Dont' forget to look at Santa's favourite toy.
The next Christmas Eve Nicholas did not have such an easy time making his rounds of the village. To begin with, he was considerably amused and rather dismayed to discover that instead of one embroidered bag for each house, the children had followed little Frederick’s example and had each put out a woollen stocking. So with some families having five or six children, there was often quite a row of stockings nailed to the door. Of course Nicholas couldn’t very well just put one toy in each stocking as it made the rest of it look so flat and empty. Since he hadn’t stocked his sleigh with enough toys so that there would be several for each child, he found himself with an empty sleigh, and only half way through his list!
“Luckily I have an extra supply of toys at home in the chest,” he said to his horse Lufka as they returned to the cottage for more. Nicholas quickly loaded up the sleigh and off they went again to finish the rounds. When there were only a few houses left to visit, the tired old horse began to falter. “Come on old boy,” encouraged Nicholas, but Lufka was getting too old to spend all night struggling around the village, and this particular night he had made two trips. As he plodded through a deep snow bank Lufka stumbled and the sleigh slid into a ditch. Crack! went one of the runners. Nicholas climbed down and after making sure that his horse was alright, shook his head at the sight of the disabled sleigh.
Nicholas had to finish his rounds on foot that Christmas and the first pink streaks of dawn were brightening up the sky when he and Lufka finally returned to the cottage, Nicholas, fat and rosy, puffing heavily, while poor Lufka dragged his tired old bones straight to the stable door.
For many days after that disastrous Christmas eve, the villagers heard sounds of sawing and hammering coming from Nicholas’ wood shed. They wondered what he was building, and whenever anyone asked him what it was he would jokingly say, “Just wait and see.”
The villagers soon forgot their curiosity when an exciting piece of news spread through the village.
“What’s this I hear about the squire, Otto?” Nicholas asked his old friend.
“Ah,” said Otto, puffing away on his pipe. They say things have not gone too well for him over the last few years, so now he’s going to sell some of his land and furniture to pay back the people he owes money to. The sale is tomorrow, so why don’t you come up with us Nicholas?”
“Now what would I be wanting to buy from the squire? I don’t need any more land and I can make furniture every bit as good as any he has in the house. As a matter of fact I made some of it.”
“What about his animals?” asked Otto. “He has two fine horses and a team of reindeer.”
“That’s true,” said Nicholas, finally interested enough to put down his work. “Lufka is too old to be of much help to me now. I think I will go up there with you tomorrow and see some of the excitement.”
The next morning the squire’s house and surrounds thronged with eager people. Some had come to buy while others just to watch or be nosy. Nicholas strode past the horses straight to the stables where the reindeer were kept. “He’s after Donner and Blitzen,” the men whispered to each other. “He’s always admired the way they go so fast.”
The squire, now a bent old man with a worried look on his face, seemed somewhat bewildered by all the people talking about his house and possessions. When Nicholas showed his interest in the two reindeer he replied sternly, “Well you can’t have Donner and Blitzen alone. The set of reindeer go together or not at all. Why Donner would go raving mad if she was separated from the rest of her family.”
“Family!” exclaimed Nicholas. “But Squire I only need two reindeer. How many more...?” Eventually Nicholas weakened and became the proud owner of not two, but eight prancing reindeer, Donner and Blitzen, the mother and father with their six children, Dasher and Dancer, Comet and Cupid, Prancer and Vixen.
This year Nicholas was planning for a bigger and better Christmas Eve than ever before and worked day and night to finish the toys. Finally the great night arrived. Nicholas finished tying the eight reindeer to each other with a harness bright with jingling silver bells. He slowly backed them up to the wood shed door, which he proudly opened, disclosing a most beautiful sight. There stood a bright, shining red sleigh, trimmed with silver stripes, the runners curving up in the front to form a swan’s head, the back roomy enough to hold toys for children of several villages. Nicholas guided the reindeer into the shafts and climbed up onto the high seat, so beautifully padded with cushions made of soft doe skin. He took out of its holder, a long shiny black whip, cracked it in the cold air, and they were off. That night the villagers were woken from their sleep by a merry jingling of silver bells, the stamp of reindeer’s hooves on the hard snow and the sharp crack of a whip. They peeked out from behind their curtains and saw by the white light of the moon, a shinning red sleigh drawn by eight prancing reindeer whose flying hooves moved as fast as lightning. Perched high up in the seat, snapping a long whip with one hand and guiding the reindeer with the other was a large round man, dressed in a belted red tunic trimmed with white fur, baggy trousers stuffed into high black boots and a close fitting red stocking cap which flew in the wind. Of course they weren’t close enough to see his face, but one and all, as they returned to their warm beds murmured kindly, “That’s Nicholas on his way to the children. God bless him.”
Dont' forget to look at Santa's favourite toy.