Twas the night before Christmas.

The snow was white and thick.

Santa checked his reindeer.

And found them all quite sick.

Santa told his wife and asked,

Whatever shall I do?

She said go ask the elves,

As I think I’ve got it too.

The elves all listened, all aghast.

Not having a single clue.

Then up popped Cyril,

Saying ere boss,

It’s not a what but a who…

Santa was in a tiswas! What to do? He always delivered at Christmas, to believers that is but this year he was in a real fix. He’d gone out to do his usual Christmas Pre-Flight Check only to discover that not one but every reindeer he had in his stable was sick! He carefully checked each one in turn and found all were most unwell and unable to fly. For the first time in his life he began to panic. What was he to do? He rushed back ironside to tell Mrs S who was suitably sympathetic but of no real help as she wasn’t feeling all the good herself and so really not up to it. He then dashed into his workshop and told all his elves who all were very sympathetic but said they really couldn’t put another shift as they were worn out from the customary seasonal rush.

One of his elves, however, suggested something that was way off the scale in his book. He came up with a suggestion to call upon one of the elf’s friends. 

“That’d be great, can he fly?” Asked Santa

“Oh yes, if you asked him nicely.” Answered the elf.

“What are his rates, do you know?”

“Oh, I think he’d do it for free.”

“For free! Why would he want to do that at the most demanding time of the year?”

“Oh, he’s just a great guy, you’d love him, though you might want to modify the sleigh a little to accommodate him. He’s a bit bigger than your regulars.”

“I don’t think that’ll be too much trouble.” Said Santa rubbing his mitten hands together at the prospect of saving his Christmas run.

“He’s also a bit unconventional too.” Added the Elf.

“Go get him, go get him, time is awasting, Hurry, hurry.”

“On it, Santa, you won’t regret this.”

 As the Elf disappeared to fetch his friend Santa wondered what he meant by he wouldn’t regret it. Why ever should he?”

In a matter of minutes the Elf returned.

“He’s on his way, Santa. Just had to make a stop at some place in Gwalia. Ah, here he is!”

Santa was not expecting what he saw. Just settling following his landing was a huge mostly blue somewhat furry Dragon. Santa’s jaw dropped in astonishment. 

“It’s, it’s a dragon!” He eventually blurted out.

“Hello there, I’m Windy Blu, the Arctic Dragon. Cyril here said you were in a bit of a fix and asked if I could help. Well, I didn’t have anything on for the next few hours so I thought, why not, it’s Christmas. So, here I am. Now, how can I help?”

It was a few seconds before Santa got his mind around this surprising event. For a moment he felt the awful feeling of despair creeping up on him. First his team of reindeer had gone down sick on the one big night of the year when he needed them and now he was confronted by a completely untrained stand-in, not only was he untrained but he was not a reindeer he was a dragon!? A big Blue furry dragon.

He had to sit down.

“I say, are you okay, Santa, you look a bit peaky.”

At that precise moment Santa wasn’t sure how he was other than dazed. An Elf brought him his flask form which he took a sip and then, feeling marginally back to normal, he turned to Windy Blu.

“Do you know what this job entails? I mean it involves literally zooming around the world, stopping at every home, er, every believer's home and dropping off gifts to the children therein.”

“Oo, sounds fun.” Said Windy.

“Fun!?” Snapped Santa, “It’s more than fun, it's vital. You have no idea just what this means to, to, well, to life itself.”

He went on to tell Windy of how, over many years, this whole trip has been put into question, doubted, scrutinised by great minds and up to the present been categorised as most harmless and not worthy of further investigation. In fact, many now think it a good thing, making youngsters happy, for a time. 

“They don’t realise its true power for good. I tell you, at times I feel I’m fighting a losing battle and then this year, well this year I lose my entire reindeer team. If I believed in conspiracy theories I’d say this was a classic case.” He then took another sip from his flask.

“I think that’s enough Santa, you’ve got a job to do, remember?”

“You are so right, Cyril. Okay then, let’s see if we can get Windy here harnessed up to the sleigh?”

“One thing, you, you, big blue furry you, we’ve no sat nav. That was Rudolf’s job but he’s sick, as you know.”

“That will be no problem, my rotund friend in red.”

“Ah, yes, well, right then. Let’s be off shall we?”