Story Hour
Nicker Helps Santa
Written by Gene B. Williams
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And all through the lake
Not a creature was stirring
Not even a snake
But one creature was stirring, thank goodness.
It has been a warm winter. While that’s nice for some, it means that the ice on the lakes isn’t quite as thick. You have to be careful!
Santa had his sleigh loaded heavy with toys and other presents. He landed on a small lake … I’m not sure just one, but maybe you know. It could have been near you. Maybe you saw the marks in the ice?
Anyway, Santa landed on this lake. I guess he had to look at a map. Maybe he wanted another cup of hot cocoa. I’ve heard that reindeer like cranberries almost as much as do sea dragons. Whatever the reason, Santa set down on the ice.
There was a crack. And a creak. The ice broke. A sleigh runner went through the ice.
“On Donner. On Blitzen …” Santa said.
The reindeer pulled. The runner just went deeper into the ice.
Santa got out and pushed from behind (imagine that in your imagination!) but it didn’t help.
Santa was in quite a fix. A fix that needed a fix, if you know what I mean.
Oh, how strange it would be to be a sea dragon. They may not know much about snow or sliding down a hill (although Nicker learned about that when he went to visit Marci in Michigan). But they know what the bottom of an iceberg looks like! For Nicker, getting a Nicker nose under the St. Nick sleigh was easy.
Lifting that heavy sleigh from the ice was something else.
Nicker put his nose and neck and head beneath the sleigh runner and lifted. Oh, MY, it was heavy. No wonder all those reindeer couldn’t pull it loose. Not even the biggest train or semi-truck can haul toys and presents for all the children, all over the world, all at once. That’s just what Santa’s sleigh was doing!
Nicker put all his strength into it. He pushed and lifted, lifted and pushed. And it was coming loose. Santa saw that he had help from beneath and snapped his whip in the air.
“Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now Prancer and Vixen!”
The reindeer pulled, and Nicker lifted.
Then suddenly, the sleigh began to come loose from the ice. To Nicker it seemed lighter. Oh, it lifted and lifted, not nearly so heavy. Nicker said to himself, “I’m stronger than I thought!” And the sleigh lifted from the ice, higher and higher. It got lighter and lighter. It got so light that it lifted right off Nicker’s nose and continued to lift.
“I AM strong!” Nicker said to himself.
Clear of the ice, Santa leaned back and put a hat on Nicker’s head. It was hat just like the one Santa himself wore. “Thank you for helping, Nicker,” he said. “Thank you for being a Santa’s helper. For this, you get a magic Santa hat. Go and do good for others with it. Spread the magic of Christmas!”
Then with another snap of the whip in the air, Santa called out, “On Comet. On Cupid,” and the sleigh went up into the air. Nicker was still amazed. What strength he had! He’d put his nose under, and pushed with all his might. The sleigh lifted from the ice, and became so light it even lifted from his nose!
(Remember?)
As the sleigh went up into the night’s sky, Santa turned, a big smile on face and said, “Thank you again, Nicker.” He paused a moment and tossed a candy cane. “And thank YOU, Simon!”
As Santa flew off into the sky, Nicker turned and saw his father.
“You were doing great,” he said, with the candy cane in his mouth, “but I thought you needed a little boost.”
No WONDER the sleigh got so light! No WONDER it was so light it lifted right off Nicker’s nose.
“Dad!” said Nicker. “I thought that I was ….”
“I’m Santa’s helper, too,” said Simon, “but you have the hat. What will you do with it?”
Nicker thought for a while. Hmmm, do something good. Do something good?
Do something good!
Nicker had an idea.
As you might suspect, Christmas is very different for sea dragons than it is for you. There are no trees in the sea. Kelp and seaweed, sure, but no trees. Nicker had never seen a Christmas tree until he met Danny. How beautiful! Danny’s tree had shiny bulbs, cookie ornaments, little birds, so many lights … oh, lots of things! And a flashing star on top.
As Nicker and Simon were on their way home, Nicker saw a pine tree. A Christmas tree! To Nicker it seemed lonely. So, he gave his magic Santa hat a little twist. He zoomed around and around the tree. Decorations appeared behind him, just like … guess what … just like Christmas magic!
When he was done, Nicker and Simon stood side by side, just looking.
“People will see this and wonder where it came from,” Simon said with a smile.
“I hope so,” said Nicker with an even bigger smile. He hoped that Danny would see it – and I bet he hoped that YOU would see it.
Who knows. Maybe you have. I’ll give you hint on how you can tell. You see, after Nicker decorated the tree, he was so happy that he plopped down in the snow and wiggled. He made the goofiest snow angel you can imagine. So, if you see a decorated Christmas tree, and a goofy snow angel nearby … that just might be THE tree.
But then … maybe new snow covered the snow angel. The tree you see might be the tree, you see. And I just thought of something else. Maybe you already thought of this.
There’s a lot of magic in a magic Christmas hat. Nicker might have gone on to decorate more trees. He just might have slipped inside homes to leave a special ornament so people would wonder, “Where did that come from?”
What would you do with a magic hat?
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