A (fun and wacky) Take 5 Christmas Tale by P5MA

This week we took part in a fun creative writing competition organised by EA to promote the "Take 5" mental health message. We were given the introduction to the tale, then we wrote a "relay" story. This means that each child in the relay wrote a few lines to continue the story. Because no-one got to see the complete input from the storyline of the person before them, the story is quite fun! The relay continued until everyone in the class had their input.

Why not ask your child which lines they wrote?

So enjoy our competition entry and remember: Take Notice, Connect, Give, Be Active and Keep Learning!

Santa sat back in his chair. The fire was burning brightly making the room feel cosy and warm. He placed his feet up on the footstool and noticed that his big toe was sticking out through a hole in one of his socks. “That’s going to need fixing,” he thought to himself “and most definitely before I load the sleigh up with all of those wonderful gifts.”

Santa called in a snowman to help, “How can I help?” the snowman asked as he sadly melted by the fire. “Oh dear!” Santa thought.

Santa called for an elf to come in but the elf didn’t know how to sew, so he left to find someone else to help.

Santa Claus phoned Mrs Claus, she brought some more elves but they were very naughty and poked his toe with the needle when they tried to mend his sock.

Santa yelled, “Ow!” and told the elves to “Get out!” Mrs Claus put a bandage on Santa’s big toe and told him to keep it by the warm fire.

The elves came rushing back in with some ice to help Santa’s big toe but they tripped over each other and the ice fell on Santa’s head!

Santa shouted again, “Help Mrs Claus!” The elves quickly ran out the door again and Mrs Claus brought a towel to wrap around his head. “Those naughty elves have dropped ice all over me!”

Santa felt hurt and freezing from the ice. Just then, the elves came rushing back in with a flaming fire log to warm Santa up but they stumbled and his towel caught fire!

“Ahhh!” screamed Santa as he dropped to the ground and rolled around trying to put out the fire. An elf scattered and found a bucket of water. She sneezed and lost her balance. Oops, the water spilled over Mrs Claus’s dress!

Mrs Claus moaned at the elf, “Oh no, my Christmas Eve dress is ruined and I don’t have any others to wear!” Santa managed to put out his fire and is now covered in black soot!

Fred the elf gave Santa a dusting down and then tried to help Mrs Claus’s ruined dress but he didn’t realise that he had some soot on his hands from helping Santa.

“Let me see this dress,” said Fred the elf as he touched Mrs Claus’s dress, putting sooty handprints on it without realising.

Mrs Claus noticed the black handprints on her dress and began to cry. Fred the elf came in and seeing Mrs Claus was upset, helped her calm down by asking her to TAKE NOTICE (YOU KNOW… TAKE NOTICE of what is around you, as it distracts you and makes you feel better!) When Mrs Claus was calmer, Fred, who was a magic elf, spun around in front of her to make magic glitter that fixed her beautiful, red dress.

Everyone turned around and started to laugh because the magic went a little bit wrong and now Santa was Rudolf and Rudolf was now Santa!

Suddenly Santa looked down at his nose, it was shiny and red. He looked at his hands, they were hooves, Santa cried “Oh no!” then looked in the mirror and saw that he now had antlers.

The door opened and John the penguin waddled in, he was wearing his wise glasses. He peeked over them, tilted his head to the right and looked at Santa weirdly. “Hmm, this isn’t going to be good,” he thought.

Santa tried to run but tripped and fell into a bucket of cold water, John went over and helped Santa get out. “Are you alright?” he asked. Santa was shivering and John took him to Mrs Claus who gave him a warm, cosy blanket.

Santa noticed the hole was still there in his sock, he called out to Mrs Claus. “Can you please help me mend my sock?” Mrs Claus replied, “I’m busy Santa, making cookies for you! I am always on the go!” (YOU KNOW…it is good for your mental health to BE ACTIVE!”) Buddy the elf offered to help instead.

Buddy the elf didn’t know how to knit but gave it a go anyway. (YOU KNOW…you need to KEEP LEARNING” to stay happy!) Sadly, Buddy forgot to take the sock off first and jabbed Santa’s toe with the sharp needle, a little blood came out. “Ow! I need a medic!” yelled Santa.

Dr and Nurse elf came and took Santa to the hospital, he got all fixed up and when he got home Mrs Claus had fixed the sock for him. “Thank you,” said Santa, he was feeling a bit better but had no time to rest.

Santa began to rush around and grabbed the presents putting them into his Santa sack. The elves helped to pack the presents in too. The reindeers were also ready by the sleigh.

On the Christmas tree there were ornaments. Santa took off the magic one, it was neon green and began to change into force field green in his hand. It will light my way down the chimneys”, he said. And off he went to spread joy giving out presents. (YOU KNOW… it’s good to GIVE to others as it makes you feel good too!)

Many houses later when Santa was almost finished, he noticed that he forgot a present, it was left at the North Pole! It was nearly morning, Santa didn’t have much time but he got back on the sleigh and tried to go back for it.

A piece of the sleigh had fallen off. “My sleigh is broken!” cried Santa. He had an idea, he climbed onto Rudolf’s back but nothing happened because the sleigh had all of the wonderful magic.

When Santa tried to get off Rudolf, he lost his balance and all of the other reindeers fell along with him. He took out his Samsung mobile and phoned The Boss Elf, who told the other elves and Mrs Claus to go help Santa. (YOU KNOW… you need to CONNECT with others when you are down!)

All the elves and Mrs Claus brought along pigs, hogs, rhinos platypuses, racoons (who gave loads of nice presents to everyone), a rat and a monkey who altogether helped to save Christmas and lived happily ever after (banana)!

By P5MA