock on the highest point of the workshop struck 9:00, Santa fainted.
12:40 pm Dec 4
Santa had finally woken up from his state of shock. He was in a hospital room decorated with Christmas lights. In the corner sat an elf dressed in a white lab coat. As soon as Santa opened his eyes, the elf doctor tumbled off of his chair.
"Thank god! You're finally awake!" The elven doctor exclaimed. "I'll call in the others to let them know you're alive."
The little doctor ran out of the room quickly and brought back in twelve people. The first one Santa saw was his loyal and trusted friend Frederick, the second was Rudolf whose nose was shining so bright that it gave Santa a headache. He then saw all of the elven court show up, which consisted of Danny, Hans, Elisa, Henry, Willow, and Wendy. He saw Frosty slide in, with snow dripping off of his head. Jack Frost with his silver glowing hair, and even the tooth fairy. Yet the one which caught most of his eye was his now ex-wife, Ms Clause. When she walked in the whole world seemed brighter.
"Gertrude, is that you?" Santa spoke, his vocal cords barely able to move.
"Yes Santa. I flew over here because I was frightened of your condition."
"My condition? How long was I out for?"
"About two days. We were all so scared." Gertrude began to cry.
Jack Frost came over, for once in his life as quiet as a mouse, and dropped a gift on the edge of Santa's bed.
"This is for you big man." Jack said and came over to pat Ms Clause on the back.
"I'm sorry I was the way I was, never focusing on you." Santa said.
"Let's not talk about this right now, I just want you to get better so you can get back to leading the elves."
"No leadership is needed anymore Gertrude, Christmas is already ruined."
At that statement everyone there gasped at Santa for saying such a thing.
"Santa, I beg your pardon, but Christmas isn't ruined." Frosty the snowman spoke up.
"What do you mean by that Frosty? Half the presents are not finished and my entire workshop is destroyed." Santa said.
"It isn't about the toys or clothes for Christmas, Santa. It's about the time you experience with others. This is the first time you haven't spent the Christmas season without Gertrude, so it's bringing you down. This is your first Christmas where you think you're alone, but you're not, you still have others who care for you."
"But the presents-"
"Forget about the presents. You need to spend this Christmas loving others around you, because lately, you haven't been doing that."
"I guess my focus entirely on delivering presents has been causing these protests. I'm the one ruining Christmas!" Santa exclaimed.
With that, Santa leaped off the bed and hugged everyone, spreading Christmas cheer.
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