When Evie moves to a new house on Christmas Eve she’s worried Santa won’t be able to find her. Can a last-minute letter to Santa save the day?
Evie stood on the driveway of their new home with her Dad Max. They each had an enormous bag of shopping, full of potatoes and carrots, cranberry sauce, yucky Brussels sprouts (which Dad had put in and Evie had tried unsuccessfully to take out) and best of all a big turkey under Dad’s arm.
‘So, what do you think of the house?’
Evie thought carefully. It was a very nice house, with a pretty red front door and a neat little garden at the front. Beyond that was a big slope covered in snow that Evie was already planning to sledge and slip and slide down all holiday.
‘I like it,’ Evie said.
‘Good, me too. And your room here is much bigger than your old room.’
Evie jumped up to ring the doorbell and a moment later her other dad; Daddy Tom, answered the door. He was wearing a blue woolly hat and a Christmas jumper with a bright green cracker on the front.
‘Hey! Here’s my happy shoppers,’ Daddy said excitedly.
Evie ran into the lounge expecting to see their usual Christmas tree all lit up and the blue fairy sitting with her wand at the top of the tree.
But there were no lights, no fairy, not even a tree. And no tree meant there weren’t any presents sitting underneath, nor any colourful tinsel and no stockings hung up either.
Instead, there were lots and lots of boxes. They were boring brown cardboard moving boxes. Each of them had been written on in Daddy’s big loopy handwriting saying things like ‘kitchen’ and ‘clothes’ and ‘office’. Not a single one of them was wrapped up and none of them looked like presents
‘Oh,’ Evie said sadly.
‘What’s wrong?’ Daddy asked.
‘I thought the tree would be up, with the fairy, and the lights and the stockings.’
Her daddies both had worried looks on their faces.
‘Well, this Christmas things might have to be a little different. We didn’t think we’d be moving on Christmas Eve and I’m not sure we’ll find all the decorations in time, ‘ said Daddy.
Evie wasn’t sure she liked the big new house after all, even though it had a pretty red door and a slope perfect for sledging. It really would be nice to have a big new room, but right now she’d be happy with her own little room if it meant they could have a proper Christmas.
Then suddenly Evie had a horrible thought. They hadn’t planned to move before Christmas, it had all been very quick and very hurried.
‘Oh no,’ Evie said. ‘Santa won’t know I’m here. When I wrote my letter I didn’t tell him we were moving. Then last week I had my letter from Santa and it came to the old house. He won’t know we’ve moved.’
‘We’ll write Santa another letter,’ Dad said. It’s still early and his elves will be looking out for any last-minute changes. We’ll send it from this chimney and then he’ll know where you are!’
‘And while you and Dad are doing that I’ll see what decorations I can find,’ Daddy said, as he pointed at the big pile of brown boxes.
Evie pulled some colouring pens from her little purple backpack and Dad found her a big sheet of paper. She started her letter ‘Dear Santa’ and told him all about their new house so the reindeer could find it. Then she added that she hoped Santa would still be able to come, as so far they had no presents and no stockings and no fairy on top of a tree and it was looking like a very sad Christmas for all of them.
When she finished her letter she handed it to Dad and he folded it up and blew a magic kiss on to the paper before putting it in the new fireplace.
‘What now?’ Evie asked.
‘Well, now we have to wait,’ Dad said. ‘But you can’t watch your letter, as if Santa sends one of his elves to fetch it they won’t want to be seen.’
‘So what do we do while we’re waiting?’ Evie asked.
‘How about we drive into town? We could look for a tree.’ Daddy said.
It was a good idea. Daddy had been looking in boxes all the time Evie had been writing her letter. He’d found a toaster, Evie’s yellow summer dress, three welly boots, a basketball, four boxes of books and a set of golf clubs, but no decorations.
The town was busy with lots of people doing last-minute Christmas shopping. Evie had to hold both her daddies’ hands so that she didn’t get lost in the crowd. In the middle of the street, there was a big brass band playing carols. Towering over them was a giant Christmas tree with shiny green baubles and pink and yellow lights.
‘Can we get a tree like that?’ Evie asked.
‘Maybe one a little smaller,’ Daddy said laughing.
They looked around the shops trying to find a tree. The first two shops had sold out and it was nearly an hour before Dad found a little plastic tree in a squashed red cardboard box.
‘I’m sorry Evie, I think this is the best we can do.’
Evie picked out some purple tinsel and a box of stripy candy canes and a little pink angel that was nowhere near as nice as their normal fairy.
On the drive home, both her daddies were singing along loudly to the Christmas songs on the radio. Evie knew they were trying to cheer her up but it just wasn’t the same. She missed Christmas in their old home.
When they got back to the house Evie was first through the front door to see if her letter was still in the chimney place.
She didn’t get as far as the chimney before she stopped exactly where she was and looked all around her.
The brown boxes had all disappeared and in their place were all the things from their old home. The bookshelves were standing in the corner full of books, the coats were all neatly hung on the coat rack and the dining table had appeared fully laid for dinner.
Hanging from the chimney was a neat row of red stockings with their names written on in green: Evie, Max, Tom.
Next to the chimney place was an enormous Christmas tree covered in baubles and thick bushy tinsel. On top was the blue fairy and all around the bottom of the tree were shiny red paper presents.
Evie’s letter had gone. Instead, there was another letter in its place, with Evie’s name on it in silvery glittery writing. It was a letter from Santa!
Dear Evie,
Thank you for your letter and for telling me all about your new home. Don’t worry – my reindeer know the way and it’ll be much easier for me now you have that nice big chimney place.
As for your tree, I do hope you’ll like the one Mrs Claus picked out for you – she always chooses ours. And I’ve asked some of my best elves to help your daddies with the unpacking so you can have a lovely Christmas.
Santa
Evie ran back to the door to show her daddies the letter. They were still looking around the room in surprise.
‘Did you…?’ Daddy asked.
‘No.’ Dad said, ‘I was with you both the whole time. And you didn’t?’
‘No, but then who?’ Daddy said.
At this Evie burst out laughing. It was funny how her daddies could be so silly at times.
‘It was Santa of course, I asked him in my letter and now everything is finished, we can have the best Christmas ever.’
And that’s exactly what they did. The next day Evie woke to find that not only had Santa found them, but he had left them lots of lovely presents. Later Daddy cooked the best Christmas dinner anyone had ever had and because there was no unpacking to do they played games and sung songs and watched movies all day long.
We hope you enjoyed our bedtime story. Order your letter from Santa Claus today at www.myletterfromsantaclaus.com
Story by Nick Frampton © www.framptonbooks.com
Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash
