It started as any Christmas Eve did for Santa Claus. He made sure the toys were finished, loaded them into the sleigh, hitched up the reindeer and sent the elves to bed. Finally, he could start his flight. His first stop was a small hut in a valley snuggled deep in the Himalayas. These mountains are very dangerous to Santa with their snowy weather, low visibility and harsh landing conditions. He had to have keen senses when entering their territory. He didn’t want to disappoint the young girl, Ahnna, who lived in a quaint little hut, so he flew there, despite the conditions. On the way there, he had to drop Yeti’s hunk of coal down to him. Yeti was a huge, destructive monster that roamed the Himalayas. He felt at home in them. Santa didn’t dare go and deliver it to him because he knew they weren’t good friends.
He started his journey hoping that it would be an uneventful night. It seemed that it would be just that, until he came to where he was going to drop off Yeti’s hunk of coal. While he was looking for the clearing in the trees where he usually dropped it, a sudden gust of wind and snow pushed and shoved him. It caused him to lose control and plunge towards the ground. Fortunately, he landed just outside the clearing of trees; no Yeti there. Unfortunately, Yeti was close by, waiting for his coal. Santa didn’t realize Yeti was there, and set about fixing his sleigh, which had broken when it had hit the ground. Santa’s reindeer grew uneasy when they saw Yeti standing close by, watching Santa. Blitzen was about to sound a warning call to Santa of Yeti’s presence, but he didn’t sound it fast enough. Yeti walked over, grabbed Blitzen, and enjoyed a midnight snack. Santa heard loud crunching and knew that Yeti was nearby. He slowly turned around and saw him sitting on top of the sleigh, eating Blitzen! The sight of poor Blitzen with a miserable expression on his face almost made Santa puke.
Santa was terrified and felt the urge to run. He couldn’t actually get away because Yeti would catch up with him very easily; he decided to try anyway. When he took off, Yeti jumped up and sprang after him. Santa raced to the clearing and hoped that he could somehow hide from Yeti. Unknown to him, Yeti had been planning for Santa’s visit. Waiting for Santa in the clearing was a malicious army of deer, all fighting under Yeti. These deer didn’t exactly want to be fighting for Yeti, but if they refused him, they would have become his midday snack! Only one young buck had refused to fight. It was a tragic day for his entire family. When Santa saw these deer, he almost collapsed. Luckily, his remaining reindeer had run after him when they saw Yeti reaching for Prancer to energize himself for this chase. They appeared moments after Santa and had the same shock at the mass of deer. Yeti appeared out of the snowy mist behind the deer, almost in a way that taunted Santa, saying, “Do you even dare fight us? Prepare to die!” Santa cowered, but he remembered all the children that needed him to deliver their presents. He straightened up and summoned what little courage he had left. He faced Yeti, not knowing that he would not bring joy, but terror to a young child that night.
Meanwhile, Ahnna, a small girl who had just turned 10, was getting ready for bed. She was ecstatic about receiving her presents. She knew in her heart that Santa had received her letter and was going to bring her everything she had asked for. Her mother called to her to make sure she was in bed.
“Yes, Mother. I am in my bed.
"Goodnight, Ahnna. Sleep well."
“Goodnight."
Of course, Ahnna didn’t go to bed right away. She wanted to stay up and watch for Santa Claus! She had been watching out the window for a bit, and then she noticed the falling red objects…
As soon as the first antler struck, Santa knew fighting Yeti had been a horrible idea. His reindeer weren’t trained how to fight. On the other hand, the deer of the forest had been fighting their whole lives. Two of his reindeer were already killed and he knew none of them would survive if he didn’t do something. If he killed Yeti, the deer would probably stop fighting. He wasn’t sure how he could kill Yeti but he knew he had to try. Quickly, he found a large tree branch that had fallen down because of the snow and started searching the battlefield for Yeti.
“Strange,” he thought,” I can’t find him anywhere.”
Suddenly, a strong force grabbed him from behind and lifted him into the air. Despair filled him as he dropped the stick and realized he was at the mercy of Yeti.
Yeti had hated Santa Claus all his life. Santa had never even given a thought to Yeti until 7 years ago. A storm just like the one that night had rolled in and caused Santa to crash. Yeti wasn’t as ruthless then as he was now. He wanted a present and threatened Santa that if he didn’t bring him one, he would kill him. Every year since then Santa has dropped off a chunk of coal. It wasn’t exactly the gift that Yeti had wanted, so when he received the first chunk of coal, he swore that he would personally kill Santa no matter the cost.
Now that Yeti had this evil man in his hands, he knew what he had to do. He grabbed Santa by the ridiculous belt of his and ripped him apart, limb by limb, and enjoyed every moment of it. He had never felt so alive. Finally, he had had his revenge. When the deer and reindeer saw what had happened, they stopped fighting; they didn’t know what to do. They just waited to see what Yeti’s next move would be. Yeti let out a loud, victorious roar and flung the remains of Santa and his costume over the edge of the cliff. No more of that guy to ruin Yeti’s life.
Ahnna had no idea what those objects were until she saw the head. She screamed and ran to her mother, who had heard her cry.
“Ahnna, what is it?”
“Santa is falling off the cliff!!”
Her mom didn’t believe her; she had never believed in Santa Claus, but she responded, “Were did you see him fall?”
“He landed just on the other side of the big rock.”
“I guess we better go see if he’s okay then.”
“We have to!”
The mother and daughter set out in search of Santa Claus. They didn’t know what they were really getting into. As they were walking, they heard a horrific roaring noise.
“What was that!?!” screamed Ahnna as she gripped her mother.
“Don’t worry, it’s just the wind howling through the trees,” her mother replied, stuttering a little. She doubted it was just wind. They continued walking, hand-in-hand, until they came to the boulder.
The mother was worried that her daughter might have been right, maybe someone had fallen off and now something on the mountain was mourning the death. That would explain the howl. If her daughter was right, there would be a horrific sight behind the rock.
She didn’t want her daughter to see it, so she suggested that she look first. Ahnna was reluctant, but at last she let her mom look. She had been right. There, lying in the snow in front of her was actually Santa, or what was left of him. The ground around him was soaked with blood that had poured from his detached limbs that were strewn about in the snow. Staring up at her were his eyes, looking up into the distance. She didn’t want to know what had caused that look but she knew that they had to get away from there and contact police as soon as possible. She was about to turn around and leave when she heard a terrifying scream behind her.
Ahnna hadn’t followed her advice to wait for her mom’s approval to look. She was now eyeing Santa with a look of disbelief and horror.
“Ahnna, go back! You shouldn’t have disobeyed me. We need to go now!”
Ahnna could hardly take her eyes off Santa, the remains of him at least, and loathed leaving him there, but eventually her mom persuaded her to leave. They silently walked back to their house and contacted police.
On the other hand, Yeti was overcome with joy! The rest of the reindeer had been killed and were hauled off to his cave. He wanted to eat them right away but he probably would have gotten sick. Finally, he could get his real present. He had Santa’s whole bag of presents to choose from; what should he choose? He decided to just take the entire sleigh back with him to his cave and sort it out then. Maybe he would give the gifts he didn’t want to the deer. They did make the battle much quicker. It depended, though, on how they acted now that he was completely satisfied.

After consideration, he decided that he would let the deer live and they would have a Christmas party of their own. They had the presents and the joy that Santa and his reindeer were finally destroyed; all they needed for a perfect celebration. As Yeti pulled out the packages, he determined whether he liked each one or not. If he liked it, he would keep it; if he didn’t, he would give it to a deer. If none of them wanted it, he would throw it over the cliff. They continued like this all night, since there were millions of presents inside the bag (Santa hadn’t been able to deliver most of them).

When Ahnna awoke the next morning, she ran to ask her mother what had happened to Santa. Her mother said that the police were coming up to see who it was and would then decide what to do with the body.

Ahnna had the thought that she should check on Santa before the police came. Maybe he had her presents! She scolded herself for being so selfish. Santa was dead and she was thinking about her presents, but she was really curious. Last night she didn’t get a good look at him, she was too scared. Now she could really look around. If the police searched it first, they would take everything there with them. She quickly came up with a plan.

“Mom, I am going to go make sure there isn’t a snow drift on the road so the police can make it here.”

“Okay. Be careful and stay away from the boulder!”

Yeah right. As soon as Ahnna was out of her mother’s sight, she took off running towards the boulder. Once it came into view, she gasped in surprise! Behind the boulder, there was a pile of presents so huge it came over the top of the boulder! She ran with ecstasy, wondering where all these beautiful gifts had come from. She didn’t even think about Santa Claus, who was buried beneath the packages. She threw herself towards the gifts and picked up the closest one. Suddenly, something moved underneath her. She jumped back and screamed as out of the pile immerged Santa

He was alive! The magic that was placed on the presents was able to piece Santa back together and bring him back to life. When he saw Ahnna, they just stared. Santa was thinking about what had happened. He could tell that it was already Christmas Day and he still had to deliver the presents. Why were some of them missing, and how in the world did they get down here? And who was this little girl standing in front of him holding one of the presents?
Ahnna felt like she was about to scream! Santa had been dead; he was torn apart! How was he sitting, fully alive, in front of her now? She had mixed feelings: she was terrified that Santa was alive and yet at the same time, she was overjoyed. She was finally happy and knew that there would be no need for the police. The police! She quickly told Santa about the police coming. He told her to go tell her mother that she had to call them and tell them they didn’t need to come.
Ahnna ran back to her house as fast as her legs could carry her. She burst through the door, frightening her mom.
“Tell the police to stay away! Tell them it was a mistake or something!”
“What are you talking about? Why would I do that?”
“Santa isn’t actually dead. He was put back together!”
“So you went and saw Santa even though I told you not to?”
That stopped Ahnna. She remembered her mom telling her not to go see him.
“I just had to check on him before the police came here, but now the police don’t even have to come. He’s alive! Please tell the police not to come.”
Her mom still didn’t really understand what was going on. How could Santa be alive? She decided that she should trust her daughter. Last time she had doubted her, she was wrong.
“What do you need me to do?”
“Call the police and make them not come.”
She grabbed the phone and dialed the police. She told them that it had been a mistake and that they didn’t have to come. They questioned her for a little bit longer and then hung up.
“Good news! They believed me and they aren’t coming. I guess they are really busy today and since they haven’t heard of a missing person, they’re pretty sure my story is true.”
“That’s good. I am going to go check on Santa and invite him inside. See you in a bit.”
She ran back outside and was going to run straight to the boulder but by the package and her feet, she knew she didn’t need to.
As he was sitting in his cave enjoying his new I-phone as he reclined on a chair, Yeti heard something. He looked around his cave and noticed the presents were beginning to move! He quickly jumped up and tried to grab some of the packages but they disappeared too quickly. He had no idea what had just happened but all of his gifts were gone. The snow globe, a watch, and even his chair, were all gone. That wasn’t the only thing that had disappeared. The bodies of all the reindeer had started to glow and his stomach felt like it was burning. What was happening? All of the reindeer disappeared, as well as the ones in his stomach. He was getting really worried about what was happening. He had a feeling why it happened but he didn’t want to admit it.
Right as Ahnna left, something strange happened. A sudden glow appeared before Santa and out of nowhere, all his reindeer appeared! Behind them he could see his sleigh appearing, stocked with all of his presents neatly packed away. He had never been so happy to see his reindeer and his familiar sleigh. He quickly saddled up and settled himself down in his chair. He was ready to deliver the presents, better late than never. He hadn’t forgotten Ahnna’s present though. He dropped it off and then set out to deliver the rest. He had to fly over the mountain for a special delivery but then he left for India.

Ahnna was overjoyed to see her beautiful new puppy wrapped up in a bow, equipped with a leash and food. She silently thanked Santa, who she knew was going to bring happiness that day. She didn’t know just who would be the most pleased, though.
As Yeti was taking in the reality that Santa had somehow come back to life, he received an unexpected package. It almost hit him as he was walking to the cliff to confirm his hunch. There, lying in the snow beneath him was a small package with his name written on it. He was cautious about opening it, thinking it would probably be just another chunk of coal. When he opened it, it wasn’t exactly a piece of coal. It was a small tablet, nothing much when you just glance at it, but when he tilted it just right, a small message appeared.
“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night, especially the one who knows he is free of murder, for tonight at least.”
On the very bottom of the tablet was etched a drawing of the mountain with the small valley and on top of the cliff, Santa was flying over with a large package, ready to drop down to Yeti who was on the cliff. He placed this tablet in a place where he would always remember what it meant: on a small clearing that was supposed to be Santa’s death bed and yet, Santa still gave him a present every year from then on. Yeti never did figure that one out!