Okay, it’s possible I may have gone a wee bit political on this one… Canadian politics, eh? It’s a snowy business.
This Just…In
The elves were in a jam. Santa’s reign as head elf had been long, and he’d become a jerk. He fought hard to keep the top job, jousting and jeering jealously. Slowly, any justice leached away, leaving a jelly-bellied Jabba running the show.
In the workshop, production values were a joke. Junior elves were denied their hats and personal jewellery. Workshop elves making science kits were junked and told not to jabber about it. Elves drawing picture books and creating toys felt joyless. The right side of the workshop jettisoned toy-making altogether. They clearcut all the trees, and shipped them off to outsource cheaper labour.
Worldwide, people began to look at Santa’s workshop differently. Jibes came in so thick and fast, jaded letter elves started burying mail in the snow. This worked, at least until the snow started to melt.
Unseasonably.
After years of jumbled disorganization, a junior elf in a workshop to the left began to speak out. It’s time, he said, to shake up the status quo. We need to jolt this elf off the shelf.
The son of a former Santa himself, the elves on the right jeered at his joie de vivre. But he jested and jollied everyone so much, they joined together and somehow successfully sent sad Santa on his sunny way. Shouts of jubilation echoed around the world as the elves jump-started the joy back into the North Pole.
And on the workshop door, a notice went up:
This Just…in.
There’s a jazzy new elf in town.
The North Pole is back!
Joyeux Noel!
***
For the month of December, my goal is to post a piece of festive flash fiction here to the blog every day. Twenty-five stories, each 250 words or fewer — a little fictional festivity to brighten the darkest month of the year. For readers, I offer these stories as a moment of peace within a hectic month of busy. And writers? If you’d like to join me, I’ll feature any flash fiction you’d like to share!
More soon…
~kc