A Christmas story of Santa and filming

It was bitterly cold, no snow yet but a hint of it to come, Santa stepped down from the sleigh at the corner of the lane, the reindeer began idly nibbling at the privet hedge. He trudged up the path to the first house, “thank goodness I don’t have to cart that ladder about these days,” he thought. No one seems to use chimneys now with all this central heating. Fingering the set of duplicate keys in his pocket, thoughtfully provided by the Santa Claus Corporation, he opened the door and delivered the brightly wrapped presents. On his way to the next house he was aware of a movement behind him and a rustling sound, he turned and saw a pole with a dangling object disappear behind the hedge. He walked on and made his next delivery. On returning to the sleigh he collided with a dishevelled figure in a red

coat pointing a video camera at  his reindeer. “What do you think you are up to” Santa shouted, “why are you dressed like that? You are a shabby impostor.” The fake Santa, beard awry gasped, “Sorry about that, I’m just taking a few cutaways.” The pole appeared again brandished by another man ill disguised under a set of antlers which hung over one ear. His microphone knocked against Santa’s head. “Oops,” he said, “I can’t seem to control this thing.” “Explain yourself,” Santa cried, “you are obstructing me in my work.” Up popped another figure, also antlered, holding a clip board and pen. “Don’t worry, we are filming an in depth fly on the wall documentary. It’s an expos? on the myth of Father Christmas.” The fake Santa focused on the expression on Santa Claus’ face, one of indignation and

amazement. Aha! he thought, what a wonderful BCU. Whilst this was taking place, the reindeer looked on with disdain, one of them tossed his antlers in the direction of the fakes and snorted.

Santa turned and climbed up onto the sleigh, he pulled three parcels from a sack and tossed them down to the film crew. “Happy Christmas he shouted and sped off. At the end of the lane the reindeer and sleigh rose up, clearing the roof tops as a sprinkling of snow began to fall. Santa snuggled into his warm coat and smiled to himself.
Below, the amazed film crew tore off the wrapping paper from their parcels, only to reveal three books entitled, “How to Improve Your Video Making.”