The Night Santa Was in a Hurry
LEFT ×10 · RIGHT ×11 · about 3 min to read
It was Christmas Eve, and Santa was running late. He grabbed his hat, waved goodbye to Mrs. Claus and ← left the North Pole in such a hurry that one present was ← left behind on the workshop floor.
Pepper, the smallest elf, spotted it right → away. "Oh no!" she cried. "That's the gift for the Miller family!" She looked ← left. She looked right →. Then she jumped into the spare sleigh and flew off after Santa.
The spare sleigh had only one reindeer, a very young one called Sprout, who still mixed up his ← left and his right →. "Turn ← left at the big pine tree!" called Pepper. Sprout turned right →. "Your other ← left!" Sprout spun around twice and finally went the right → way.
Over the snowy town they flew. An owl on a lamppost hooted at them. "Santa? He went ← left at the bakery and then right → at the skating rink," said the owl. "I think. Owls are wise, but it's very dark tonight."
At the bakery, the baker was setting out gingerbread. "Santa? He took one cookie and ← left a thank-you note," she said, and pointed right →. At the skating rink, all the skaters pointed in different directions at once, and one of them fell over.
At last Pepper saw a red hat poking out of a chimney on Holly Lane. Santa was stuck halfway down, with his sack on his ← left shoulder and a plate of cookies in his right → hand. "Pepper!" he laughed. "You're right → on time. Give me a little push, would you?"
Pepper pushed, Sprout pulled, and down Santa went with a soft whoomp. He tucked the lost present under the tree, right → next to the stockings, and climbed back out with soot on his nose. "All right →," he said. "Nobody gets ← left out this year."
And nobody was. Every gift ended up exactly where it belonged – just like the ones going round this circle now. That's the end of the story: everyone now opens the present they're holding!
Santa's New GPS
LEFT ×14 · RIGHT ×15 · about 4 min to read
This year, the elves gave Santa a brand-new GPS for the sleigh. "No more paper maps," they said. "It talks. Just do what it says." Santa wasn't sure. He liked his old map. But he said, "All right →," and ← left for the office party at the Snow Globe Company with a sack full of Secret Santa gifts.
"In two hundred feet, turn ← left," said the GPS in a very calm voice. Santa turned ← left. "Now turn right →." Santa turned right →. "Turn right → again." The reindeer looked at each other. "Turn ← left. Turn ← left. Turn right →." After ten minutes, the sleigh was back exactly where it had started, right → above the North Pole.
"Recalculating," said the GPS. Dasher snorted and looked ← left. Comet rolled her eyes. Rudolph, who was in charge of the lights, quietly switched his nose to "hazard".
Meanwhile, at the Snow Globe Company, the party was ready. There were sandwiches on the ← left side of the table, cookies on the right →, and a big empty space in the middle where the gifts were supposed to go. Dana from Accounting checked the clock. Mo from IT checked the window. "He's never late," said Dana. "Maybe he's stuck in traffic," said Mo. "Up there?"
Up there, the GPS had new ideas. "Keep ← left at the cloud. Take the second star on the right →. You have arrived." Santa looked down. He had arrived at a lighthouse. A seagull looked back at him, unimpressed.
"That's it," said Santa. He pulled the old paper map out of his right → boot, turned it the right → way up and traced the route with his ← left thumb. "Straight on, ← left at the bridge, right → at the big glowing snow globe on the roof. Easy."
Five minutes later, the sleigh landed on the office roof with a gentle bump. Santa climbed down the fire escape, knocked on the window and waved with his ← left hand, holding the sack in his right →. Everyone cheered. "Sorry I'm late," he said. "My GPS ← left me in the middle of nowhere."
"Right →," said Mo, who had a sense of humor, and handed him a plate. "Sandwich?" Santa took one from the ← left, a cookie from the right →, and then handed out the gifts, one for every person in the room, until the sack was empty.
The GPS, ← left behind in the sleigh, said one last thing to nobody at all: "You have reached your destination." And for once, it was right →.
That's the end of the story – everyone now opens the present in their hands!