STORY STARTER

Write a Christmas story that contains an alternative character to Santa Claus.

If, like us, you think a magical old man visitng children under the cover of night, is creepy, then try to think of an alternative character that could be responsible for producing presents.

The Santa Bunny

I’m not really sure how us bunnies got into the gift gig, but it started centuries ago. I am sure you think that guy Santa Claus is still in the business but actually he got out a long time ago. Mrs. Claus got sick of the whole toys for tots stuff and the endless ho-ho-ho and jolly all the time shtick and talked Santa into selling out to the Elf Conglomerate. They bought a place in Costa Rica and went totally native.

The elves really tried to keep it all going, but the reindeers went on strike and they almost took the whole Christmas joy thing down when some of the elves decided they hated the Christmas Eve craziness and tried to convince the rest of the guys to move Christmas to June so it would be warmer for the sleigh run. That was a total disaster and everything was in turmoil.

That’s when Eric, the CEO of the Elf Conglomerate, came and had a long talk with my whole-bunches-of-great Grandad and asked him if we Easter Bunnies would consider taking over the gift distribution department. Eric knew we had a lot of experience in the field by now and always got the eggs and candy baskets taken care of efficiently and quietly so the children still believed bunnies actually leave eggs and stuff.

The contract we agreed on was that the Elf Conglomerate would still make the toys since we had zero expertise in dolls and trains and stuff, and we bunnies would do the sleigh run on December 24 but still keep our Easter job up and running too. It has been crazy busy for a long time now, but the great thing is that the kiddies still believe Santa Claus makes a visit, and of course we still get credit for the Easter baskets.

All in all it has worked out really well. I actually have a meeting with the Tooth Fairy next week. She had gone to visit the Clauses in Costa Rica and is contemplating retirement (she’s getting a bit “long in the tooth” for her job, funny funny) and since we always have a huge bunch of bunnies born all the time we figured we could handle her work, too. We’ve got this kiddie thing in the bag. Eat your heart out, Bezos.

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Tedi Zimmermann

I was a professional singer, vocal instructor,and arts administrator for decades. I retired and decided to pick up my creative writing and began taking classes at a local university. I have published in several anthologies. Creativity is ageless!