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It was Tuesday, December 23rd the day before Christmas Eve and all through the Decker residence, everybody was stirring, except for Sara Decker who was sleeping in on the second day of Christmas vacation. This meant no school until January, and therefore, no Allan Cooper to boss and nag to get his work done. As a result, Sara smiled herself to a sound sleep. She even disabled her smart phone’s alarm clock so she could sleep in. But then she awoke to a familiar voice. It was her mother Mary. “Sara, time to get up,” she yelled from downstairs.
Sara thought it was a bad dream and decided to stay in bed. After all, she had a tough month and a half from all the studying she did. Like her father Peter, Sara wanted to become a nuclear engineer.
About 15 minutes later, Rachel, her older sister walked into her room and surprised Sara by turning on the lights. “It’s almost nine in the morning and you are usually the first one up,” Rachel stated.
This is ironic because Sara is usually up by seven in the morning on days she doesn’t have school. “Rach,” Sara replied, “I know, but today’s my day of rest. Dad’s party is tomorrow so let me be.”
“Actually it is today,” Rachel corrected.
With this information, Sara raced out of bed to check her smart phone calendar task list. Sure enough, right by today’s date Sara had listed, “Take Tammy to see Santa,” and right below that it said, “Nuclear Power Plant Christmas Party tonight.”
Sara was horrified because all she wanted was a day off and failed to remember the actual day. In addition to regular hockey practice at the ice arena, Principal Hart had Sara show a few new students around school, and she received a school assignment due in mid January, thanks to her teacher, Mrs. Hanson. She assigned team book reports to the students. As a team, Sara and Allan Cooper choose the book “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” It wasn’t that Allan hated to read, it was the fact that Tom Sawyer didn’t really appeal to him. But Sara chose the book over Allan’s choice which was “The Little Engine That Could” even though Allan said it was his favorite book. Ironically Allan’s choice was about a train engine that wanted to do a job the other engines didn’t want. To top it off, the pair had to give an oral report in front of the class.
“So there you are,” Mary said when Sara finally made it down to the kitchen.
“Sorry Mom, but I had this day planned for weeks,” Sara stated.
“As I recall, you were talking about today, which is Tuesday,” Mary corrected.
Sara turned her focus to her baby sister Tammy, who is now six months old. Tammy sat in her high chair and looked like royalty. “So how is little Tammy,” she asked. “Can you say Sara? Come on say Sara.”
Tammy giggled. “Goo, goo,” is all she replied.
“I remember your first word,” said Peter, Sara’s Dad, “It was cookie.”
“True, I got my first taste of oatmeal raisin cookies that day,” Sara remembered.
Sara thought back when she was little. After she spoke her first word, her Dad jumped out of his chair to get his video camera. At that point, she grabbed the rest of her Dad’s cookie and ate it the best she could. Sara likes chocolate chip cookies like rest of her family and it happens to be Mary Decker’s specialty. But everybody gave a worried look toward Mary because her Christmas baking was behind schedule. “Yes I’ll make some chocolate chip gingerbread cookies for the party tonight.” Mary stated.
“That’s cool,” Rachel replied.
Sara agreed knowing that her mom could open up her own bakery if she wanted to do so. “I took some chocolate chip gingerbread cookies to school last year,” Sara added, “and Allan ate them all before I had a chance to give them to the class.”
Peter smacked his lips. “Honey, I’m Looking forward to the cookies,” he stated.
And Sara pictured chocolate chip gingerbread cookies dancing around in her mind. She grabbed a bowl of cookie puff cereal from the counter and gobbled it down. As she was eating, Rachel asked, “So which store are we doing?”
“I think Macy’s,” Sara replied, “I need to get some last minute shopping done anyways.”
As she ate, Sara took a glance at Tammy as she finished her maple oatmeal. She was excited for Tammy’s first visit to Santa and acted like it was the best thing on Earth. She asked, “Are you ready to go meet Santa?”
“Don’t forget to get her picture taken,” Mary added a bit later as the kids got ready to leave with Sara putting on her winter coat and Rachel helping Tammy with hers.
“We won’t Mom,” Sara said.
“So, how did you like Tom Sawyer,” Rachel asked, “I heard you reading it before bed last night.”
“I really enjoyed the book,” Sara responded, “I can see Allan as a modern day Tom Sawyer.”
Rachel asked, “Are you serious?”
“Rach, I spend a lot of time with Allan and it is clear that he and Tom would be a perfect match,” Sara noted.
Later in the afternoon, Rachel, Sara, and little Tammy arrived at Santa’s place inside the mini mall of Macy’s downtown. It was a little space where kids lined up taking turns to let St. Nick know what they want for Christmas. Today, the Decker girls wore their best Christmas sweater with Sara wearing designer jeans. The girl just ahead of Sara had a sweater that featured little bears dancing around an image of the earth and the words “World Peace” near the neckline. Sara thought the sweater would be much better with the rest of the animal kingdom represented.
As for Tammy, Sara was overjoyed because this was the first time she would get to see Santa. On the way over to Macy’s, Sara just couldn’t stop smiling at Tammy because she was so happy and excited for this opportunity. As for herself, Sara stopped believing in Santa when she was seven years old. While playing with dolls, with Katie, she found the CD player she asked Santa for Christmas. Since Santa needed help from her parents in order to get what she wanted, Sara thought the idea of one person delivering presents all over the world was impossible to do so in just one night.
As they waited in line, Tammy’s grin was very wide and the all the Christmas cheer helped. Sara flashed an even wider grin at Tammy. “Just think, in a few minutes you will be meeting Santa,” she said.
The plan was for Tammy to meet Santa and have her picture taken with him. Rachel looked down at Tammy’s stroller as the line moved closer. She was excited and wanted to crawl up to Santa. “Tammy, stay put,” Rachel commanded as if she was Tammy’s actual mother.
Sara stayed in front of the stroller in order to keep Tammy from escaping. The line moved forward a bit where the girl with the World Peace sweater was on Santa’s lap. The boy in front noticed a gap. He turned around in order to tell Sara to move forward. It was Allan Cooper himself and he was stunned to see Sara standing in line. “So,” Allan asked, “What are you doing here?”
“This is Tammy’s first time meeting Santa,” she responded.
“Cool,” Allan stated.
“I know I’m so excited, aren’t we Tammy?” Sara asked while Tammy giggled.
“So, what are you asking for Christmas,” Allan inquired.
“Seriously, all I want is for a good Tom Sawyer book report, but Santa isn’t going to give us that one,” Sara quipped.
“Santa isn’t going to give you the science set you wanted either,” Allan warned, “As for me, I want a nice train set, and I want it running around the tree on Christmas day.”
Sara looked at Tammy’s little face once again and it was clear that to Tammy, Santa is real and best of all he is very close to her. Sara glanced back at Allan. She wondered if Allan already found the gifts from his Dad or if he actual believed in Santa. The Cooper mansion was part of a large estate that made it impossible for a boy like Allan to search for any gifts he might have for Christmas. However, the thought of Allan searching that estate with the help of his sheepdog, Sammy, allowed Sara to relax.
The long line moved swiftly and 20 minutes later, it was Allan’s turn for Santa’s lap. Sara took one glance at the line behind them and it stretched into the Toy UR’s department store. Up ahead, Allan sat on Santa’s lap and smiled up at Santa. Santa asked, “HO, HO, HO, What do you want for Christmas sonny?”
Allan replied, “Can I have a beard?”
“HO, HO, HO, You will have to wait until you are older,” Santa replied.
With this answer, Allan swiped the beard from Santa’s face. Behind him, everyone including the entire line, and shoppers stopping by for a look at Santa, were shocked at Allan’s deed. The man behind the beard was Ryan Carter, one of the workers at the Nuclear power plant. Allan jumped off his lap and yelled, “Santa’s a fake, Santa’s a fake!”
Clutching his beard, Allan ran away from Ryan. As he ran, he held the beard up in the air. Meanwhile Tammy began to cry. Sara took Tammy out of her stroller and sat down in Santa’s chair as Santa got up running after Allan. “Its okay, Tammy,” Sara consoled, “Santa is real.”
Rachel came up to the chair in order to give Sara some tissues from her purse. Sara continued to comfort her sister. “We’ll go see the real Santa,” Sara continued.
“Sure, we will go to the mall to see the real Santa,” Rachel said.
They leave Santa’s chair at Macy’s mini mall and it is clear that Tammy was not as sad. But first the floor show. They watched as Allan was chased out of the store by security followed by an upset Santa running from behind. “You can’t catch me,” Allan yelled as he left the building with Santa’s beard.
“Allan can be Tom Sawyer when he wants to be, but today he was Huckleberry Finn,” Sara muttered under her breath.
An hour later, the three tri ed to visit Santa again. This time it was at the Blue Lake City Mall, their hometown. Though the line was shorter, it was more formal in appearance. Of course Tammy didn’t know it, but the city’s tradition was for the mall Santa to be played by a member of the government every single day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. “Katie thanks helping me find the cashmere sweaters. I don’t know what I do without you,” Sara said.
“No problem,” Katie replied well standing in line with her friends. She to wanted to see the look on Tammy’s face when she met Santa Claus for the first time.
The two girls were friends since their toddler days and that is the only similarity about them. While Sara is a tomboy, Katie loves to dress up in anything fancy. The dress she was wearing to visit Santa was miles better than anything Sara owned in her life. Regardless, Sara, Katie, and their new African American friend Connie are the top kids in school and all with an A+ average. “Congrats on winning that short story Christmas contest,” Sara stated.
“Thank you very much,” Katie replied, “I like that coming from the queen of crazy desks.”
“I helped Sara with some of the decorations,” Rachel interjected.
“She’s my royal subject,” Sara joked which lead to a nice chuckle from all four girls with Tammy even laughing.
After the laughter, Sara continued, “What about Connie?”
“She was here earlier today doing some Christmas shopping and we had lunch in the food court,” Katie answered.
“I suppose I have to talk with her tonight,” said a dejected Sara, “I wanted to congratulate Connie on her wonderful Christmas ornament.”
“Man, that was crazy,” Katie said, “I was wondering how she was able to keep the tree from falling over.”
“Me too,” said Sara as the four girls enjoyed another laugh.
“In any case,” Katie continued, “Connie told me that she overheard Allan tell Paul that he was going to hunt for Santa Clauses today. I wonder what he meant by that?”
“Hope Allan likes spending time in juvie for pulling an old man’s beard,” Sara stated to herself.
But they didn’t know that Allan was standing around the area while wearing a trench coat. He was at a nearby corner near a cell phone kiosk and eating a big chunk of cotton candy which he brought from the nearby sporting goods store. For now, Allan was just standing around and minding his own business without a care in the world.
“Next,” yelled one of Santa’s helpers.
“That’s you,” Sara shouted to Tammy.
Like the little girl that she is, Tammy bounced onto Santa’s lap and he was surprised. “HO, HO, HO, Merry Christmas little girl,” Santa said in a jolly voice.
“Her name’s Tammy,” Rachel stated.
“HO, HO, HO, let’s have our picture taken together, shall we,” Santa asked while sporting a big smile.
At this point, Tammy was an overjoyed toddler and she was sitting on her holy grail, Santa’s lap. But before she could smile, Allan dashed up to the front of the line, raced up to Santa’s throne and pulled off his beard. Right away, Allan realized that he bit off more than he could chew. In this case, he stared right into his own father’s face. Ben Cooper was beyond mad. “Oh boy!” was all Allan could say. Needless to say, Allan was surprised. Forgetting that he was holding a big blob of cotton candy, he threw it toward the line. The cotton candy hit Katie’s dress with a big splash. The sticky cotton candy was smeared all over her lovely dress and it was ruined.
“Oh boy is right!” Mayor Ben Cooper shouted.
At this point a major chase begins. Allan runs away from his father and into the mall’s Hallmark. He tosses merchandise to the floor in order to block the mob’s path, but an assistant manager gets mad at him knocking down some ceramic buildings. Allan then runs into the food court and dashes under some tables. It just happened to be where he was eating lunch a half-hour earlier. He exclaimed, “So that’s where I put my big bucket of fries!”
The mob raced into the food court but they had trouble finding Allan. Underneath the table, he showed some remorse though he did have this all planned out. He just forgot that this was the day his own father was scheduled to play Santa. “What a setback,” Allan muttered to himself.
Then he heard a few voices and some crying. It was Sara, Rachel, Tammy, and Katie at the same exact table he was under with Tammy’s stroller blocking the exit and the only open space was up against the wall. Tammy was upset because Allan ruined Santa Claus for her. “It’s okay Tammy, he’s just one of Santa’s many helpers,” Rachel consoled.
From above Allan heard a familiar voice crying. It was Sara and she was doing so because her little sister was so upset at the day’s events. She pounded her fists onto the table and this made Allan wince. “If I ever get a hold of that Allan, I’ll slug him a good one.”
“I think it is best to wait here and let somebody else find him,” Rachel suggested.
“What are we going to do when we find him?” Katie asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” Sara answered with a big frown, “Maybe pull his hair out by the roots!”
This made Allan jump because he loved his hair. “No, don’t pull my hair!” Allan quietly muttered.
Sara looked up as if she heard something. She asked, “What was that?”
“I heard it too,” Katie replied.
At least there was an empty spot on the other side of the bench. If only Allan could squeeze out without the girls noticing, he would be home free. Just then, a pair of red legs sat down on the bench. From above, Ben asked, “Have you girls seen Allan?”
“No,” Katie replied, “But I do know he ruined my dress. Just look at this cotton candy stain.”
At this point, Ben Cooper was a grumpy man. He asked, “So how much did it cost?”
“About one hundred and twenty dollars,” Katie replied.
“Oh boy,” thought Allan, “If Dad catches me, it will take a year to pay off that dress’s cleaning bill.”
Ben then turned his attention to Tammy. He asked, “I’m sorry this happened, Tammy, but I’m just one of Santa’s little helpers.”
“Yeah it will be alright, this man is the head elf,” Sara added.
“This was supposed to be her first time with Santa, but Allan ruined everything,” Rachel continued.
Ben then picked Tammy up from her stroller and put her in his arms. “Don’t worry kiddo,” he said, “I am just one of Santa’s many helpers, but on Christmas Eve, the real Santa comes down from the North Pole to give toys to all the nice boys and girls.”
“Christmas Eve, maybe I can make it up to Tammy then,” Allan thought.
“Bet that brings back memories of you holding Allan in your arms,” Sara opined.
“It sure does,” Ben answered, “Allan is a nice boy at times, but he tends to get into trouble.”
“I am home free,” Allan thought to himself.
At this point, he pushed the stroller away from the table. However, the stroller happened to knock into the Hallmark manager’s legs and he noticed the boy that made the mess inside the store. “How’s the air up there,” Allan stated.
The manager asked the table, “Is this your boy?”
“Yes he’s my son,” Ben replied.
“Expect City Hall to see a bill for damaged merchandise,” the manager concluded.
As the manager walked away, Ben turned his attention to Allan. “You will pay for this, son,” he said.
Ben commanded Allan to take Katie dress shopping and he gave him $200 to spend which will be paid back in full with a ton of hard work which would begin with him taking down the, Cooper estate’s huge light display with no help what so ever. In addition, Allan will pay for the merchandise that he destroyed.
The nuclear power plant’s Christmas Party was a few hours later and the plant’s main conference room was packed with kids and employees all having a good time. The conference room was about the size of a hotel’s convention center. For comparisons purposes, we are talking about the size of the average high school gym. Even Santa was there. He spent time visiting with the younger kids. Among the helpers, Sara, and Connie served the food.
“Your mom is a good cook,” Connie said.
“She knows,” Sara replied.
Just then, Rachel brought out a new batch of chocolate chip gingerbread cookies and the crowd starts to run toward them. “Hold it, one at a time,” Sara commanded.
“But I want a cookie,” Ryan Carter countered.
“I got Santa’s cookie,” Connie whispered.
The girls handed out cookies so people would be able to get them. This proved to be a major distraction since only a few toddlers noticed Allan walking into the conference room. “This is going to be so easy,” he thought.
He walked up to Santa wearing a bright red coat and a grizzly bear mask. “What are you doing,” a little girl asked.
Allan decided to let the question go unanswered. He dashed up to the front of Santa’s throne and pulled off Santa’s beard. It was a very mad Principal Hart behind the beard. But before he could say anything, Allan acted like he was a ninja and jumped behind the chair. Meanwhile the kids started crying their eyes out.
From behind the serving table, Rachel, Sara, and Connie knew what happened. It was a massive problem for them since they knew what happened, but they couldn’t see it. “It had to be Allan,” Connie suggested.
“He struck while Tammy was waiting in line for Santa,” Sara added.
Like everybody else, the entire serving table headed toward the kids so they could be consoled. “It had to be that Allan Cooper,” Peter thought.
“It was,” answered Ben Cooper, “But I’ll let Principal Hart hand out this punishment.”
Mary came out of the kitchen to see what the commotion was all about. Right away she noticed that something was wrong. “The cookies, they are gone!” she shouted.
Sara took a glance at the table. Though almost everything was there in varying quantities, the chocolate chip gingerbread cookies were completely missing. So where are the cookies? As it turned out, Allan staged the plot for all the chocolate chip gingerbread cookies in the place. “This is worth three months dentition,” he thought as he gobbled down a cookie.
Christmas Eve followed the next night and the Decker household was its usual humming self. It was quiet time following the big Christmas Eve feast. Tammy and Sara were in front of the tree with Mary filming everything. Mary wore her favorite green dress and Sara had on the same designer jeans she wore the day before. Tammy was crawling on all fours with Sara on her knees. She asked, “What’s this?”
“Goo, gah, gah,” Tammy responded.
“That’s one of your presents,” Sara answered back, “Can you say present?”
“Gah,” Tammy replied.
“I think she said me,” Mary added, “Wave to the camera, Tammy.”
Tammy does a little wave, but then dives underneath the tree and shoves out one of Sara’s presents. She grabs it and does a bit of shaking. “It has to be my science lab set,” she thought.
But Mary had very little time for Sara’s activities. She was more focused on Tammy lying on the tree’s skirt and falling asleep. “It’s her usual bedtime,” she stated, “Maybe we should wait until morning to open presents.”
“I’ll find Dad and discuss it with him,” Sara replied.
Just then the living room doorbell rang. Sara got up and answered the door. It was Santa himself. Though he was just a bit short, this Santa sported the same features as any other Santa down to the white beard and black boots. The only difference with this Santa was that his pants were rolled up. “HO, HO, HO, Merry Christmas,” Santa shouted as he ran toward Tammy.
“Tammy’s a bit tired, Santa,” Sara warned.
But Santa picked up Tammy and put her in his lap as Mary filmed the scene. “You are a pretty good girl,” Santa smirked.
“Goo, Goo,” Tammy said.
Then another Santa walked into the living room from the breakfast nook. “HO, HO, HO, Merry Christ…,” said Santa number 2.
“This is my turf,” said Santa number 1.
But then came yet another Santa. This one came from the basement. “HO, HO, HO, Merry Christmas,” said Santa number 3.
Santa number 3 ran toward Santa number 1 and managed to cradle Tammy.
“This is crazy,” Mary said.
But it was about to get crazier as Santa number 4 came out of the laundry room. “HO, HO, HO, Merry Christmas,” said Santa number 4 with a deep baritone voice.
“This Santa sound familiar, but I just can’t picture where I last heard him,” thought Santa number one.
Santa number four walked to the fireplace and motioned Tammy to crawl toward him. But before Tammy could sit on his lap, Santa number five slid down the Decker’s large chimney, landed on his butt, and splattered soot all over the living room floor. “HO, HO, HO, Merry Christmas,” shouted Santa number five as he picked up himself and swiped Tammy from Santa number 4.
“At least you and Tammy get to wear different clothes tomorrow,” Mary whispered to Sara as she cleaned soot from the camera’s lens.
She resumed filming the action and even Sara was amazed at the number of St. Nicks. But there was more to come as Santa number six dashed into the living room from the garage. “HO, HO, HO, Merry Christmas,” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
Santa number six ran toward the fireplace and used his sleeve to wipe Tammy’s mouth. “Boy you were lucky,” stated Santa number six to Santa number five, “I swore off that chimney after almost getting stuck last year.”
“I almost got stuck too,” answered Santa number five.
There was more to come. Santa number seven dashed into the living room from the kitchen. “HO, HO, HO, Merry Christmas,” Santa said.
At this point, nobody knew what to think. Seven Santa Clauses were in the room and all Mary focused on was little Tammy’s face. By now, she was wide awake in an average sized living room that can be described as crowded during family nights with just four Deckers in the room and Tammy sleeping in her crib. Then, “HO, HO, HO, Merry Christmas,” Santa number 8 shouted from the hallway.
Sara took a quick count. Eight Santa Clauses, she counted as number 8 walked into the living room and did a double take of his own.
“I’m confused,” Tammy softly said while Mary was filming her.
“My little Tammy said her first words,” Mary shouted with glee.
Santa number 8 asked why “I’m confused” was Tammy’s first word. Sara replied, “Simple, It is what Allan says whenever he is stuck on his school work.”
Sara then pulled on Santa number one’s beard and it revealed Allan Cooper’s face. “I was just trying to help,” Allan stated.
“True,” Sara replied, “But you were the shortest Santa here.”
Allan then ripped off his Santa costume to reveal himself dressed as a young Jesus Christ.
“Now you understand why I rip off Santa beards,” Allan answered, “Jesus is the real reason for the season and not some guy in a red suit and black boots.”
Allan walked over to Santa Clauses seven and eight and pulled their beards. He continued, “That is the prime message your Aunt Harriet gives in her Christmas show every year.”
“That is true young man,” Harriet replied, “Though I only do the Saint Nick routine before the kids go to bed.”
“And I’m glad you do it,” said Peter Decker who was Santa number 8.
Allan continued toward the fire place. He pulled the beards of Santa Clauses 4 and 5 to reveal newsman Tom Decker and his own father.
Allan stared into his dad’s face and asked, “I suppose you are mad at me for pulling your beard again?”
“No I’m not, son,” Ben replied.
Allan wasn’t finished pulling beards. He walked over to the loveseat and pulled the beards of Santa Clauses number 2 and 3. Santa number 2 was none other than Rachel Decker who was holding her baby sister. At the same time Santa number 3 spoke up. “So you are the little twerp that tried to ruin my young cousin’s Christmas,” he stated.
He was Michael Decker who was the only son of Tom and Harriet Decker. “Why not,” Allan muttered to Michael.
Allan then walked over to Santa number 6 and pulled his beard. But something happened that he didn’t expect. The beard stayed on the face. Allan tugged a bit harder and this Santa said a very loud ouch. “Okay, so maybe Santa is real,” Allan said in a sheepish voice.
“No you ninny,” shouted Santa number 6, “My name is David Decker and I’m these kids Grandpa.
“Dad, I never thought you would get here,” Peter said in a somewhat happy voice.
“I wanted to surprise the girls this year,” David replied.
“And I knew it was you the moment Allan pulled your beard,” Sara added.
Sara turned her attention to Allan. “I talked to Katie today and she loves the dress you brought for her,” She said.
“Thanks,” replied Allan
At this point, he was expecting a big smooch. Instead, Sara tossed some soot from her hair to his face. “Looks like I got my stocking full of coal,” Allan said with a big laugh.
“But look at it this way,” Ben stated, “at least you got it from a pretty girl.”
“Yup, I sure did,” answered Allan.
Everybody shared a good laugh and then Allan led the entire group in a rousing singing of “The First Noel” while feasting on a chocolate chip gingerbread cookie.
The End.
