“Santa catches a cold!”
The day before Christmas, Santa caught a cold.
“You know,” said Mrs. Claus, “Santa’s getting old!
“He’s been doing this so long.
When he started working overtime,
I knew something would go wrong!”
All the elves looked so sad.
They said, ” What are we gonna do?
There will be no toys for the children
‘cause Santa’s got the flu!”
Albert, Rex and Elmo said,
“We think that we can do it.
We have been watching Santa all these years,
And, heck, there’s nothing to it!”
They hitched the reindeer to the sleigh
and piled the toys inside.
Off they flew into the night
with Rudolf as their guide.
The little elves knew just what to do.
They worked and worked
the whole night through,
delivering all the wonderful toys
to all the little girls and all the boys.
Their work all done, they hurried home,
exhausted—each and every gnome.
The crisis over, his fever gone,
Santa woke up with the dawn.
“It’s morning. Oh, what have I done?
I’ve overslept. There’s the morning sun!
“Don’t worry, dear,” said Mrs. Claus,
“Put on a happy face,
Albert, Rex and Elmo
took your place.”
“Thank you guys,” said Santa.
“What a great idea.”
And with a wink, he said, “I think . . .,
we’ll do the same next year!”
MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Rine Steketee is a writer of fiction and nonfiction from Fircrest, Washington.
Retired from the U.S. Navy, many of his stories are based on his military
experience. Santa Catches a Cold was published as an illustrated
children’s book.
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