Your work

Santa Snores
by
Lauren, age 11.

I was the first person to meet Santa Claus himself. You want to know why? Well, I’m about to tell you…

It was a cold night and I couldn’t get to sleep. When I finally did, I woke up, hearing something. Go back to sleep I thought It’s probably Maxi. Maxi’s my older brother. He snores lots! I have a younger sister (Imogen) and older sister (Carly) which puts me bang in the middle. Anyway, I went through to check Maxi and he was awake; playing video games, as per usual. So I went through to Carly. She lay, elegantly, on her pillow, reading. Worse luck, I went to see Imogen. She was sucking her thumb, as usual, awake. I noticed mum and dad were reading as well. It could be the dog, Phoebe. Probably not, though. I guessed it wasn’t and I was right. She was drinking her water. Oh, help! Who could it be! I thought again. I wouldn’t tell mum or dad. They’d just say “Don’t be silly, Eve, there is nothing you should be concerned about on the roof!” So I didn’t tell them. I went downstairs and listened for a moment. I heard the sound again so I went to see Carly.

“Hey, Evie, c’mon, come sit with me!” Carly burst as I walked in.

“No, I can’t, look, Carly, there’s something on the roof. I can hear it!” I said quietly. Carly’s face turned from happy smiles to serious. She pulled on her pink dressing gown and slipper boots and marched downstairs. She heard it too.

“Oh, no, Evie, what could it be?!” So she ran and got Maxi and mum and dad. They all heard it too.

“Should we call the police?” Mother fretted.

“No, that’ll put us in the papers.” Maxi said, dully.

“Well what should we do?” Mother worriedly said.

“Stop; I know what to do!” Everyone turned to look at me.

“We go outside and dad hoists the ladder to see what it is!” Everyone nodded, except dad, of course; he hates heights. So Maxi went up instead.

“Holy moly, you guys should see this! It’s a big red blob! Hang on, I’ll bring it down!” Maxi disappeared then reappeared with a huge red blob. He shoved it own the ladder and it landed with a thud. The thing sat up.

“OOUCH, WHAT WAS THAT?!” It sat up. Mother screamed and hid behind dad, who stood paralysed with fright. Carly stood next to Maxi (who had come down eventually) and clutched his arm. I was very brave and went up to him.

“Hello, sir, we are very sorry for your fall. Tell me, what were you doing on out roof, Mister Red-Suit?” Everyone was staring at me now.

“My name is Mr Claus and I fell asleep on your roof while trying to get through your too-small chimney!” He laughed. Carly’s eyes widened; the exact same as everyone else’s (except mine).

“Y-You mean you’re Santa Claus?” Carly stepped forward. She has never believed in Santa at all; neither did Maxi or mum or dad but I had (and still do) full belief in him. He nodded and sighed.

“I need to deliver all of the presents but I fell asleep for quite some time. Will you-,”

“Help you? Oh, no, Mr Claus, it is very late at night and-,”

“Oh, mum, dad, please can we?” I begged them. Santa looked hopefully at them. Mum sighed. It was a done deal. We were helping Santa Claus.

It took us a while to pack everything into the sleigh and tie up the reindeer (Rudolph is actually black nosed, if you must know!) and we, eventually, set off. He told us the tale of how he met ‘the beloved’ Mrs Claus. It was a very long story and I fell asleep through it. I woke up and we were at my best friend, Natalya’s, house. Santa tip-toed out of the sleigh and disappeared down the dark, dark chimney; He came back up ten minutes later with a thumbs up. The next house was Carly’s boyfriend’s house, Rob. She climbed carefully off the sleigh and Santa cast some sort of spell and she disappeared. She came back all pink and flushed, smiling, with her thumbs up. The next house was (of course) Maxi’s. His best pal, Ollie, lived there. He did the exact same and came back frowning, muttering something like “How did he do that?” I was so excited because it was my turn to do a house now. We stopped at my enemy’s, Ally. I’ve hated her all my life. I stepped off the chimney and sighed.

“Sir, why do I have to do Ally’s house?”

“Ah, young girl, this is a lesson for you. Ally likes you but when you went off with Penny, she thought you wouldn’t want her. She wrote to me explaining her situation. Try and like her, Evie, please, she really likes you.” I sighed again.

“All right then, fire away!” I was whirled into a blast of flames. I landed with a thud. I rubbed my back, and the silently stood up. There was a bag of presents at my feet. I picked them up and went over to the tree.

“OK, let’s do this.” I whispered. I put every single present down and appeared on the roof again. I was stunned.

“OK, little ‘un, get back in the sleigh please.”

“Of course, Uncle Santa, can I call you that?”

“No, little ‘un, I’m only here temporarily. Let’s get back to business!” So we flew around my town then left Santa to his other countries. I gave him a huge bear hug and he hugged me back.

“Ah, before I go, I have a little something for the kids!” Santa reaching into his bag and pulled out a ‘3 Bar Make-Up Kit’ for Carly. She squealed with delight, and then he pulled out a horror movie for Maxi. His face lightened, then, finally, he pulled out my gift. I still have it. I’m writing this on it. He got me a laptop.

And that’s how I met Santa and got my dream gift.