The Christmas When Santa's Grandfather Clock Stopped Working

Preparing for the festivities is always a busy time in the North Pole, but the Christmas when Santa's Grandfather clock stopped, Santa had even much less time on his hands than usual. No - one could decide quite what had stopped the clock working - had it gone on strike like the elves ? perhaps it was the cold ? or that the cogs inside were too old ? Maybe it had been broken when Santa knocked it over with his sack of Christmas presents. Now, without a Grandfather clock, Santa did everything on the wrong times. Instead of breakfast, he cooked tea. Once, he even got mixed up between bedtime and lunch accidentally ! Usually, Santa started work at ten past ten - but without a Grandfather clock, he got there at ten to eleven. Either way, that year, Christmas came and went, though the time on the Grandfather clock read ten - twenty constantly and none of the Christmas cards, on time, got sent. No wonder Santa didn't make it to work on time - and all the gnomes started to complain ... Santa had spent at least an hour after breakfast, trying to get the Grandfather's clock chain to work again. But it was hopeless ... the dials didn't turn, the clock didn't tick - all that the minutes and the seconds hand did was stick. Rudolph, whose nose was, of course, quite bright, decided to see if he could fix the grandfather clock, by lighting up the lights. The batteries, unfortunately, still didn't work that well - and the grandfather clock still didn't tock as well. When the reindeer came to look, the sticky out bits on his horns got stuck ! That didn't help fixing the Grandfather clock an awful lot - Santa started to scream and shout, about a reindeer, with his bottom stickin out ! Along came the Christmas fairy, waving her magic wand ... but nothing much happened at all. The Grandfather clock remained completely still, leant up on the wall in the Hall (though luckily, for all, a little bit of the fairy's magic did fall. Once the magic had slip ... the Grandfather clock lost it's reindeer grip, so off around the world trip, he could skip !). Still the Grandfather clock remained the same ... days passed and Christmas Eve came. For Santa, the worst thing about having nothing with which to tell the time, was that he missed the friendly cuckoo, which used to pop in and out, "cuckoo - ing", on every chime. Having no Grandfather clock in his home, is almost as bad as having to livve with a gnome ! Santa thought about the problem, rather a lot. Then, Santa went into the garden to see if there were any other birds he could use instead, or not (and to see how much bird seed he'd got amongst the flowerpots - which wasn't a lot). First, Santa brought an eagle, but it flew away. Next he tried an owl - but it too, couldn't sit still and stay. The sparrow was so lazy, he didn't get up until at least twenty - past nine. The blue tit was no better - he couldn't tell the time. Santa found that the songthrush was always singing. Though quite beautiful, he couldn't hear the Grandfather clock ticking and dinging. Of course, a Grandfather clock without any tocking is considered in Christmasland to be quite shocking. Soon, the neighbours, the Carol singers who lived next door started to complain - the songthrush's singing was driving them all insane ! Likewise, Mrs Christmas didn't much care for the starling, startled her when it flew into her kitchen. "Shoo ! Shoo!", she cried, as another bird flew in from outside. Thinking her table of mince pies were bread on the bird table outside, the starling pecked until the smallest mince pie had turned to crumbs ... leaving Santa having to explain why to Mrs. Christmas, why there weren't as many plums. Meanwhile, the Grandfather clock was still broke. No wonder Santa was confused when, mid -afternoon, he awoke ! Santa asked the Christmas snowman to help wind up the cogs - but it was hopeless, it was heavier than one of Santa's Christmas logs. The elves brought a hammer and a nail or two, the gnome brought a screwdriver and a few screws. But they were so used to building toys, rather than fixing Grandfather clocks, that they didn't really know what to do ! The Grandfather clock remained - telling a time of twenty pst two. Eventually, it was the robin redbreast who came up with the most helpful idea - when he flew up to the cuckoo's door, Christmas magic started to appear ! By Christmas Day, the robin had popped in and out of the cuckoo clock 546 times ... two times for every one of the chimes. Naturally, put to the test, being a robin redbreast, he worked magic, as only Christmas robins do best. When he fluttered his wings, inside the Grandfather clock Santa heard something stirring in rings. Slowly, at first, then a little bit quicker ... the robin redbreast brought a bit of life to Santa's ol' ticker. Every time that the robin "tweet !", the Grandfather clock turned up the heat (and Santa's heart, missed a beat !). Although he left a trail of brown feathers, behind, the robin used his feathers to polish the wind. After a while, he'd dusted the dial, Christmas style. Hoping that the clock wouldn't rewind, then with a glass of sherry, Santa started to unwind (whilst the robin redbreast did all the work, I think you'll find !).

Santa's Christmastime Time Game

If the Grandfather clock was 45 minutes too fast, what time was it really, when ... 1. Santa cooked breakfast and the clock read 8 a.m. ? 2. Santa put the mince pies in the oven at midday 12 noon ? 3. Santa put up the Christmas stocking at 3 p.m. in the afternoon ? 4. Santa wrapped his Christmas presents at 10.30 a.m. ? 5. Santa went to the garden shed at 11.15 a.m. ? 6. Santa heard the postman knock at 6.45 p.m. ?

© Jacqueline Richards 2008 Answers : 1. 7.15 a.m. 2. 11.15 a.m. 3. 2.15 p.m. 4. 9.45 a.m. 5. 10.30 a.m. 6. 6 p.m.