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“Hum, hum, HUMPH!” Vixen hollered as he lifted two 50kg dumbbells. On the treadmill Blitzen sweated and puffed away training for the Christmas Eve Sleighathon. The days grew shorter and darker. Vixen and Blitzen grew stronger and leaner. Soon all the reindeer were spinning, skipping, lifting and lunging their way to the ultimate Christmas Eve Sleighathon.

Well, all except one.

The heaviest weights Rudolph were lifting were the carrot cream topped mince pies while watching Strictly Come Prancing. Who would put themselves through that torture to win that silly Iron Deer of the Year title? But…watching the other eight strut in with muscles bulging in matching Christmas Lycra kit, Rudolph felt shabby, flabby and alone.

Rudolph joined the gym.

As he made his way over to the smallest weight, Comet sidled over and with a smug grin passed him a massive bar bell. . Rudolph clenched his big teeth as he honkered down…..Snap! Crack! Snap! Back broken. DISASTER!! How were the team ever going to complete their Sleighathon now?

Guess who came to save Christmas? The titchy tiny mice! While all the reindeer had been pumping, crunching (and secretly competing like hell against each other,) the mice had worked kindly together making a genius pulley system that would allow any reindeer to multiply his strength ten times over when attached to Santas’s sleigh!

Rudolph and his pals were so humble and grateful now as they lowered their big muscly knees into the cold, salty snow to allow the wee mice to work their clever magic. The stars twinkled down on Santa beaming over the reindeer and mice working together to get that big sleigh bulging with presents hoisted up. Hum, Hum, HUMPH! Up and away into the night.

Once long ago in a village by the sea,
Lived a girl called Sophie,
Who was as mean as mean could be.

Sophie was 9 years old and lived with her parents in a big red house. Sophie had everything, but still wanted more. Whenever she got gifts she threw them away, whenever people did things for she never said please or thank you.

One Christmas, Santa decided he was fed up with Sophie and came up with a plan. He would send the 12 fairies of Christmas to sort her out!

So, on the 12 days coming up to Christmas eve, Sophie received a fairy visit each night. Some danced and sang, some told stories, and some performed plays - but nothing was enough for Sophie. She kicked them all out. She was mean as mean could be!

The fairies gathered together and agreed that enough was enough. On Christmas Eve morning they visited Sophie and told her that the 13th fairy would be visiting her that night. They told her that he was mean and ugly and that he chased little children and ate them for dinner!

Sophie was terrified. That night, as she lay in her bed shaking, the 13th fairy crept in. Sophie was thinking about all the horrid things he would do to her, but all the 13th fairy did was lean in and whisper something in her ear.

From that day on Sophie became the nicest girl you could ever meet. She shared all her toys and was grateful for any gifts she was given. But to this day, no one ever found out what the 13th fairy whispered.

Once long ago in a village by the sea,
Lived a girl called Sophie,
Who was as nice as nice could be.

Out came the Christmas trees and tinsel as Christmas Day was fast approaching. Tomorrow, the turkeys would be sent off. However, the turkeys had no intention of becoming Christmas dinner. They had a plan.

As the day faded away the turkeys began to assemble. One by one they silently strutted over to the timber gate. It was up to the turkey in front to open the gate. Swift as the wind, the turkey opened the gate. As it swung open it gave a great groan. All the turkeys froze. Fortunately, the night remained silent.

Soon, the team of turkeys were on their way. Their challenge was to get through the town and into the woods. On they strutted, illuminated by the moonlight. Within half an hour the turkeys had made it to the town.

They hesitantly began to waddle into the town. An anxious look had formed on their faces. Who knew what they would meet in here? Yet, they kept moving forward without looking back.

Suddenly, the turkeys came to an abrupt halt. Just ahead of them a light still shone in the butcher’s window. How could they pass without being seen? “If only we could fly like reindeers.” they thought.

Then the turkeys had an ingenious idea. They would disguise themselves! Beside the Butchers was a Joke Shop. Slowly, the turkeys tip-clawed towards it, making sure to stay in the shadows. Methodically, they began to form a turkey-tower. The turkey on top started to peck the lock and soon the door opened. As the turkeys toppled in, they spotted exactly what they needed. Chicken masks!

So the runaway turkeys pulled on their disguises and strode past the butcher’s shop leaving the poor man staring at his eggnog thinking “but I only had one glass!”

It was the 25th of December and Scar had finally seen a deer. He was upset that he wasn’t a white wolf, because they can easily camouflage into the snow, but a grey wolf found other tactics for hunting.

He would camouflage into rocks, or hide behind trees. He hadn’t seen a deer in ages. It had been almost three months, and he would do anything to eat that juicy, delicious, meaty, fat reindeer.

Scar was starving. He knew that this deer was male, because it had antlers. Strangely, it was eating a carrot, and when it finished, it ran towards a glowing red light between the trees.

Scar chased after the deer and was led out of the forest into the city. He didn’t care, he was desperate for this deer, and anyway, all the city folk were fast asleep.

The deer leapt on top of a roof, and when Scar went after it, the red light was blinding. When he got closer he saw nine reindeer, the one at the front had a glowing red nose. They were all connected to a sleigh, and to each other, but the one he was chasing was scrambling into place.

Scar was ready to pounce, when a big man dressed in red and white climbed out of the chimney. He looked at the reindeer that Scar was chasing and said, “Donner! Where did you go? I was worried about you.” He climbed into the sleigh and called, “Rudolph! Lead the way!”

Rudolph neighed at the wolf. Surprisingly, the man looked over and threw Scar a giant wolf dinner (mostly of meat). Then he flew away into the night sky while cheering, “Merry Christmas!”.

She is always there. I don’t think that she has ever really gone, but at Christmas I can feel her more.

She is the one making the baubles smash on the floor when we put up the tree.
She is the one that makes the tangled-up lights not work.
She is the one stealing my advent calendar chocolate.
She is the one eating the raw stuffing before it has been cooked.
She is the one on Christmas night keeping me awake waiting for Santa to come.
She is the one on Christmas morning in tears because it all melts her head, it is all too much.
But she’s not really any of those things….. she is just in my head.

The baubles smash because mummy can’t see the branches properly because she is crying.
The lights are all tangled because they broke last year and we meant to throw them out.
I ate my advent calendar chocolate early because it reminded me of her.
The cats are stealing the stuffing. I wish they would eat the carrots instead.
But She is the one keeping me awake because she does that every night.

Christmas is different now. But it’s still fun. It’s still exciting.
It’s still what it was, but now it’s sad as well because she should be here laughing and annoying and grumping and huffing and singing and playing and kissing and stealing my new toys with mummy and me.

We miss her.
But she is here really.
She is my Christmas spirit.
She is my hope.
But I’m lucky because my spirit doesn’t just stay at Christmas she stays with me every single day of the year.