Santa Claus will be coming to town in only a little more than a week. Boys and girls of Decatur County should be extra good as Santa peers at each name on his naughty and nice lists. Nobody would want to end up on the naughty list and get coal for Christmas this year.

Santa has been busily instructing his elves which toys to make for everyone, young and old. The elves have been more productive than in years’ past. Usually, the elves sneak out of the workshop to go sledding and build snow-elves. This year has been relatively warm, and even the North Pole doesn’t have enough snow yet to cause elf mischief.

However, Monday afternoon, the elves attempted to cover the North Pole with anything they could find that resembled snow. First they tried flour, but it made them sneeze when they crashed into it at the bottom of the sledding hill. Next, the elves coated the North Pole with whipped cream. This seemed like a better idea until all the elves sank in the whipped cream and ate their way back to the workshop. The last attempt involved cotton balls. This created a nice fluffy snow effect, but all the snow-elves made of cotton balls kept falling over and snowball fights were pointless.

It is obvious Santa has had his hands full, but he is still ready to load up the sleigh and take the reindeer out. He will depart next Thursday night once all the children are in their beds, dreaming of sugarplums. Santa hopes most of the houses will remember to leave him cookies and milk by the Christmas tree, as he gets very hungry from all the traveling.

When Santa is not piling gifts into the sleigh, he is helping Mrs. Claus around the house. They have been stringing lights and hanging shining stars upon the highest boughs. One elf even spotted Santa and Mrs. Claus kissing under the mistletoe after fastening it above a doorway. Once in a while, the Clauses roast chestnuts on an open fire. Their favorite thing to do together is listen to the jingle bells.

“I hope all you girls and boys have been good this year and didn’t spill anything on Mommy’s rug or make Tommy eat a bug,” Santa said with a twinkle in his eye as his belly jiggled like a bowl full of jelly.