The Cat That Saved Christmas
by Les Robinson

THE CAT THAT SAVED CHRISTMAS

By Les Robinson

The story started one Christmas eve, long, long ago. Santa was making his deliveries and it was easier for him back then. Almost every house had a chimney and he had no need for magic to make a chimney appear, its all the magic he needs nowadays that makes the job that much more tiring. But enough of that, let me get back to the story.

   On that Christmas eve Santa was almost finished with delivering presents, he had been down more chimneys than he could count and was looking forward to getting home and having a nice long sleep, a very long sleep indeed as Santa goes to bed for a whole week when he finishes delivering presents on Christmas eve.

   When Santa went down the last chimney he was already getting very tired and he did not see the furry little creature that had got stuck in a little hole half way up that chimney, and he didn’t see that little creature, who was quite frightened, reach out for him as he passed, nor did he feel the bump when it missed him and fell down into his sack which was slung, open, across his back.

   As usual, when Santa reached the bottom of the chimney and stepped into the room, the presents for the children in that house lifted out of the sack by magic and flew over to the Christmas tree. Santa helped himself to the milk and mince-pie that had been left for him, then, making sure all was ok, he made his way back up the chimney to his sleigh.

   Once back in the sleigh he gave a pull on the reins saying “c’mon boys, lets get home”, and the reindeer sped off into the sky for their last flight of the year, whilst behind Santa, unseen, the sack moved a little, its passenger caught inside and trying to find the way out.

   Santa’s reindeer fly high, and they fly fast, so it was less than an hour later when the sleigh touched down outside Santa’s huge workshop next to the north pole, the magic dome above it and the Elves village, hiding all from the outside world.

The reindeer dragged the sleigh inside the big stables where the reindeer were taken out of their harnesses and led to the big pile of carrots that waited for them - Santa’s reindeer love carrots - at the same time Santa picked up his sack from the sleigh and went to the large hall where the elves were waiting for him.

   Once in the hall he went up to the raised stage and, putting his sack down beside him, asked for quiet.

   “Quiet please, quiet please” shouted the head elf, and the room fell silent

   "Well” Santa said “I want to thank all of you for such hard work this year”

   He paused as a few cheers were heard from some of the elves, then continued

   “It seems that every year there are more children to visit, and every year more presents to make, but every year you manage to make all the presents we need. I really think that …” Santa’s voice tailed off as the elves nearest to him started whispering to each other excitedly, pointing to his sack.

   Frowning, Santa looked down at his feet and saw his sack, which was supposed to be empty, moving around. He realised that there must be something inside and so he carefully and gently opened it up.

   Tail up, blinking in the sudden light and purring contentedly, out walked a little ginger kitten, a kitten that was very pleased indeed to be out of that dark sack, but a kitten that was also both hungry and thirsty.

The little kitten looked up at Santa and miowed, Santa looked down at it and smiled, and that’s where it all began.

   Santa named the little kitten Harold, and Harold grew up to be a lovely big, but mischievous, cat. He would attack the elves shoelaces, curl up on the reindeers bedding and hiss at them if they tried to lay down, he would also try to drink the elves hot chocolate when he could, but most of the time he was good and his favourite place to be was laid next to Santa, or at least somewhere near to him.

   The magic at the North pole can do some strange things, it makes the sky twinkle with strange lights, reindeer fly, people and animals get cleverer, and it takes a lot lot longer to get old. This is why, many years later, Harold was still as energetic as he had been when he first came to the North pole.

   Now Santa has a secret and this secret is why he can take toys to all the children in the world in one night and with just a small sack, you see, Santa has a pocket watch. Oh its not a normal watch of course, oh no, its not normal at all. This watch was made especially for Santa by his elves, and not his normal elves - the ones who make the toys - no, no, this was made by the oldest, cleverest and most magical elves there are.

   This magical pocket watch has a number of special buttons, and it is these buttons that made Christmas possible. When Santa pressed the top button, time slowed down for everyone except elves and Santa, or anyone who Santa was right next to. It was this that allowed Santa to deliver presents to all the children in the world in just one night.

Now the top button was very important, but the button next to it was almost as important. You see, the elves use their magic to shrink every present until it’s no bigger than an eggcup, but even with this there are far too many presents to fit into Santa’s sack or even on his sleigh, so Santa actually only takes a few presents with him when he leaves the North pole. He can do this because of the second button.

   When Santa’s sack is empty, he presses the second button and presents disappear from the giant sack, where they are stored at his workshop, and appear in his sack. No matter how many times the button is pressed only enough presents to fill his sack arrive.

   The third button on his watch is also important. Nowadays many houses do not have big fireplaces, and sometimes they do not even have chimneys, so Santa uses this third button. When pressed this button makes a chimney and fireplace magically appear so that Santa can get into the house and leave his presents.

   So you see, Santa’s watch is very, very important. Being so important, Santa has it attached to his red coat by a thin golden chain, a very old golden chain which has been there for many years indeed. Now Santa is very careful with things, and things last for a very long time around him, which is why he had never really bothered to check the chain, if he had he would have noticed that it had worn very thin indeed and perhaps the trouble would never have happened.

   It was Christmas eve and everyone at the North pole was busy, the elves were putting all the toys they had made into the giant sack so that Santa could make them appear in his sack whenever he needed to, Mrs Santa was cooking lots of food for Santa’s dinner and for the elves party, whilst Santa was dashing about everywhere, checking the sack, seeing to the reindeer, drinking hot chocolate, and getting into his usual panic.

   Harold did not get involved, he was too busy sleeping in Santa’s coat, which was laid out on Santa’s bed along with the rest of his Christmas eve clothes. The coat was very warm and Harold was very comfortable, it was lovely he thought, and he stretched out, digging his claws into the coat as he did so.

   This was where the problem started, although Harold would never admit it. You see one of his claws slipped between the links of a very old gold chain, and when he flexed his paw, digging his claws into the coat, one of the links on that chain split. It didn’t break, not then anyway, but that chain was not going to hold any weight, especially the weight of a very special watch.

   Harold was just settling back down when he heard a loud but kindly voice

   “Oh Harold!, not sleeping on my coat again?”

   Santa shooed Harold off the bed and dressed into his warm Christmas eve clothes, with the watch pushed part way into its little pocket, and he did not notice the damaged chain. In a hurry as usual, Santa strode over towards the reindeer stables, whilst the watch slowly worked its way out of the pocket until it fell loose, swinging on its old chain, the chain that was ready to break.

   Harold sauntered along after Santa, sulking over the loss of his warm bed but he went along with Santa every Christmas eve, even if he did sleep through most of the night. The next two hours saw Santa and the elves rushing here and there, making sure everything was ready for the nights work.

   Harold meanwhile had found the sleigh and settled into the comfortable seat next to Santa’s, the comfortable seat on which Santa’s travel rug lay. Santa did not use it, but he had been given it by Mrs Santa Clause and so it always went on the sleigh. Knowing it would be there, Harold had done his usual trick of sneaking underneath it, curling up, and going back off to sleep.

   It was for this reason that Harold missed the first part of the panic, panic that started when Mrs Santa Clause came over to wish Santa a good trip, panic that started when she looked at Santa’s tummy and said

   “Oh dear, your little chain is broken, you’ll have to be careful tonight with your watch”

   Santa looked down with a horrified expression and quickly reached into the little pocket where he kept the watch, a little pocket that he found was EMPTY!.

   “The watch, we must find the watch!, I have to leave in just over ten minutes, if we can’t find the watch Christmas will have to be cancelled!” 

   As Santa panicked the elves started to rush around, looking in the snow outside, the toy room, workshop and anywhere they could remember Santa going that day, even Santa’s travel rug was swept aside by a frantic elf, much to Harold’s disgust.

   Harold didn’t panic, even the reindeer were milling around in confusion, but Harold didn’t panic, cats are relaxed by nature and Harold was a very relaxed cat indeed. Now of course Harold didn’t know why everyone was in a panic, he was a cat after all, even if he was a very clever one, but he could see that Santa was unhappy about something.

   Now even for a cat, Harold was very good at some things, and noticing shiny objects was one of them. So Harold saw that Santa was distressed, and he noticed that the shiny thing Santa kept with him was not there. He thought for a moment then came to a conclusion, Santa was unhappy because he had lost his shiny toy that made a ticking noise.

   Harold was mischievous, but he was also very kind. Santa had lost his toy so Harold decided he had better try to find it for him, after all, elves and Santa were all so much taller than Harold, so they were probably not as good as finding things as he was, he thought to himself.

   So Harold first sauntered around the sleigh, but could not see the shiny toy, then he walked off towards the reindeer to look there. Meanwhile the watch lay where it had rolled after falling out of Santa’s pocket, and on it the timer showed just nine minutes remaining, nine minutes until Christmas would have to be cancelled.

   Now reindeer are not the cleverest of animals, oh they can fly, yes indeed, but they are not much use when it comes to looking for things. So whilst they knew that something was wrong, all they were doing was milling around in their stable, stamping their feet, bumping into each other and grumbling. The first thing that happened when Harold went in there was that he almost got stepped on.

   Now Harold wasn’t best friends with the reindeer, but he thought being almost stepped on was a little unfriendly, so he hissed at the culprit and quickly moved to the side out of danger. For once the reindeers stable was quite tidy - reindeer can be very messy you see - and it did not take Harold long to realise that Santa’s watch was not there, so, with tail high, Harold went back outside to continue looking.

   Time for Santa was starting to run out because the watch was now showing just 7 minutes left until Christmas had to be cancelled. The elves were looking everywhere they could think of, Santa was looking, even Mrs Santa Clause was looking, but no one could find that watch.

   By this time Harold was walking slowly through the workshop. He was not rushing - cat’s as a rule take everything easy except eating food - but he was looking carefully and investigating everything he thought looked shiny enough. Unfortunately the watch was still nowhere to be seen.

   Not having found anything in the workshop, Harold went outside. He walked slowly and carefully through the snow, Harold did not like snow, it was cold and he would much rather be sleeping on a warm bed, but Santa was nice to him and so he braved the cold, just for Santa.

   On Santa’s lost watch the timer changed from five minutes down to four, four minutes before Santa would have to cancel Christmas, four more minutes until every boy and girl in the world would have to wake up on Christmas day and find that Santa had not been with their presents.

   All the elves were now gathered around Santa’s sleigh, all crying and weeping as no-one had found the watch. Santa climbed up into the sleigh and stood up to talk to his elves

   “My elves, my friends, for countless years we have made Christmas special for the children of the world, never have we missed a Christmas, until now…”

   As Santa started to talk to his elves, Harold was halfway between the workshop and Santa’s house. He was cold and he was unhappy, so he had decided to go back inside and curl up somewhere warm. As he was walking the sun came out from behind a cloud and, off to Harold’s right, something glinted in the sudden light.

   Harold strolled over to have a look and saw a thin piece of gold chain laying there. Harold was clever, but he was only a cat, and since he remembered Santa usually had something like this on his coat, he decided that this would be enough to make Santa happy again.

   Very gently Harold took the piece of chain in his mouth and pulled .The chain did not come loose, so he tried harder still. This time it started to move, slowly sliding out of the snow.

   Back at the sleigh, Santa was finishing his speech and everyone was looking very unhappy

   “So I am very sad to have to tell you all that Christmas is now cancelled, I don’t know if any children will believe in us at all by next Christmas, so it seems to me that we will all have to find something else to do, no more presents for the children ever again…” Santa stopped speaking as he heard a loud MIOW! By his feet.

   He looked down to see Harold, tail high and now purring loudly, standing by his feet with a piece of gold chain in his mouth. This would have made him smile normally, but this time Santa gave a whoop of joy, you see, still attached to the broken chain, was SANTA’S WATCH!!.

   Santa reached down and picked Harold up, giving him a big kiss just above Harold’s nose, which Harold found most embarrassing, then Santa held up the watch and shouted 

   “Quick! Bring the reindeer, Harold has saved Christmas”

   On the watch just two seconds were left when Santa took the reins and shouted

   “On Comet, on Cupid, on Prancer, on Vixon……”

   The sleigh shot off into the sky and, next to Santa, Harold slipped under the travel rug and curled up. The cat that had saved Christmas was about to get back to sleep.