It was Christmas Eve and Jack was filled with nervous excitement. He had been four years old when he’d first heard about Santa Claus and his special toy delivery service. Now he was ten, but ever since that time he’d wanted to see what Santa looked like. He couldn’t think about anything else, his mind filled with thoughts about the jolly, rosy cheeked chimney climber.
Some people had told Jack that Santa has a very large tummy, a curly white beard, ruby red trousers and a jumper. They mentioned snowy white fur around his cuffs and the edge's of his trousers. They also said he wore emerald green gloves and a floppy, red hat which has a fluffy, white pom-pom on the end. Other people told him that nobody knows what Santa really looks like. This is because no one has ever seen him delivering presents on Christmas Eve as they are fast asleep in the land of dreams.
Soon it was evening and darkness had settled outside, the sky filled with sparkling stars. Jack was trying to hatch a plan so that he could find out for himself what Santa looked like.
‘If Santa only comes at midnight, when people are asleep, what will happen if I’m not asleep?’ he thought as he stared out of the sitting room window, ignoring the television on the other side of the room.
‘Come on Jack, time for bed. Santa will be coming tonight,’ called his mother from the kitchen. ‘I’ve left some mince pies out for him and some carrots for the reindeer.’
Jack switched off the TV and ran upstairs to bed, but he didn’t go to sleep. He stayed awake for hours reading, listening to his stereo, playing with his action man toys, and then finally slipped into bed to relax. Once in the comfy warmth he got sleepier and sleepier, and after a short while he dozed off.
Jack was woken suddenly when he heard a loud rustling sound from a downstairs room, and he decided to get out of bed and investigate.
He slowly crept downstairs. He slunk along the hallway towards the sitting room door. His heart beat quickly as he approached. Then, as the room came into view, Jack gasped in wide-eyed shock.
Standing before the fireplace was a man with a very large tummy, a curly white beard, ruby red trousers and a jumper with snowy white fur around his cuffs and the edge's of his trousers, emerald green gloves and a floppy hat with a white pom-pom on the end.
Jack’s gasp was so loud that the man turned and looked at him. Jack thought he was going to shout at him, but the old man smiled and waved.
‘Well hello, little boy. What’s your name?’ asked the man. ‘I’m Santa Claus, but don’t tell anyone you’ve seen me.’
‘I’m Jack and…’ Jack looked at him in amazement. ‘…You’re Santa Claus!’ he exclaimed.
‘I most certainly am,’ Santa replied. ‘What would you like this Christmas?’ he asked with a smile.
Jack thought about the question for only an instant. ‘A magical adventure, please,’ said Jack, his eyes gleaming.
Santa thought for a while. ‘Well, why not come along with me for the night? You can see my little elves, my reindeer Rudolph, my workshop, and, most of all, you will be the first person in the whole world to ride in my sleigh, pulled by my other reindeers Prancer, Dancer, Vixen, Comet and two others, but I can't remember their names.’ He put his finger to his lips thoughtfully and then shook his head. ‘No, I can’t recall their names at all. It’s old age,’ he whispered with a grin.
‘That would be brilliant,’ Jack replied, ‘but how am I going to get to the sleigh? I can’t climb chimneys,’ said Jack
Santa Claus whistled twice and a huge candy cane dropped down from the chimney.
‘Well, hop on and we’ll be pulled up.’
Jack sat on the gummy seat and waited while Santa Claus put a pile of multi-coloured presents under the Christmas tree. Then the pair of them put on seatbelts of cola flavoured lace’s and zoomed up the chimney to the roof without a single speck of soot getting on their clothes.
Jack nearly fell back through the chimney when he came face to face with a beautiful brown reindeer with an astonishingly shiny red nose, the sight giving him quite a shock.
‘Rudolph!’ Jack said, smiling at him just as Santa Claus caught him from falling with his large hands.
Jack soon found himself flying above New York in Santa’s sleigh, his team of reindeer pulling them across the clear night sky as stars sparkled above and they sped away from the vast city.
After a while they landed with a bump and Jack saw lots and lots of snow all around them as far as the eye could see.
‘Where are we?’ Jack asked
‘The North Pole of course.’
‘There isn’t anything here!’ shouted Jack as he noticed Santa was already trekking across the icy snow.
The portly old man came to a halt and Jack had caught up with him.
‘Rubble, rubble, rubble, bubble, bubble and bubble, don’t start causing me lots of trouble,’ Santa said in a loud clear voice.
As soon as he had said the words a pile of snow was blown away by a sudden wind and a green door with a red candy cane across it was revealed.
The door opened and they entered, walking into a bright workshop where a little elf greeted Jack. ‘Hello, what’s your name? Mine is Twinkle Toes, everyone makes fun of me because they think it’s a bit of a girl’s name,’ said the elf in a whisper, looking a little sad.
‘I think it’s a… well… a nice name’, struggled Jack.
‘Really? Why thank you,’ said Twinkle Toes.
‘Would you do me a big favour, Jack, and make some more toys?’ Santa asked.
Jack was gob smacked. ‘I don’t know how to make toys,’ he said worriedly.
‘Twinkle Toes will help you. He’s an expert toy maker, even if his name is a bit girly,’ chuckled Santa with a ‘ho, ho, ho.’
After an hour, Jack had made all sorts of toys with the help of the little elf. Together they’d made Action men, Barbie’s, teddies and lots more.
Santa then said that it was time to go home and Jack was disappointed because he’d had the greatest time of his life and really didn’t want to leave.
Santa then settled down in a comfy chair and started reading a book.
‘Aren’t you taking me home?’ asked Jack in surprise.
‘No, you’re going to ride Rudolph to your home. I need to put my feet up for a while before I head off to do some more present delivering. It’s old age again,’ said Santa with a large smile.
‘Thank you for everything,’ said Jack.
‘It’s been my pleasure. Take care, Jack, and enjoy the rest of Christmas.’
‘And you Mr. Claus.’
‘Call me Santa,’ said the jolly old man.
Jack was grinning from ear to ear as he left the workshop and walked out into the snowy North Pole. He got on Rudolph’s back and then zoomed off home. He saw the beautiful, snow covered landscape and all the houses rushing by beneath them and wished he could have stayed with Santa longer, though he felt very, very lucky to have had such a wonderful adventure.
Rudolph landed very heavily and Jack fell off his back and landed in his dad’s muddy cabbage patch. Jack waved to Rudolph and ran into his house and back upstairs to bed.
Jack felt so excited about opening his presents in the morning that he never noticed the mud on his otherwise spotless pyjamas, but when the morning of Christmas day came his mum did. She asked him about the muddy marks and so Jack told his parents the wonderful story of his great Christmas adventure.

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