Pigeon Post News: NEWS FLASH - LATEST UPDATE ON SANTA'S TRAVELS

Nelson's Christmas Tree

On Christmas Eve December 24, 3048 in an undisclosed location in the Top of the South the following story was found in an archaeological dig in what looks like a plastic milk container near a secret stash of presents.

It reads:

Once Upon A Time when there was a great sickness, Santa Claus whispered in my ear that he was starting early this year, 2021, to organise transport and stockpiling toys for all the children in the world.

Santa thinks the demand for toys this year is going to be huge but he has his elves to help him to design, make toys and deal with the millions of requests from all of the children.

Children from all over the world needed more presents because with all the lockdowns, due to the big sickness, children had worn-out all of their toys.

Santa at Mitre 10 Nelson

Santa’s elves have been very very busy, making more and more toys. Bushy Evergreen, the elf in charge of Santa’s toy making machine, told me “it’s hard keeping up with meeting children’s endless demand for new toys in this time of the big sickness.”

Santa believes that there is such a demand for toys he has instructed his elves to call on the Richmond Menzshed workers to make a new toy making machine for elf Bushy Evergreen.

Christmas in Richmond Mall

Santa’s elves under the direction of Humphrey, the Chief Elf, has had to build a new factory in the North Pole to cope with the demand for toys and the new toy making machine.

Santa used to rely on big container ships to stockpile toys around the world to later pick them up with his magic sleigh on Christmas Eve. Due to the big sickness all the ships are delayed.

Tasman District Council Christmas Tree

As a result Santa needed a new bigger magic sleigh. Elf Wunorse Openslae, who is in charge of the reindeers and Santa’s magic sleigh, had the job of enlarging Santa’s sleigh, increasing it’s size and power, from 9 reindeers to 18 reindeers to cope with the extra load of presents. Of course, Rudolph the red nose reindeer who has the magic to guide all the reindeers and who is the most experienced is put up front to lead the way.

Because it has been so busy Mrs Claus has been called in to help Santa this year with all the presents. The creative young elf, Sugarplum Mary, has taken over Mrs Claus’ work in the kitchen making all the sweet treats.

Santa could not go in any Santa Parades as all over the world they were cancelled due to the big sickness which has made Santa and the children very sad.

Nevertheless, Santa’s elves have been extremely busy helping each shop owner in Tasman and Nelson to decorate their shops for Santa. Helping to put up big Christmas trees around the towns and cities of the Upper South Island of New Zealand so Santa will feel welcome when he does his rounds on Christmas Eve.

"Dear children" said Santa "didn’t worry about not having a chimney for me to slide down as Mrs Claus is coming to help me, due to the ultimate demand for toys, and she has a fairy wand to unlock the door of every house in the world."

All households have a Christmas tree so Santa can put presents underneath it. Santa told me “I don’t like beer very much anymore.” So children leave out yummy nuts and fruit for him and Mrs Claus to find under your Christmas trees to give them energy to keep going.

Some clever children asked their parents to plant a Christmas tree in a pot to make sure there was one for next year, because of climate change.

Children didn't queue to see Santa this year. Due to the big sickness Santa is very busy talking to all of you in little healthy dedicated Santa rooms all over the world to find out what you want for Christmas.

To help Santa, his good friend alf Alabaster Snowball, a very intelligent elf, kept tabs on the behaviour of all the children by an elaborate computer system which gives each child’s “naughty or nice rating”. Not surprisingly, due to the big sickness, all the children have been nice this year and Alabaster told Santa he would have extra work as there were no naughty children this year.

Around Nelson and Tasman, Santa likes cruising around the hills in his new magic sleigh before Christmas. He speeds along the Maitai Valley, zips along the Richmond Ranges, across the valley and up and over gliding down the majestic Takaka valley and hills.(he is really testing out his new sleigh)

He pops into local businesses buying a pie in Wakefield, a cup of tea in Murchison, an orange juice in Tapawera and an ice- cream in Mapua. He has tried out the new traffic lights in Motueka and fed his reindeers nourishing and delicious cherries in Riwaka. He loves coming to the Top of the South. All the children are keeping a keen eye out for him.

The big question among all the residents is what is Santa getting for Mrs Claus for Christmas?

After Christmas it was thought that Mr and Mrs Claus would go home to the North Pole for a well-deserved rest, but in the days following Christmas all the children kept an eye out again as it was rumoured that Santa might have a fishing holiday in Golden Bay. He has a taste for snapper you see!

Sadly, due to Santa being overworked and underpaid, he forgot to leave a present for the Pigeon Post News Editor …. oh well there’s always next year.

The archaeologists have also found in the archaeological dig part of Santa's sleigh. It must have broken off the new up-graded sleigh making it tip out a pile of presents.

There was no reports of children not receiving any presents in the year 2021, except for me, so Santa must have made up time to deliver all his presents.

Of course by the time he had delivered presents to Tasman and Nelson he would be still going delivering presents on the other side of the world in another time zone.

Anne-Maree Therkleson Creative input