You might think that games aren’t real. You might think they don’t come to life. But once upon a time, a game did come to life. It almost ruined Christmas. This is what happened…
This game takes place at the North Pole in Santa’s Factory. From the outside, Santa’s Factory was pretty colorful: It had big candy canes around it, a row of big gumdrops decorated the edge of the house and many windows sealed shut. At the front there was a big gingerbread gate that was also sealed shut. The presents had a habit of wandering away, and it was very important to keep them in. The rooftop of Santa’s factory was piled high with snow. Parked in front, Santa’s sleigh waited to be loaded up for Christmas deliveries.
Inside the factory, there were lots of presents filled with toys. There were also lots of elves lined up in a row in front of a conveyor. They were proud of themselves for finishing all the toys and ornaments in time for Christmas. They had made the PS5s, stockings stuffed with treats, art supplies, teddy bears, toy cars, dog bones, and hats. A few of the elves washed their hands—they had been making the lumps of coal for the naughty children of the world.
“We should have every toy we need to fulfill all the wishlists we received this year,” said an elf to himself. There was a din of many elves talking excitedly with each other in their high elf-ish voices.
All the elves left to go to their giant elf party. Santa slowly walked behind them to go and join them, taking a final look at the stacks of gifts. The day they finished the presents was a day of celebration in the North Pole. They left Santa’s Main Helper in charge of guarding the presents.
As it got later and later, Santa’s Helper got sleepier and sleepier. He didn’t mean to, but he fell asleep right next to the controls for the gingerbread gate. As he slept, he slumped over and his elbow pushed down the button that opened the main gate.
At the stroke of midnight, something magical happened. A present suddenly had eyes that popped open. It stood up, and ran toward the door. Then another present came to life. And another. And another. And another. They ran into the yard and out the open gate. “Free! Free! Free!” they said. The presents ran through the snow, disappearing into the woods.
After running for a while, they came to an old cottage that was almost hidden in the middle of the trees. The cottage was old and worn out. It was also much larger than a normal size cottage, in fact it was giant. There was no smoke coming from the chimney. There were cracks in the grey wall and it had a lot of dirt on it. The yard was just piles of dingy snow. Peeking up above the snow was a doghouse. A couple of the smaller presents tiptoed into the dog house, being careful not to wake up the occupant. The rest found that the backdoor was unlocked and disappeared into the house and started to explore. The back door brought them into the kitchen. Going through a door from the kitchen, they came to the living room. A hallway leading from the living room had a closet, a bathroom and finally a bedroom. Little did they know that off to the left in the garage, a cyclops, who was the owner of the cottage, was gathering wood to build a fire.
“Somebody must live here,” said a big present who seemed to be the leader. “Let’s spread out and find places to hide before they come back.” The presents split up, and a few hid in every room.
Meanwhile…
Back at Santa’s factory, Santa’s Main Helper woke up with a start. He looked around, and something seemed wrong. He noticed that all the presents were gone. He ran into the yard, and the gate was open! “Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! I can’t disappoint Santa! I must get the presents back before the party ends and they realize all the gifts for Christmas are gone! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!”
Fortunately, in the North Pole it always snows, and the presents had left a clear path of footprints leading into the woods. Santa’s Main Helper ran into the factory to grab a bag of coal and a coal launcher and set off into the night.
He went deeper and deeper into the woods, and it got darker and spookier as the trees became bigger, but Santa’s Main Helper was determined to recover the presents. He didn’t want to ruin the year of every good child on Earth! After a long time, he came to the cottage, and the tracks of the presents led inside.
Santa’s Main Helper decided it might be best to sneak around the back. As he walked around the back, he turned his head to the left and right, and everything seemed ok. He approached the backyard and saw the dog house. Inside the dog house, he could hear some presents whispering to each other in their high present voices. As he got closer, he saw that a big grey dog was asleep. A big blob of saliva drooled out of his mouth as he slept. “If you come with me, I’ll give you a treat” said Santa’s Main Helper waving a roll of tape. Present’s love being taped up, and this was irresistible. But as one present was leaping over the sleeping dog, it accidentally landed on the dog’s paw, and he woke up.
Startled, the dog lifted his head for a moment, then went back to sleep. But before the presents made it all the way out, he woke up again and realized something was wrong, and that his presents were escaping!
The presents ran out of the dog house and hid in terror behind Santa’s Main Helper. The dog slowly stepped out of the dog house and looked into Santa’s Main Helper’s soul. Santa’s Main Helper was terrified. He shivered in fear, frozen to the spot. As the dog lunged, Santa’s Main Helper sprang into action and ran, with the presents not far behind. The dog barked and chased them around the yard and tried to bite the slowest present, but Santa’s Main Helper moved to pick it up just in time. Santa’s Main Helper looked around desperately for something to use against the dog and spotted a frisbee. He grasped the frisbee and threw it as far as he could out of the backyard. The big grey dog ran after the frisbee and in a flash Santa’s Main Helper and the presents rushed through the back door and shut it behind them. The dog, with the frisbee in its mouth, ran up and leapt at the door, but he was too late.
They found themselves in the kitchen. There was a big island in the center, holding a bowl of fruit. The bowl was huge, and the fruit was huge, too. Hiding inside the fruit were more presents. Santa’s Main Helper waved his roll of tape and said, “Here presents, here’s a treat for you.” Santa’s Main Helper threw the presents in the fruit bowl a piece of duct tape and stuck it all around them. “Tape, tape!!!!” they didn’t move a single millimeter. Unfortunately, all the taping disturbed the fruit in the fruit bowl. A giant blueberry woke up. Then a huge apple woke up. Then a huge orange woke up.
Santa’s Main Helper took a quick step back in surprise. He was used to magical things like presents, but not magical fruit. The fruits launched themselves at Santa’s Main Helper, rolling across the counter toward him. At first Santa’s Main Helper thought he was a goner, but then the orange—which was so round, and so heavy—lost control and rolled off the edge of the counter. It landed on the floor and that was the end of it.
Santa’s Main Helper saw what the plan could be. As the blueberry and the apple rolled back to their normal position and were preparing for a second round, Santa’s Main Helper ran to the edge of the kitchen island. The apple and blueberry started their second rolling attack, and the blueberry didn’t really notice the elf was luring them to the edge until it was too late. “You’ll never see the last of meeeeee!” cried the blueberry just before it hit the floor. The apple rolled back to its starting position and prepared to attack again. This time, the apple hit the elf. The apple launched off the kitchen island and hit the elf, but was then able to grab onto one of the cabinets by its stem before it hit the floor. The apple climbed back up to the counter, not realizing that the elf had been stunned but survived. As the apple rolled his way back to the fruit bowl, the elf attacked from behind and started pushing him. The apple couldn’t really do anything to stop him, or could he? As the apple was rolling, it knocked the knife holder off the counter. All the knives clattered to the floor. A few moments later, the apple fell off the edge of the counter. “Ahhhhh!!!” cried the apple in terror. He survived the fall but a knife on the floor cut him in two, and he was done. Santa’s Main Helper said, “Ohh, that one must have hurt!”
Santa’s Main Helper climbed off of the kitchen island, traumatized and trembling from what he’d seen. He shoved the presents that had been hiding in the fruit bowl into a big sack, and with shaky legs went into the living room. He looked around and saw a big, black leather couch with a coffee table holding some books and a lamp in front of it. On the wall was a big shelf topped with a tv. Next to it was a vase. He climbed up onto the couch because he saw two presents between the pillows. As he reached toward the presents, he brushed the giant TV remote and heard a “click.”
A voice came from the remote: “You aren’t getting these presents without a fight!” The audio to a horror movie began to play. It sounded like a killer chasing someone. Santa’s Main Helper turned and saw the giant TV was on. Someone appeared on screen and started shooting—at him!
Santa’s Main Helper dodged left, but the shooting followed him. He tried to hide behind the coffee table, but a bullet whizzed past his head.
Santa’s Main Helper reached up and grabbed the remote. “Where’s the off button on this thing?”
“Wahh! Wahhh! Guh-haw-haw” said the remote. “There is no off button!”
While he was holding it, a bullet accidentally hit the remote and made a clean hole all the way through it.
“Nooohhhhh” said the remote, and it was dead.
Santa’s Main Helper grabbed the lamp off the coffee table and put it right in front of him. The next bullet that was shot at Santa’s Main Helper ricocheted off the lamp and hit the TV. The TV went black. “Well, that’s one show that won’t go on!” said Santa’s Main Helper, chuckling to himself. Wearily, he climbed back on the couch and noticed the presents had been eating some movie popcorn. Santa’s Main Helper reached out his hand but the presents said “No! This is our snack!” The elf shoved them presents, popcorn and all, into his big sack. As he was climbing down from the couch, he felt something in his pocket—another bag of popcorn. “I knew they wouldn’t be that mean,” he said.” Munching the popcorn, he opened a door and peered into what turned out to be the garage.
In the garage were a lot of tools. Santa’s Main Helper spotted a toolbox filled with more presents. He says to himself, “OK. I got this.” He stepped cautiously toward the toolbox and softly called to the presents. They ignored him as he got closer and closer. The toolbox was resting on top of a large cabinet, and with a sigh Santa’s Main Helper started to climb up the shelves. What he hadn’t been able to see while he was climbing, was that a giant hammer and wrench had climbed out of the toolbox and were waiting for him. The wrench looked tough as anything and was forged from thick steel. As Santa reached the top of the cabinet, the wrench fell forward. The gap at the top passed over his head and shoulders then pinned his arms to his waist. In a deep voice, the wrench laughed “Ha! I got him, Fred!”
“Fred?” said Santa’s Main Helper.
A massive hammer stepped out of the shadows and said, “Hmmm…is this the new assistant?”
“Don’t be crazy,” said the wrench.
“You’re crazy!” hammer snapped back.
The wrench and hammer started to bicker. Santa’s Main Helper looked around and spotted a bottle that said “hydrochloric acid,” but his arms were pinned to his sides. Santa’s Main Helper sucked in his stomach as much as he could and tried to get an arm loose. “I never should have eaten Santa’s cookies!” he thought to himself. He held his breath and squeezed himself as small as he could…one arm came out of the wrench’s grip! Without distracting the tools, he reached out, grasped the bottle, and pulled it toward him. As he brought the bottle to him, it bumped the wrench and it caught its attention. “You!” said the wrench. “Hammer, hit him on the Head!”
In a flash, Santa’s Main Helper knocked over the bottle and dissolved the wrench’s jaw (the claw part of the wrench). The bottle kept spilling, spreading a puddle on the ground. Santa’s Main Helper leapt aside as the wrench dissolved and the hammer, which had been about to crash down on the elf’s head, fell face first into the acid. “Ahhh!” cried the hammer helplessly. When the hammer hit the puddle of acid, it started to dissolve, too. The tools were nothing more than a pile of melted ore. And that was that. Santa’s Main helper said, “It’s a good thing I have a Ph.D. in science.” He gathered up the presents and shoved them into his sack.
Santa’s Main Helper tip-toed quietly into the hall, carrying his sack of presents. He came to a closed door. “I bet there are more presents hiding in there,” he said to himself. Santa’s Main Helper looked up at the giant doorknob. “Everything in this house is strangely big…” he remarked and turned the knob with a shrug of his shoulder. The door squeaked open on old hinges. To get a better view of the closet, Santa’s Main Helper took a few steps back across the hall and looked into the dark space. The closet had different shelves. On the third shelf from the bottom, there was a big basket of clothes. And tucked into the clothes were lots of presents. “Ahh, more climbing,” he said with a grunt. As Santa’s Main Helper began to climb up to the presents, he noticed a big shirt looming over him. As he watched, the shirt began to move, stretching out the long sleeves and leaping down on him. Just like paper beats rock, the shirt beat Santa’s Main Helper. It wrapped him up in a ball as he fell to the floor. Santa’s Main Helper struggled to get free, but he couldn’t go anywhere. But things got worse. The stinkiest pair of underwear that had been on the floor stood up and walked over to the shirt. The smell was overwhelming! This was the biggest, stinkiest pair of underwear imaginable. Even wrapped up in the shirt, the smell almost made Santa’s Main Helper faint. Trying not to vomit, he said “Oh! What is that smell?”
Santa’s Main Helper didn’t know what to do. His air was running out in the smothering shirt. It seemed hopeless but just then, the presents, curious about what was happening, leaned over the side of the basket. They leaned too far and the basket came tumbling down and landed over the shirt and underwear with a thud. This surprised the shirt, and he loosened his grip on Santa’s Main Helper just for a second. The elf got an arm free and reached out. He felt something round—a laundry ball!—and grabbed it. Santa’s Main Helper started pounding the shirt and underwear with the ball. Bam! Bam! Bam! Went the ball. “Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!” they cried. The clothes began to weaken and finally collapsed on the floor. Santa’s Main helper pushed the big basket off his head and stood up. “Underwear!” he said. “Oh! That is SO disgusting!” Before they could scamper away, the elf grabbed the presents from the floor and added them to his sack. “That was an emotional roller coaster for my nose…literally…” the elf said.
After that terrible experience with the closet, Santa’s Main Helper scurried down the hall. He opened a door and saw it was the bathroom. Figuring he’d be safer in there, he went in and closed the door. Santa’s Main Helper was badly frightened. He leaned his head on the closed door for a few minutes to catch his breath. When he turned around, he saw a bunch of presents hiding in between the toothbrushes in a giant toothbrush holder. He called for the presents, trying to get them to come to him. Of course, they ignored the elf. “Do I really have to climb up another set of shelves?” the elf muttered to himself wearily and started to climb. Just as he reached the top shelf where the presents were, he saw a giant bottle of perfume.
“That would make me smell better,” said the elf as he reached for the bottle.
But just then, the bottle seemed to come to life and say, “Oh! What is that terrible smell? It smells like…the stinkiest underwear! I can’t stand it.”
A giant cloud of perfume shot out of the bottle, right into the elf’s eyes. “Ah!” he cried. “I can’t see!” He started to tremble, then tumbled backwards. As he was falling, a bottle of lotion was waiting for him. Right as the elf hit the ground, he found himself in a puddle of slippery lotion. He started slipping and sliding around the room. As the perfume bottle watched the elf bump into the walls, the door, the shower and the sink, he got too close to the edge himself. The fancy bottle fell from the shelf and shattered on the floor. The perfume splashed up into lotion’s face. Lotion was shocked by the blast of strong smell and fell backwards. While the lotion bottle was distracted, Santa’s Main Helper got a grip on the towel bar and looked around. Next to the giant toilet, he noticed a giant plunger. Santa’s Main Helper reached out for the plunger and started to slip, slide and run towards the lotion bottle. Santa’s Main Helper captured the lotion bottle with the plunger and hurried towards the toilet. “It was all perfume’s ideaaaaa!” cried the lotion bottle in desperation.
“At this point, I honestly don’t care.” replied Santa’s Main Helper and he climbed up to the toilet bowl and jumped in. He held the plunger right above the toilet water and smacked the plunger into the water as hard as he could, dunking the lotion bottle. “And this is why you shouldn’t have missed your swimming lessons, Mr. Lotion” he said to the bottle.
He left the plunger in the toilet, and the elf climbed down to the floor. Once again, he looked up to where the presents were. The gifts realized Santa’s Main Helper was probably the safest person for them to be with in this madhouse, and jumped off the shelf and into his open sack.
Santa’s Main Helper said to himself, “well that was a messy situation.” He didn’t want the lotion bottle to know he was escaping, so he tip-toed out of the room. Back in the hall, he noticed that there was a door to another room right next to the bathroom. He walked over to the room. Because he was so curious, he opened the door. To his surprise, when he opened the door, he saw a huge cyclops get up from his bed! The cyclops turned around and saw the elf standing in shock next to the door. “What are you doing in my house?” the cyclops yelled and reached for something that looked like a magic wand. He waved his wand, and two huge pillows appeared.
“Oh,” stammered the elf, “So sorry for disturbing your sleep Mr. Cyclops. I’ll be going,” and he tried to leave. But the two giant pillows jumped off the bed and started sliding toward the door, “Where do you think you’re going?” one pillow said.
The cyclops came up behind the terrified elf and said, “have you been up to shenanigans?”
“No I–” the elf started to say.
“Nonsense!!!” The cyclops interrupted. By now, the cyclops was mad, and when I say mad, I mean MAD. He pulled him from his ugly christmas sweater, turned him around and said, “This. is. SERIOUS. You disturbed my sleep!!!”
“Okay, mister.” said Santa’s Main Helper.
“You will pay the price!!!”
The pillows lept on Santa’s Main Helper, one on each side in a giant smothering squeeze. “Uggh mmmffff…” sputtered the elf. He punched at the giant pillows as hard as he could, but they just laughed and squished him more. He fell on the floor and the pillows jumped on his back. They jumped up and down on him like a trampoline. “Oof! Oof” said the elf. He started to crawl towards the bed. It was low to the floor and the elf just managed to squeeze underneath. The pillows tried to squeeze underneath the bed, too, but they were too plump. “We can’t reach him!” they cried in frustration.
“Enough of this! Tough luck, elf.” said the cyclops in frustration. He kicked the pillows aside and raised his wand and pointed it toward the elf. “Lamp-o-dee-big-eo” chanted the cyclops. And to his horror, the elf was transformed into a floor lamp standing beside the bed! His feet were the base, his legs the pole and his head was the lightbulb. Where his elf hat had been, he was wearing a lampshade that looked suspiciously like an ugly Christmas sweater. He couldn’t move!
“Now that he’s a lamp, I’ll go watch some tv until I’m sleepy again” said the Cyclops with satisfaction. “And maybe have a snack…” He left the bedroom but the pillows stayed behind, looking suspiciously at the new piece of furniture.
The lamp elf looked around and saw the wand lying on the bedside table. If only he could reach it! But he didn’t have arms. Then, he heard a scurrying sound and a tiny present peaked out from the tissue box next to the wand.
“Who’s the better guy?” said the present with a smirk, looking up at the elf.
“Don’t start!” said the elf, “say the spell!”
“Who’s the better guy?” said the present again, looking up at the elf.
“Fine,” said the elf. “You are the better guy! Now say it!”
“Elf-be-no lamp-o-dee-big-eo”
There was a flash of light and the elf was back to his regular self only…much, much bigger than he had been before. The elf was stunned for just a moment, then he grabbed the last present and shoved it in his sack. “I am outta here!” he said.
The elf ran out of the house. He ran through the woods. As he ran, the night was getting brighter as dawn approached. “I have to get back before Santa wakes up!” he cried. Fortunately, with his new giant size he could cover a lot of ground with each step. He arrived at the present factory, slipped through the gate (closing it behind him!) and went inside.
“Where have you been?” boomed Santa. “We have been searching for you all night!” cried another elf. We were so worried about where the present—” but the elf interrupted, “Oh! You were worried about me?! I’m fine, I just went on a walk in the woods. Here’s the last sack of presents for the sled.” Santa’s Main Helper sighed in relief and smiled, “this is going to be a great Christmas,” he said.
THE END
About the authors: The authors love eating steak and cheese while traveling to The Water Park Wet and Wild, they play video games and chit-chatting with each other..
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