24 + 1 Christmas Tales E-Book

Alexander Ruth

• Herausgeber: Alexander Ruth
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

24 + 1 Christmas Tales tell of the fabulous adventures of butterflies Martha, Darfo, Sonya and Johnny at Santa’s Secret City. They are accompanied by their friends the three electric blue fireflies and the fearful phoenix. Whether it be helping to check wish lists, granting a white Christmas or manufacturing magical Christmas presents, the butterflies can be found everywhere: their mission is to make Christmas bigger, better and more perfect.

Leseprobe

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1

Operation Wish List

2

The Wish List Inspector

3

Secret Snacks

4

The Official Sleigh Crew

5

Surprise Practice

6

Naughty Knave Rupert’s Sack of Coal

7

How to Process Wish Lists

8

The Girls’ Gifts Workshop

9

The Festival of Love

10

The Chocolate Santa Factory

11

After Work

12

Magic Stars

13

The Secret Christmas Snowball Fight

14

Ice Skating à la Butterfly

15

White Christmas

16

Intruders at Christmas Tree Forest

17

The Spooky Christmas Spirit

18

Someone’s Always There

19

Mrs Claus’s Secret

20

Sabotage at Santa’s City

21

Solstitium - Heliostásion

22

The Snow Explosion

23

The Women’s Revolt

24

Countdown

24 + 1

The Magical Festival of Love

Alexander Ruth

24 + 1

Christmas Tales

Butterfly Adventures in Santa’s Secret City

Text Copyright© March 2025 Alexander Ruth, 1st Edition

Illustrations: copyright© Lucas Schmidhofer and Sabine Birgels

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Translated by Maxine White

ISBN: 9783757914271

Impressum:

Alexander Ruth

Am Eichenkreuz 1

40667 Meerbusch

Germany

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek; further information on this title: http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Once upon a time, not long before Christmas, winter fell upon the land and thoughts turned to peace all over the world.

Snowflakes sought their way from above the rooftops to Santa’s Secret City at the North Pole, as did the brave butterflies Darfo, Martha, Sonya and Johnny, along with their companions, the three electric blue fireflies and the fearful phoenix. They had one mission: to make Christmas bigger, better and more perfect!

The butterflies are daily visitors to begin with, but soon become Santa’s Official Little Helpers and are allowed to move into living quarters at Santa’s Secret City.

These 24 + 1 stories tell of the little rascals’ adventures as they seek out their old friend Santa again this year. Some are short, some are long – simply glide into a fairy tale world.

Of course there’s no question that the stories are true.

Here’s how it all began…

1

Operation Wish List

The snow fell softly on Santa’s Secret City at the North Pole. The houses looked like they’d been dusted with a coat of icing sugar. All was peaceful and quiet, but for a very faint sound:

“Pssssst, careful, be really careful!” whispered Darfo Butterfly to Martha, who was balancing on a huge pile of paper, wobbling as she tried to add more pages. The little rascal peered around the pile cautiously. Golden light poured from the open door at the end of the corridor.

HE was sitting at his desk going through his lists. They could clearly hear him sighing and scratching his head. Scrat, scrat, scrat.

“Ready?”

Martha Butterfly nodded vigorously and scrambled down, all of a tizzy. She had such butterflies in her tummy!

The smell of mince pies and sherry was wafting into the store room from the magical office.

“It’s high time we got out of here, otherwise he’ll be thinking there’s no end to all our back orders!”

“Okay,” whispered little Martha in almost a giggle. Without daring to take their eyes off the office door, the Wish List Team crept backwards carefully, sooooo carefully, to the secret, hidden door at the back of the room up here at the North Pole.

There was nothing quite like carrots for keeping Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen occupied. “Chomp, chomp, chomp!” was all they could hear from the barn as they sneaked past.

They crept out into the wintry air. Their fireflies were waiting for them, glowing electric blue, and their friend the phoenix circled watchfully in the sky. Johnny the Macho Butterfly and Sonya the Butterfly Warrior had been keeping a lookout. They’d done it! The little rascals heaved a great sigh of relief. Now dozens more children would be getting their Christmas presents. Gosh, the things they got up to, just so that children all over the world could have their dearest wishes granted!

2

The Wish List Inspector

The snow fell softly on Santa’s Secret City at the North Pole. Smoking chimneys were the only sign of life. Everyone was hard at work, including the old man. A gold-glowing finger swept down the list.

“Luna, aged 4, Meerbusch, Germany – rocking horse,” he read. The man in the red suit peered across at the Naughty Book. No mention of Luna.

“Good girl!” he boomed in a deep voice and smiled. Then he moved on.

“Ben, aged 5, Stuttgart, Germany – bunk bed slide.” A quick look to the right. Not listed.

“Very good.”

The little helpers sat next to him as he worked, swinging their legs and chomping candy floss. They were so nervous and excited that it was only with great effort that they managed not to talk. They were not allowed to speak unless spoken to when Santa was going through his lists. He needed every bit of concentration he could muster up. Of course things would be back to normal again once he’d finished. The butterflies, the little rascals, were here on official duty, the same as every year.

Then to the next entry on the list:

“Jonah, aged 7, Hamburg – new bike.” He’d outgrown his old one.

“Hmmm,” Santa stroked through his long, white beard and beckoned to Darfo. He lifted up his sunglasses, (which everyone wore when he was going through his lists because the magical glow was so bright. It was the same magical glow that he used to send the good children’s wishes to the toy factory, to be made into presents by the elves) then he squinted at the list and nudged the butterfly. “Do you know this lad?”

Darfo raised his sunglasses slightly and looked at the list. He couldn’t read, but that didn’t matter as there was a photograph of the boy next to the entry. Jonah was holding a stick of candy floss in his hand, which might have been a bit of a giveaway, but Santa was none the wiser.

“Oooh, of course I do, that’s Jonah! Great boy, lovely lad!”

Santa Choccy (that’s what the butterflies sometimes called him, just for fun) looked at him suspiciously. Darfo slapped his sunglasses back on, grinned widely and gave Santa the thumbs up. “He’s a great boy, honestly, no trouble at all.”

“Why do I get the feeling I’ve already seen this wish list before?” asked Santa, raising his eyebrows without looking up at the butterflies – his gaze was fixed on his list.

“Nooooo, that isn’t possible,” replied a chorus of Martha, Darfo, Johnny and Sonya.

Whatever gave him that idea? Tee-hee-hee...

3

Secret Snacks

The snow fell softly on Santa’s Secret City at the North Pole. The snowflakes allowed themselves to be carried by the light breeze until they found a nice place to settle.

Secretly, ever-so secretly, the fluttersome secret agents crept into Santa’s bedroom. “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!” snored Santa.

“Hee, hee, hee!”

“Ssshhhh!!!”

The electric blue fireflies held their hands over their mouths to stifle their nervous giggles.

Darfo and Johnny rushed to the foot end of the bed. Martha and Sonya slid the bar of chocolate right up close to Santa. He didn’t wake up.

“Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!” he carried on snoring loudly. Of course he needed his sleep because he’d soon have lots of work to do.

“Hurry up!” Johnny hissed to Darfo.

“I am doing, I am doing!” Darfo snapped back.

Johnny lifted up the covers and Darfo took a feather out of his leather pouch. Santa wiggled his toes.

“Oooh!” Martha exclaimed loudly, quite by accident! With a big snore and a snort, their victim turned over: goodness, gracious, great butterflies of fire!

One big PUFF and the phoenix changed back to ashes in fright. But the old man just wiggled his bum and turned back over.

“PHEWWW!” they all breathed out. With a bright flash, the phoenix burst back to life from the ashes and positioned himself by the door as lookout. Then it was three, two, one, TICKLE TIME! Darfo set about Santa’s feet with the feather. It didn’t take long before Santa was laughing in his sleep and a crackling, golden glow ran up and down his body: Santa’s magic!

This is just what the bunch of rascals were aiming at, because as soon as the magic glow touched the bar of chocolate, the chocolate burst into a hundred-million-trillion-squillion-zillion pieces just like popcorn, “Pop-pop-pop… Pop-pop… Pop-pop-pop-pop-POP!” and there was chocolate everywhere.

“Hooray!” they rejoiced (in a whisper), waving their arms around wildly to catch as many pieces as they could.

Darfo dropped the feather, they all grabbed as much as they could carry and vanished out into the night.

My-oh-my! At this time of year they worked from dawn till dusk helping Santa, and that made getting hold of a decent snack at the North Pole very complicated!

4

The Official Sleigh Crew

The snow fell softly and endlessly. The magical office was filled with the smell of freshly baked biscuits. Candlelight flickered, fending off the darkness. The butterflies sat on the little table in front of Father Christmas. Their legs dangled over the edge. The time had come.

Luckily for the butterflies, they had lost all concept of how much work was yet to be done. Wish lists were pouring in from all parts of the globe.

The phoenix was trying to catch the electric blue fireflies, who couldn’t help but laugh at him.

Santa still had his back to the butterflies. Then he turned around on his old, wooden swivel chair: CREEEEAK!

There they sat, beaming from ear to ear. He breathed out heavily.

The elves marched in. They took position behind the most important man of the year.

“Hee, hee, hee!”

Martha couldn’t help herself. They ALL knew what was coming next!

One of the elves went to the front and gave Santa the latest wish list update. Santa let out a little sigh. “Hmmmm,” he stroked through his white beard absent-mindedly and peered at the little rascals. They were all wrapped up warm and ready to go.

“And you’re sure the high number of wish lists this year has nothing to do with you?”

Shocked, they shook their heads silently. Whatever made him think that? Why, that was almost an accusation!

“Urghhhh,” he got up slowly. Then he made the routine gesture for them to all get up too. CLATTER, CLATTER, CLATTER, they all jumped to their feet, grinning from ear to ear.

“Well then, here we go!”

A golden ring of magic crackled up and down Santa’s body from the bottom of his boots, round his tummy, up his back, along his nose and across his eyes to the top of his head. When it reached the top, the ring of magic clapped together and then split into two, shooting down his arms. Sparks went down his index fingers, which he pointed at Martha, Darfo, Sonya and Johnny.

The phoenix and the fireflies hovered mid-air. The faces of the little rascals set into a silly grin. PLOP, PLOP, PLOP, PLOP!

Four wet golden spheres hit the squad and covered them from head to toe.

SPLAT, SPLAT, SPLAT, SPLAT!

Another layer of magic covered them all, soaking into their skin.

“Hee, hee, hee,” the butterflies giggled, rubbing in the gold.

They could see their veins turn from blue to gold as the magic pumped around their bodies. Then there was one more big flash. Rays shot in all directions, dazzling them before being absorbed into their bodies. Then a gentle, pulsating rush. It was done.

“Yippeeeeeeee!”

Martha, Darfo, Sonya and Johnny leapt up and hugged one another. Not only were they Santa’s Little Helpers, they were now also the Official Sleigh Crew: the Christmas Butterflies who were allowed to fly with Santa Claus! And they were even granted living quarters – their very own Butterfly House in Santa’s Secret City!

There was so much going on at the North Pole, but of course that had nothing at all to do with the butterflies, honest…

5

Surprise Practice

Loads of snow fell at the North Pole. The darkness was only broken by the lights of Santa’s Secret City.

All of a sudden, the sirens went off, “Eeee-oooh, Eeee-oooh, Eeee-oooh!” emergency alert!

The noise instantly woke Martha, Darfo, Johnny and Sonya. They leapt out of their four-storey bunk bed, dashed up the spiral staircase in the centre of the room and jumped onto the fireman’s pole. They spun down to the ground and waited in expectation. They were ready.

“Quick, quick, quick!” called the elves, beckoning to them.

They followed the elves resolutely. What was going on?

They went past Santa’s door on their way, but he wasn’t in his office. “Buzzzzzz!” the three electric blue fireflies flew up and the phoenix appeared out of nowhere with a big PUFF. The elves just kept on walking and walking, but the butterflies had soon sussed out exactly where they were going.

“But... but... but...” stammered Johnny the Macho Butterfly. “It’s not Christmas yet!”

Before they knew it, they were stood in front of a packed sleigh. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen were all harnessed up and grinning at the little rascals. The sleigh was packed sky-high with presents, but no sign of Santa anywhere.

“Quick, quick, quick!” the elves banged on the side of the sleigh. “You need to set off straight away! There was a mistake with the calendar! It’s Christmas Eve today!”

The little rascals dived into place in a state of shock – they must save Christmas! They didn’t doubt for a moment that there had been a mistake. These things happen. It could just as easily have happened to them.

“What are we supposed to do?”

“Here!” One of the elves gave Darfo the reins.

“The more you shake them, the faster they go. If you pull them gently, they think it’s time for carrots and stop automatically.”

Aha. Darfo nodded. He’d got it. It was easy.

“And this,” said one of the elves, pointing to the red and green button with the heart on it, “is the hover button. Never switch it off when you’re airborne!”

“Otherwise you’ll end up with a Christmas disaster like in 2003…’ whispered another elf to his neighbour.

“Ho-ho! Or like in 1998, 2001, 1999, 2008, 1963, 1985, 1978...” the list was endless!

Martha looked down anxiously.

“Don’t worry – just don’t press the button when you’re in the air!”

The little rascals nodded, awe-stricken.

“And here’s the list!”

“But there are 153,146 million addresses!”

“Don’t worry, you’ll have them done in ten minutes!”

The elf gave Donner a sharp slap on its hind quarters and whoooosh off they went. Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop, Martha, Darfo, Johnny and Sonya were thrown back in their seats as the first hazard came into sight: they were racing straight towards the toy factory wall!

Just in time, Johnny slapped the button with the palm of his hand and wheeeeee they shot up into the dark night sky.

The elves stood and grinned at the fireflies and the phoenix, who were left behind.

“Do you think they’ll manage it?”

“Never!”

“Then UNFORTUNATELY we’ll have to tell the old guy – and there’s only one logical conclusion he can come to after that kind of failure!”

“Yep!”

“Yep!”

“Yep!” the elves cried out, one after the other, until they heard heavy footsteps stomping through the snow.

At that point, the sleigh was whizzing round the earth above their heads for the fourth time. The elves secretly pressed a remote control button.

A message came out of the slit in front of Darfo: “Can you please press down the red button hard.” Written in pictures, of course. He understood the “please” straight away.

“Of course I can,” he said out loud and pressed down the button, much to Darfo, Sonja and Martha’s dismay. The result was visible down below.

“What’s going on up there?” growled Santa, as the first present fell from the sky and landed right on his nose. He gawped at it in disbelief.

“Test run.” The elves pointed upwards. The sleigh was doing a nosedive from the sky, heading straight for Father Christmas.

“Oh my goodness!” he gasped.

“There are just far too many butterflies for one sleigh!” whispered the elves to Santa.

“Mmmm, yes, you’re probably right,” he muttered, scratching his head under his red hat. Fortunately, Johnny managed to gather his bearings just in time and pressed the heart button as the sleigh was barely 20 metres off the ground.

The sleigh stopped its dramatic descent and glided gently to the ground, coming to a halt a short distance away from Santa and the elves. As soon as the cloud of snow dust had dispersed, Santa walked up to Martha, Darfo, Johnny and Sonya, huffing and puffing.

“What the heavens is going on here?”

The butterflies stared at him, lost for words. Martha’s face was a pale shade of green and Darfo’s hands were still shaking.

“Too many butterflies in one sleigh,” said the elves again, and the little rascals just echoed them: “Too many butterflies in one sleigh!”

“Too many butterflies in one sleigh” was still going through Santa’s mind as one of the elves began to explain:

“Due to the ergomatricular properties of the sleigh, with its cybernautical star-seeking mode set to accommodate the exact body mass of Father Christmas, it’s highly likely that the butterflies are just not suited to driving the sleigh, especially not all of them at once!”

Santa looked at the elves, mimicking surprise, patting his big, round tummy.

“Are you trying to tell me I’m FAT?”

“No sir… not at all… never… only the sleigh has been pre-set for your weight!”

“So now what?”

“Well if we were to…” the elves waved to the others, who marched off all at once.

“Whooo-ahhh!” they cried, followed by the ringing of bells – lots of little bells. And suddenly, there stood four sleighs. A blue one, a red one, a green one… and a pink one. They were all drawn by young reindeer, who were desperate to be up in the air for first time this Christmas.

“Wowwww!” the butterflies gasped.

“We expected there to be some problems, so we prepared THESE.”

Father Christmas looked at the elves suspiciously, but they were all highly professional and kept straight faces. Then he looked across at the butterflies. It was plainly obvious that they had nothing to do with any of this.

“Too many butterflies in one sleigh,” muttered Father Christmas. He lifted his belly up and let go with a big wobble. Then he waved them off.

“Oh, do whatever you like, as long as you don’t spoil Christmas.”

Shivering from the cold, he headed for the warm indoors, leaving them all standing there.

Darfo, Martha, Johnny and Sonya still couldn’t quite believe it. Mouths wide open, they stared at their reindeer and their sleighs.

You see, there are always some who are willing to do more for others than for themselves, although we don’t always notice…

6

Naughty Knave Rupert’s Sack of Coal

The sea was calm and still and the snow fell softly on Santa’s Secret City at the North Pole. Suddenly, the silence was broken.

“You!” the butterfly girl ordered angrily. “Come here!”

Chests stuck out, the butterflies were marching up and down in their official capacity as Santa’s Little Helpers. Martha’s finger was pointing at somebody in a brown coat at the back. She beckoned to him. Father Christmas had popped to the shops with Mrs Claus. The butterflies were on their toy factory lunch break, so this gave them the ideal opportunity to do some more good for the children of the world.

“Show us what’s in your sack!”

She was addressing Naughty Knave Rupert. Grumpily, he grabbed his sack: you know, the one that should be full of lumps of coal for naughty children. But not a sign of coal was to be seen! In his sack, would you believe it, were a leather belt, a fly swat and a baseball bat! He took them out of the sack and showed them to the little rascals.

Santa had sent him an invitation to a “quality control security check”, on posh paper with a big wax seal on it. Big-Old-Boss-Santa always did random checks to make sure everything was going according to plan. Rupert was a bit surprised to see that his invitation was signed with four splattered, little handprints. But he imagined Santa must have his reasons for employing the mystical butterflies, Martha, Darfo, Johnny and Sonya. No doubt to help improve the Festival of Love.

Martha was really getting into her new role.

“Right! And now show me the other things you’re still hiding!”

“Huh?” mumbled Rupert, pretending not to understand what she meant.

“Herumph... I can see QUITE clearly that you’re hiding ALL SORTS in that bearskin coat of yours!” If a job was worth doing, then it was worth doing well.

“Drat!” snarled Rupert, making both Darfo and Sonya giggle.

In a flash, Rupert produced quite a collection of punishment tools – an electric shocker, hand cuffs, tear gas and a hammer!

That’s it, he gestured, pretty annoyed, because that actually was it.

“Hey, can he not talk?” Darfo asked.

“Well, not any sense... in fact he talks such a load of rubbish that he should be the one being punished!”

“Hee, hee, hee!”

But the game was still on, as Martha had discovered something else.

“AHAA! And what’s that sticking out of your boot under your trousers?”

“Umph,” groaned Rupert. She really did see everything.

“Tusk-tusk!”

A quick, sweeping movement and, hey presto! She whisked out a giant, poisonous rattle snake and two tarantulas – which he actually always had with him, in case he had to punish someone really, really naughty.

“Hee, hee, hee!” giggled Sonya, Darfo and Johnny, taking a few paces back, out of range of the dangerous weapons.

“RIGHT!” Martha inflated her wings until they made her look much bigger. She’d really shown him!

“But now how’s he supposed to punish the bad children?”

“Mmmm.” Martha Butterfly scratched her head.

“Okay,” she said, pointing at the fly swat. “You can keep that. For the really naughty ones.”

A Quick Christmas Tip

“…Then you exchange your little sock on the mantelpiece for one of mummy’s stockings,” the butterflies told the little ones. “So there’s much more room for presents!”

7

How to Process Wish Lists

The snow fell softly on Santa’s Secret City at the North Pole. Frost decorated the window panes in flowery patterns and candlelight flickered in the windows of some of the buildings, where people had already started work.

Clunk, went the stamp. Clunk!

Stamp it and pass it on… The butterfly grabbed it and dashed off.

Clunk!

Next stamp. Pass it on. The next butterfly grabbed it and dashed off.

Clunk!

Next stamp. Pass it on again…

- Sudden pause –

“Huh?” Santa turned around inquisitively.

“Sorry!” Johnny mumbled between cheeks full of candy floss, grabbing the wish list and dashing off at double speed.

Clunk!

And the stamp - missed.

“Just a minute,” said Santa. He scratched his forehead, deep in thought. “Can you bring back those last two wish lists?”

Gulp! Darfo and Johnny went chalky white.

“Ermmm… of course.”

Sloooooowly, verrrrrrry sloooooowly, they went back and collected the last two sheets.

“Can you not get a move on? We need to be ready by December 24th!” his deep voice boomed. Father Christmas was only up to ‘M’ and they didn’t have much time left.

They scurried back and handed over the requested wish lists. The phoenix flew by and swooped in to take a look, aflame with curiosity.

The most important man of the year compared the wish list in his hand to the other two.

“Drat!” hissed Darfo, but so quietly that Santa couldn’t possibly hear.

He had given Johnny extra candy floss in exchange for neat handwriting. He only wanted to make sure that Martha got more presents! They’d even given Martha three names: Martha (her real name), Martha the Beautiful (Darfo’s idea) and Martha the Princess (Johnny’s idea). The address was the only thing that was the same on all three wish lists: ‘Butterfly House’.

“Do three Marthas live in your house?” Santa looked up.

“Yuh, uh, absolutely” nodded the two boys.

Please, let him just put his ‘OK’ stamp on it and let us carry on! Darfo began to think about how wonderful it would be when Martha looked under the Christmas tree. He would be really popular then. And when girls are happy they get all emotional and hug and stuff… and if he just happened to be standing right next to her… But all of that seemed in danger now.

PUFF! The phoenix panicked and turned into a cloud of ash. Father Christmas squinted down at his Little Helpers. The butterfly boys stood there like innocent little lambs.

Dingelingeling!

The elves sounded the workshop bell as they suspected a production error.

“We’re running out of time!”

“Hmmmm.” Santa sighed heavily. “Alright, I suppose I’d better take your word for it.”

CLUNK!

It was stamped!!! Darfo grabbed the wish lists and zipped around the corner grinning… and then squealed to a halt. He looked left and right, up and down – not a soul there – excellent! He took a boiled egg out of his jacket pocket and the stack of wish lists from up his jumper. Carefully he rolled the egg over the fresh, damp stamp and then rolled it onto each of the wish lists… wish lists from Martha the Lovely, Martha the Eternal, Martha the Star, Martha the One and Only, Martha the...

It’d be a sorry state of affairs if butterfly boys didn’t manage to wangle themselves a few extra kisses at Christmas!

When Butterflies Kiss at Christmas

“When two butterflies kiss at Christmas, it magically makes Christmas much better for EVERYONE!” Martha whispered into Darfo’s ear.

“Reeeeeally?”

“Yep!”

SNOGGGG!!!

8

The Girls’ Gifts Workshop

The snow fell softly on Santa’s Secret City at the North Pole. The odd silhouette flitted from door to door in the darkness. Indoors, the whole place was a hive of activity.

Butterfly boys Johnny and Darfo held their ears to the wooden door:

Bang, bang! Clunk, clunk! Hammer, hammer!

“This is where the girls’ gifts are made!” Johnny playfully punched Darfo in the tummy.

“Ooouff!” Darfo exhaled.

The temperature soared as the fiery phoenix and the electric blue fireflies squeezed in between them. They wanted to know what was going on too!

It sounded something like “Hee, hee, hee!” and “Ha, ha, ha!”

“I bet they’re sat there eating chocolate the whole time and drinking tea and making fun of us boys!” quipped Johnny the Macho Butterfly.

The others looked at him, astonished, stepping away from the door.

“My Martha is in there!” said Darfo, glaring at Johnny and tapping his forehead.

“She wouldn’t do a thing like that!” Especially not with them being here at the North Pole with Father Christmas and all that.

Johnny thought about it for a moment and then agreed:

“You’re right! It’s far too cold for that up here!”

Darfo, the phoenix and the fireflies shook their heads in resignation. It was totally pointless trying to argue with him. But they were still curious to know what Martha and the girl elves were making. There was a heart-shaped decoration hanging from the door, and everyone knew that this was where the girls’ presents were made.

“Why not take a look inside!” Johnny cried, pushing Darfo towards the door handle.

“Who, me?” Darfo leapt backwards. “You must be joking…”

Suddenly the door flew open and Martha stuck her head out.

“HI boys! You alright?”

“Martha!” Darfo smiled in delight, while two of the three fireflies tried to fly above Martha’s head and catch a sneaky glimpse inside. She brushed them away subconsciously without so much as looking at them.

“Now you can tell that Johnny...”

“Hey, Martha, come back inside, there’s work to be done!” called the girl elves, wanting to get on. With a charming smile and a wink, she turned to go back inside. Johnny swooned at her loveliness. PLOPPP, he fell to the floor!

“Is he talking rot again?” Martha asked Darfo.

Darfo nodded furiously and looked at the girls in anticipation.

“Well in that the case...” she said, calling to the girl elves: “Hey, do you think Darfo could have a quick look inside?”

“Yes, but make it quick! And be sure to use our trick afterwards!” replied one of the older girl elves, who was getting annoyed at the boys.

No sooner had she finished speaking as Darfo, the phoenix and the fireflies pushed their heads around the door. Mouths gaping wide, they could hardly believe what they saw.

“Ooooooh!”

“Aaaaaahhh!”

So that’s what girls all around the world were getting for Christmas!

“Woweeee!!!”

Then Martha pushed in between them and shoved them out of the room.

“Right, you’ve seen enough! And don’t let me catch you...”

“Hey, don’t forget our little trick!” the girl elves called, and Martha giggled.

“Oh yes, silly me!”

She swiftly grabbed all the fireflies in one hand and the phoenix in the other, before he had chance to change into ashes. Stunned, they looked to Darfo for help, but it was too late.

Smacker, smacker, smacker, smacker!

She gave each of her victims a big, sloppy kiss on the lips...

Ooh la la! They all fainted in a big heap on the floor! Then she took Darfo’s face in both hands and pulled his lips to hers.

Smackeroony!

“That was the best kiss in the universe,” thought Darfo, all wobbly, weak at the knees and unable to get a word out. “Gurgle, gurgle!” was all he could manage, and thanks to the girls’ little trick, he now wouldn’t remember a thing about what he’d seen behind the door.

Of course it was a matter of honour that the girls didn’t give anything away. Though it would’ve been nice to know what girls were getting for Christmas this year!

9

The Festival of Love

The darkness of night was broken by the perfect glow of golden, twinkling stars. Softly fell the snow.

Father Christmas was sat on the veranda after work, creaking to and fro in his rocking chair and enjoying a nice cup of hot honey with a hint of tea. The phoenix had settled down in Santa’s beard, glowing warmly and listening to the fireflies’ stories. Well, as long as they weren’t too scary, because every time he became afraid, he burst into flames and singed Santa’s beard!

Santa was nodding off. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen’s muffled chit-chat could be heard in the background.

The only commotion came from Martha, Darfo, Sonya and Johnny’s young reindeer, who were racing around in their pen. That didn’t disturb the elves though, who were snoring away, their coats hanging up outside their windows to air.

All was calm at the North Pole: it wasn’t long now until Christmas.

No-one seemed to have noticed that the little rascals were missing, that is to say, no-one except Mrs Claus. She suddenly started, looked up and stopped knitting.

Sniff, sniff, sniff!

It was absolutely normal to smell mince pies and sherry in these parts, but what else was that that she could smell? Surely the Christmas bakery didn’t open again until the morning?

She carefully laid her knitting to one side and looked out of the window.

The phoenix was putting out her husband’s beard in a panic. He seemed to have dozed off and didn’t notice a thing. The elves had apparently all gone to bed… which made her very suspicious! And where were Martha, Darfo, Johnny and Sonya?

She was starting to get concerned. She yanked on her winter boots and draped her husband’s red coat around her shoulders. She could smell his eau de cologne on the white collar, mmmmh!

She marched through the snow past the reindeer, crunch, crunch, crunch! Then she saw Johnny’s lead reindeer sneaking out of its pen, Martha’s reindeer team making heart shapes in the snow with their hooves and Sonya’s reindeer trying to preach to Darfo’s little darlings about honour and morals. All quite normal really, except for that smell in the air.

Sniff, sniff, sniff!

She was drawn as by an invisible force in the direction of the bakery. She could already make out the silhouettes of individual butterflies. They were marching through the darkness into the bakery, with fully laden wheelbarrows.

“Now then, now then,” she thought, tugging the red coat more tightly around her as she hurried on.

As she got a bit closer, she could hear the oven, flour mills and rolling pins in full action.

Clatter, crunch, boom, rattle, ping!

She had soon reached the bakery window and breathed warm air onto the frozen pane, rubbing a little hole in the ice with her hand… She could hardly believe her eyes! There they all stood, aprons on, baking biscuits. A motherly smile lit up her face as she made sense of things: they didn’t have time to bake during the daytime!

Martha was stood at the absolutely-totally-extremely ancient leather-bound recipe book, entering new recipes with a wax crayon. Johnny and Sonya were baking them.

Mrs Claus sniffed with joy. Was she dreaming, or could this be real? She rubbed her eyes hard. Oh my, the ingredients would make Christmas magical for everyone for ever and ever! And they were baking up a big supply, too!

Wow, she could hardly believe her eyes. She was filled with gratitude. It was really happening, it was true.

But… but… surely it was impossible – though apparently not. The little rascals had flown up to the stars and had asked them for some more star dust. Magic dust. The dust that cherubs use to bring two people together. One pinch of it was sufficient to last a lifetime. It bound hearts together, taking away hate, anger and quarrelling and replacing them with love and forgiveness.

“Oooh!” sighed Mrs Claus. “What… what… what a very special gift!”

Only the butterflies could get dust from the stars... and… and... they were using this special ability to warm people’s hearts forever.

The stardust biscuits would be delivered to people’s homes: they’d be placed on tables, under Christmas trees and in bedrooms all over the world!

A tear of joy rolled down her cheek. She turned around quietly and crept back with a nice, warm feeling inside and a feeling of thankfulness towards the little creatures.

She finally reached the veranda and looked at the rocking chair. The phoenix was dozing amid a gentle glow in Santa’s beard, alongside the electric blue fireflies. Her eyes welled up as she looked down at her husband. She leant down and gave him a gentle kiss.

“Thank you,” she whispered to him, as her lips touched his cheek.

Now she understood why the butterflies were here on earth – and they had their very own interpretation of the Festival of Love...

10

The Chocolate Santa Factory

The sweet smell of candy floss, biscuits and sherry wafted around Santa’s Secret City at the North Pole. The whole place was buzzing with activity. The elves dashed about frantically and the reindeer were galloping around a specially built snow test track. The phoenix and the electric blue fireflies were making ice sculptures by melting the ice and forming it into beautiful stars, deer and other figurines.

Father Christmas was stuck in his office mumbling and muttering as he worked his way through a mountainous pile of wish lists. Mrs Claus had taken charge of the Christmas bakery once more when suddenly, BANG!!!

A big explosion sounded out, shaking everyone and everything up. Coffee cups fell from the table, fairy tale books fell from the shelves and the sprinkler system immediately sprang into action, spraying liquid sugar everywhere to smother any flames.

Red warning lights flashed on Santa’s computer, indicating that the explosion had taken place in the chocolate factory. He swallowed hard and a shudder went down his spine.

“Oh goodness, gracious me!” he gasped. Martha, Darfo, Sonya and Johnny were working there today!

Quick as a flash, he grabbed his red coat, pulled on his red hat and dashed off in his big, heavy boots. The elves had downed tools and were heading in the direction of the sirens.

The troubled gulps and cries of the butterflies could be heard from afar:

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!”

The little rascals were in danger. Smoke was billowing out of the window into the dark polar night.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!” cried the butterflies, and their friends hurried to rescue them as fast as they possibly could.

However, no sooner had the first elves reached the big factory doors as Father Christmas could see them smiling and clapping their hands to their heads.

Clap–clap-clap, one after the other!

Puzzled and still worried, Father Christmas reached the scene and took a deep breath.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!”

Martha, Darfo, Sonya and Johnny were rolling on the floor holding their tummies. The rescuers breathed a big sigh of relief. It was quite common for the chocolate machine to explode when the elves were working there. It happened most every day, which is why Father Christmas had sent the butterflies in – but that had been a total waste of time too! The little rascals were no more able to withstand temptation than were the elves! The magical Chocolate Santa mix was sooooo delicious that anyone with a sweet tooth couldn’t help but try a spoonful… and a second… and then a third… until the machine finally blew up because the tank was empty!

Ho-hum, it made no difference whether the elves or the butterflies were working in the Chocolate Santa Factory – the magical chocolate mixture had the same effect on all of them!

There they lay on the floor, bellies full and faces green, groaning and feeling sick. Just another normal day at the North Pole!

11

After Work

Complete and utter silence…

The working day was done. Peace and quiet reigned in Santa’s Secret City up at the North Pole. Snowmen with wings were dotted all over the place, and the butterflies and elves had built a castle for having snowball fights in.

Father Christmas was sitting in his rocking chair on the veranda after work as usual, slurping on a cup of chocolate tea with a candy floss topping. All was quiet.

All was quiet?

“Hmmm,” mumbled Santa, knowing this was probably the lull before the storm!

No sooner had the thought entered his head as the phoenix and the three electric blue fireflies wandered round the corner. Their footsteps left watery trails in front of Father Christmas before freezing back to ice again.

“Jabber, jabber, jabber,” the squad chatted away in their vaguely comprehensible dialect, discussing who they thought was the best driver.

A little voice in Santa’s head told him to lean forward in his rocking chair to get a better view.

Creaaaaak!

Hey presto, suddenly he could see that the young reindeer were not in their pens.

“Hrrrmph!” he mumbled, lifting his cup. He was about to take another sip when a monstrous noise almost knocked him from his chair:

Whooooooosh!

Followed by a short silence and then:

“Yipeeeeeee!”

“Dar-fo! Dar-fo! Dar-fo!”

Clack-clack-clack all the brightly coloured floodlights came on, lighting up a stand of snowy seats around Father Christmas, which was full of elves waving their flags.

“Son-ya! Son-ya! Son-ya!” some of them were chanting.

“Joh-nny! Joh-nny! Joh-nny!” shouted others.

The fearless pilots nosedived from the sky, twisting past the chocolate factory, almost knocking down the bakery with their reindeer before racing down the home straight right in front of Santa’s house, amid screams from their avid fans.

Everyone agreed that Martha was not likely to be the winner! Her reindeer was dressed in pink and it kept stopping to look at the scenery and sniff the trees, eventually trotting along miles behind Sonya, Johnny and Darfo’s reindeer.

They, on the other hand, were going at full pelt, but just before the finish line, they all stopped and waited for their meandering little friend! They didn’t go over the line until they were all together.

“Yippeeeee!” the elves cried – no winners, no losers… well, they were all winners.

“Ho, ho, ho!” laughed Santa, blowing on his hot chocolate tea and rocking in his chair.

They all loved a bit of fun up at the North Pole!

12

Magic Stars

A golden comet fell from the sky, shining brighter than the sea of stars. A little more snow fell and covered Santa’s Secret City like a layer of icing sugar. Martha and Darfo cuddled up together. They’d finished work for the day and the factory was closed.

“Hee, hee, hee!” giggled the two elves cuddling next to them.

“Have you got room for an old couple?” asked Mrs Claus, as she and Santa joined them. She laid a blanket over everyone’s legs.

“Isn’t it beautiful out here?” said Mrs Claus, prodding Martha in the side.

“Hee, hee, hee!” Martha giggled, beaming at her. “So you got our invitation?”

“We sure did, we sure did,” mumbled Santa, who felt a bit uncomfortable in such a romantic atmosphere.

Mrs Claus, Martha and all the girl elves had declared today the “Girls’-Love-Light-North-Pole-Day’ and there were to be no objections! Darfo, powerless to do anything, simply shrugged his shoulders and looked over to Santa.

“That’s women for you!” said Santa, leaning back. They had promised him something ‘really special’, which turned out to be a diversion to stop him thinking of things like ‘go and repair the sleigh’!

Soon, all the seats were filled with elf couples, cuddling up to each other to keep warm. Mrs Claus passed pre-heated cups around her group and poured them strawberry tea with a candy floss topping. Then Martha nodded and winked to her, giving the signal to begin. Silence fell among the fairy-tale audience. Then suddenly:

“Give us a kiss!”

Everyone could hear a voice whisper to Sonja, who promptly gave the offender a kick up the bum... and out tumbled Johnny, landing right in front of everybody! Shocked to be standing in front of an audience, Johnny got up, brushed away the snow and tried to gather himself. He gave a polite bow and cleared his throat.

“Hear ye, hear ye!” he proclaimed. “Ladies and gentlemen, kissers and snoggers! This evening, I am delighted to be able to present to you the Reindeer Show…” he broke off, pointing at some invisible soul apparently standing behind the wall, and tapped his forehead.

“Hey, no way am I saying that!”

No-one could tell who the hidden person was, but they could see a butterfly’s fists waving about threateningly in the air. Johnny wiped pearls of sweat from his brow.

“Okay, okay!” he said and turned back to the audience, calling:

“And now for Santa’s Love-Light Show for Heartbreakers – or those who’d like to become one!” The elves all looked at each other in surprise. Darfo couldn’t help but suppress a giggle.

“Hee, hee, hee!”

When Johnny heard the boys laughing, he stomped off behind the wall in a huff... which was the signal for the spectacle in the sky to begin.

It was a dark night. Then, all of a sudden, thousands of stars rained from the sky down to earth, first one or two and then countless stars together. Up above in the sky, the show had begun that everybody would still be talking about years later.

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen appeared out of nowhere, galloping towards the shooting stars, their silver tails streaming behind them. Once they had caught up with the stars, they screeched to a halt. Everyone stared in amazement: they were using their reindeer magic!

The reindeer jumped and danced in front of each shooting star, bringing each one to life with a puff of magic. The golden stars stopped falling and rose back into the sky, only to then fall back to earth again.

This time it was clear to see that on their way back down, they were searching for happy couples. Everyone was staring up at the night sky with their mouths wide open. Each shooting star chose a couple and flew down to them, winding a magic, golden thread around and around them until they were completely bound together.

Making sure they still had enough thread left, the golden stars then leapt up in front of their audience and shot up into the sky, drawing golden heart shapes for all to see, before shooting off forever into the depths of space.

Slowly, the magical, golden threads tightened around the couples, drawing them closer and closer together. They were filled with magical feelings of happiness, trust, comfort, expectation... things that couldn’t really be described in words.

How long this condition would last, Johnny and Sonya didn’t quite know. Plenty long enough, that was for sure, so they sneaked off to their beds to get some sleep.

Santa and Mrs Claus, Martha and Darfo and all the other elves had no idea how long the feeling would last either. This magical feeling of happiness from the stars was a gift of love that would never die. Christmas was the festival of love, for all eternity...

13

The Secret Christmas Snowball Fight

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Snowballs were whizzing through the air in Santa’s Secret City here at the North Pole.

Zing, zing, zing!

Martha ducked and ran zigzags beneath the oncoming masses of snow, delivering new snow ammunition to her brave team.

They were standing on the north-east tower of Snowball Fight Castle, bombarding their attackers like billy-o. An army of rowdy Christmas elves were threatening to kidnap Princess Sonya if only they could catch her – which would happen any minute now if the brave Knights of the Butterfly failed to protect her. Perish the thought!

“Grrrr!” growled Martha at the attackers, and SPLAT, a snowball hit her right in the face. Darfo was taken totally unawares by the elves’ sneaky attack. He pelted snowball upon snowball at the offending group like a lunatic, but they just kept getting closer and closer – their supply of ammunition seemed endless.

“We need a change of tactics!” Johnny yelled to Darfo.

Martha brushed off the snow and ran back down the steps to collect more ammunition. It’s a good job she’s down there now and not up here, thought Darfo. He couldn’t bear to admit to her face that the battle was lost. Then SMACK, SMACK, SMACK, he was hit by three snowballs, lost his footing, wobbled and fell over backwards, landing two metres lower in the courtyard, right next to a big pair of black boots.

“Huh?” he gasped, looking up. Martha was grinning down at him, standing next to someone in a red coat with a white beard.

“Ho, ho, ho!” laughed Father Christmas, just as Johnny got hit too, falling down from the battlements into the courtyard. SPLAT! He landed in the snow.

“Did anyone order backup troops?” smirked Father Christmas.

Their positive thinking and determination gave them a new boost of energy and the troop stomped back upstairs, opening fire on the Elves.

WHOOSH! SPLAT! SMACK!

They smothered their opponents in a hail of snowballs. But it was no use: there were just too many of them and Princess Sonya was still in danger. Before they knew it, even Father Christmas had taken four hits to his ample tummy.

‘Drat!’ grumbled Santa, wishing he’d listened to his wife and had gone on a diet in the summer holidays. So annoyed was he that he turned his wrath on his attackers and WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH, pelted them with a whole load of snowballs, but it didn’t make any difference – the elves just kept getting closer and closer. Princess Sonya would be lost...

SUDDENLY a magic glow appeared in Santa’s eyes. Golden rings appeared around his feet that danced up his body, joined together around his tummy and then shot down his arms.

The elves gasped, shocked that Santa was using his magic. Santa clapped his hands together and… the world froze as time stood still.

The elves, Martha, Sonya, Darfo, Johnny, the reindeer, everyone, people watching telly, people taking baths, people sat on buses and even in aeroplanes in the sky – everything stood still, as though turned to stone.

It was the same as the Christmas magic Santa Claus used on Christmas Eve, when he was whizzing about the world in his sleigh. It was the only way he could possibly have time to deliver presents to everyone everywhere. Now he was getting on in years, he’d taken on the butterflies to help him, as even his magic didn’t quite give him enough time to do everything all by himself.

“Now let’s see who’s winning!” he called, leaping over the castle wall and covering every elf from head to toe in snow. Then he ran back to the castle, up the stairs and stood next to the butterflies before clapping his hands together again and restarting time.

“Boo! Hiss! Boo!” the elves called from below.

Darfo, Martha and Sonya looked at each other, stunned. None of the elves were throwing snowballs anymore! They freed themselves from the masses of snow and skulked away, beaten.

“Yipeeeee!” celebrated the butterflies. They had won. They stuck their chests out and proudly marched back and forth in front of the losers.

Mrs Claus wasn’t overly impressed by the outcome of the battle.

“What’s wrong?” asked Santa. “You know I needed to practise for the big day!”

14

Ice Skating à la Butterfly

WHIZZ! WHIZZ! WHIZZ!

The elves, Butterflies, Santa and Mrs Claus shot around the frozen secret lake in Santa’s Secret City at the North Pole. Snowflakes were dancing through the air, being wafted around by the ice skaters. Countless torch flames created a romantic atmosphere at the lake’s edge. The Christmas Elves’ Philharmonic played Christmas carols on their violins.

The electric blue fireflies and the phoenix were so drawn in by the music that they fluttered away from the bank of the lake above the ice, floating around between the skaters.

It was such a picture of joy and happiness, not a care in the world… until the phoenix forgot to keep flying and, to everyone’s horror, landed on the ice, spinning around wildly like the star of some ice skating show.

“Help!!!” the phoenix called out in utter panic.

“Hey! Hey!” Martha called.

The others looked up to see Martha pointing energetically at the madly spinning phoenix, who was causing clouds of steam to come off the melting lake every time he put a fiery foot down. Fizzzzzzzzzz...

Too late!

CRACKKKK, CRACKKKK! The ice began to break up.

“Oh my goodness!”

The firebird leapt into the sky as soon as he noticed the ice was cracking into floes, some small, some large. Santa and Mrs Claus were right in the middle of the lake!

The Butterflies could use their wings to carry themselves out of the danger zone, but the elves and Santa and Mrs Claus didn’t have that option and were in severe peril of falling into the freezing cold water. Oh no, who’d have thought this might happen? Christmas was in danger!!!

A visitor ambled to the lakeside, plumped her ample bottom down in the snow and pulled on her ice skates at a leisurely pace. The elves, butterflies and the phoenix waved frantically to her to go and get a rope, just as Mrs Claus was slithering to the other end of her ice floe. Father Christmas had caused it to sink at his end due to his weight and now Mrs Claus was sliding uncontrollably towards him, only just managing to catch hold of his legs at the last minute. Fortunately Father Christmas’s boots had the best grip on them that any butterfly had ever seen and he didn’t budge an inch.

The woman at the lakeside made no attempt to go and get a rope, or even a branch.

Is she completely bonkers, thought Johnny the Macho Butterfly, looking at Darfo. He shrugged his shoulders. The woman was too far away for them to be able to see who she was.

Martha leapt up and began to fly across to her as quickly as possible… and then stopped in mid-flight to wave to her.

“Has she gone totally bonkers too?” asked Sonya, scratching her head as she saw the panic in Mrs Claus’s eyes. She wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer.

The elves were in a sorry state and one of them had actually fallen into the water. Their floes were swaying and wobbling to and fro... when the woman, who had at last managed to get her ice skates on, finally went down to the edge of the lake and noticed that the ice was broken.

“Tut, tut – that’s just no good at all,” she mumbled and put her index finger in her mouth. Then she held her finger up into the air. If you’d been standing close to her, you’d have seen that her finger lit up crystal blue.

“That’s right,” she said to her hand. She bent over and put her magic index finger into the water.

CRUNCH, CREAK, CRUNCH!

A new, thick coat of ice spread out before her.

“Phewwww!” everybody gasped, relieved. In no time at all, the whole lake was frozen back over again. Now they knew who she was!

“Ooops!” said Santa, as his disgruntled wife slid off their floe onto the newly formed ice.

“I’d completely forgotten that Mother Hulda was coming to visit us today!”

15

White Christmas

Whole loads of snow fell up here on Santa’s Secret City at the North Pole. The snowflakes floated gently on the breeze, landing wherever the wind took them. One of them chose to land right on Martha’s nose, who giggled and tried to lick it off. Lick! Slurp!

“Oh come on, slow coach!” Darfo waved up and down impatiently and the butterfly girl hopped into the sleigh. Santa’s sleigh. With a mixed team pulling it.

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen were with the front sleigh; behind them were the other butterflies’ sleighs and reindeer, all joined together with ropes.

The sleighs were so heavily laden that the little rascals were not able to steer the front one all by themselves, so they sat with Father Christmas.

They had a good reason for this set-up. The first three sleighs were full of presents and the last two were full of carrots and candy floss, which were used to cajole the teams into action.

“Be sure to be back in time for tea,” said Mrs Claus, pinching Santa’s cheek as he looked at her lovingly.

“We will be, we will be!” he promised his wife.

The Christmas elves waved once more before taking off with their sleighs and setting to work. Santa and the butterflies were going away on business – it was certainly no holiday!

Once they’d gone through the check list, Ol’ Whitebeard took the reins and pressed the red ‘hover’ button. The Christmas convoy shot up into the sky to a big “HO, HO, HO!”

“I’m sure we’ll get it all done,” Johnny whispered to Sonya, who nodded positively.

Father Christmas drove Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen higher and ever higher, working them really hard. They didn’t mind one bit because they knew they were granting children’s wishes: it was for the well-being of mankind.

“I’ve wished for some heart-shaped ones,” Martha whispered to Darfo, who squeezed her hand happily. It was quite romantic sitting there in the red and green sleigh… well, at least until the three electric blue fireflies appeared from between the piles of presents behind them and joined them on the front bench.

Johnny and Sonja looked at the stowaways in surprise, when PLOP, the phoenix appeared next to them out of nowhere with a cheeky grin. It was understandable that they all wanted to be part of this mission!

It was a bit of a squeeze to fit in, but nobody minded. Before long they were flying through a thick blanket of clouds, rattling their way right to the centre of High Cloud City.

As soon as Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen noticed that they had reached their destination, they slowed down and Santa pressed the red and green hover button.

They landed on the clouds and slid gently before coming to a standstill.

Nestling atop the cloud was a gold-glowing palace. The palace gates were open: their visit was expected.

Santa parked the convoy of sleighs so that they could still be seen from inside.

HOP, HOP, HOP! They all hopped out of their sleighs and, awestruck, entered the massive audience room. Their host had already taken his place behind his desk. Next to him sat his colleague Mother Hulda, an elderly lady with white hair and a rather large bottom.

Darfo was about to take the lead in front of Santa – he’d been here loads of times before and knew his way around. Martha held him back with a smile. Today, that was Santa’s job!

The Christmas Chief greeted the Chief Weather Maker, St. Peter, with a big “Ho! Ho! Ho!” and nodded to Mother Hulda, who was sitting next to him. Mother Hulda gave her friend Martha a secret little wave and Martha nodded back.

“Sit down, sit down!” said St. Peter, lifting his arms and PING, PING, PING, enough chairs for everybody appeared out of nowhere.

“How’s your wife?” St. Peter asked Santa with a smile.

“Fine thanks, and she’s still cooking as well as she did when I first met her,” he replied.

“I can see that!” said St. Peter, looking at Santa’s tummy, laughing. Mother Hulda gave him a glare. Darfo and Johnny looked at one another – surely there was something going on between those two, “Tee, hee, hee!”

“Right, let’s get down to business, this time it’s not just a social call!”

“I can see that,” said St. Peter, pointing to the sleighs outside the palace gates. “What can I do for you?”

“Well this year is quite unusual... there’s one particular gift that is at the top of every child’s wish list!”

“Well I don’t make toys, you know…” said St. Peter, shrugging his shoulders and licking his lips at the sight of the candy floss. Ooh great butterflies, he could just eat some of that!

Martha and Darfo grinned at one other. There was a very good reason for supplying him with super-duper ultra-high-quality candy floss all year round... and for stopping those deliveries just a few days ago!

“Well no, I wasn’t talking about toys, I was talking about...”

“Come on, spit it out!” the Chief Weather Maker urged impatiently, glancing back and forth between the candy floss and his visitors.

“Oh well, okay... we’re here to collect a guaranteed white Christmas off you!”

St. Peter looked up in shock and fidgeted about in his chair… until Mother Hulda lovingly squeezed his hand under the table.

“Oooh!” thought the butterflies, being small enough to be able to see under the table. They opened their eyes wide: “Caught them!!!”

“But...but...but...but... you know I can’t promise that!” stammered St. Peter.

Santa, however, signalled to him with his eyes that there are ways and means of doing everything.