This is my short story entry for Susannah Leonard Hill’s 4th Annual Holiday Contest. The challenge: write a children’s story (children being defined as approximately age 12 and under) in which wild weather impacts the holidays not to exceed 350 words.
Will Global Warming Cancel Christmas?
Word count: 349
News Flash! Global Warming Has Impacted the North Pole! That’s right folks, the North Pole’s snow fields have melted, leaving nothing but puddles and swamps. Could this mean Christmas will be cancelled?
Calamity! What will Santa Claus do now? He needs a good snow pack in order to launch his sleigh if he’s going to deliver presents to children around the world on time. Will Santa have to cancel Christmas?
Santa called a quick meeting with his top elves and asked them to design a tractor/catapult – a tractapult – that could gather/fling any remaining snow into a single pile which could then be packed into a launch pad.
The elves quickly put together a team of their best toymakers who got right to work designing the tractapult. They tested it, refined it, and tested it some more, until they had a fine-tuned machine.
Heading outside, two elves marked the boundaries for a launch pad. Two more elves drove the tractapult over to the nearest pile of slush. The tractapult scooped up the slush and flung it onto the designated launch pad. They continued on, gathering and flinging any slush they could find until there was none left.
The elves then ran a heavy roller over the slush, packing it firmly into a runway. Oh Dasher! They ran out of slush a few yards short!
Putting on their thinking caps, the elves quickly came up with a new plan. They would wheel their slushy machine outside and squirt slushies onto the end of the launch pad, packing it firm until the runway was long enough.
Jingle bells! Here comes Santa and the reindeer in a sleigh loaded with toys. Santa peered over the sleigh at his elves, who quickly assured him the runway was minutes from being ready.
Lining up the reindeer, with Rudolf in the front, Santa tapped his watch and called out “Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas and away we go!” Zooming down the runway, the sleigh launched into the air with mere inches of slush to spare.
Thanks to teamwork and inspired thinking, Christmas was saved.
Teresa Robeso says
Those are sure quick-thinking elves! I hope they were able to eat the slushies after. 😉
Lynn A. Davidson says
Wow! Who knew how important and versatile slushies really are? 🙂 Cute story.
Alayne Kay Christian says
Perfect solutions! The slushy machine is a great idea. So glad Christmas was saved.
Tina Cho says
Very creative–a tractapult! Glad they saved Christmas!
Johnell says
I want a tractapult. I can think of a lot of kids who’d like that solution. 🙂
Leslie Colin Tribble says
The slushy machine – cute! I also loved the tractaplut – original!
Sylvia Liu says
Nice story – great minds think alike; my story was also a global warming story. The tractapult is a nice idea.
Cecilia says
well done on your story. 🙂
Patricia Tilton says
Great elf-solution for Santa’s lauch! Very original! Good luck!
Susanna Leonard Hill says
Oh my goodness! The tension! The suspense! Thank goodness those quick-thinking elves were able to design and build the tractapult (which I think my son would very much like to have one of those :)) and that they were unselfish enough to donate their slushy machine 🙂 Well done fun story 🙂 Thanks so much for joining in the holiday fun, Kelly!