The Christmas Kangaroo

Several of my iFriends have been talking about their Christmas-related memories and feelings. So, as my small contribution to the topic, I thought I'd share the story of the Christmas kangaroos with you.

First, some backstory: The night light in Firstborn's room had broken, and I didn't have a lot of options to replace it. So, I hauled in some Christmas lights and hung 'em over the giant stuffed kangaroo in the corner.

"Why did you do that?" Firstborn asked.

"Because it's a Christmas kangaroo," I replied, with tongue firmly in cheek.

"What's a Christmas kangaroo?" he asked.

There was a brief pause, while I built the shape of the story in my head and hung a few critical details to fix it in place. "Well..." I said. "Here's how it happened..."

It turns out that some years ago, they were having a very bad year at the North Pole. The Elves were running behind on making the toys, someone had misplaced Santa's List, and Mrs. Claus had just burned a huge tray of cookies. The real problem, though, was the reindeer. They were all sick - very, very sick. Too sick to pull the sleigh.

So Santa called up the Pumpkin King, and asked for some help. Old Man Jack agreed immediately, and sent over some ghosts. The ghosts were fast enough to go all the way around the world in just one night, but they kept slipping through the traces: they couldn't pull the sleigh.

So Santa called up the Easter Bunny, who sent over some of his egg-laying rabbits to help. Unfortunately, the rabbits weren't strong enough. They'd never be able to get the sleigh all the way around the world, no matter how many carrots Santa promised them.

Finally, in desperation, Santa called Cupid... but Cupid didn't have any helpers, and he couldn't pull the sleigh himself. He wasn't strong enough.

And just when all hope seemed lost, a group of kangaroos called the North Pole. They'd heard about the problem, and they offered to help. The Elves equipped the sleigh with triple-strength shock-absorbers, and the kangaroos took the reindeers' usual places. And they jumped Santa's sleigh from house to house all around the world, and Christmas was saved.

Ever since then, all kangaroos are automatically on the Nice side of Santa's List. And in this house, the Christmas Kangaroo is an essential part of the holiday decor.