Santa and the Purple Scurf

It was on a snowy Christmas Eve, long ago, that Santa and his Elves at the North Pole received a very peculiar letter from one of the billions of boys and girls who write to him every year.

 

“Dear Santa Clause”, it has said,

 

“Please, oh please will you bring me a purple scurf for Christmas.

 

Yours sincerely, Molly, aged 4 and a half”.

 

“A purple Scurf?”, Santa had asked his chief Elf, after he’d read out the letter, “What in all of Christmas is a purple Scurf?”.

 

But neither his chief elf nor any of the other elves nor any of his reindeers had a clue what a purple Scurf was and so, that Christmas Eve, Santa set out on a quest, not just around the North pole or around the world but around the whole galaxy, to find a Purple Scurf for little Molly.

 

First he flew round all the corners of Europe, to France and Germany, Russia and Great Britain but no one he asked in those countries had seen or heard of a Scurf, purple or otherwise.

 

Then he flew around the Americas, both North and South, but still no one he asked knew what a purple Scurf was.

 

Then he flew round Africa, Australia, Asia and even the South pole where he questioned all the penguins and the eskimo’s but still, no one he spoke to had ever heard of a purple scurf.

 

He even spoke to the Dalai Lama in Tibet, one of the wisest men in all the world, but not even he could tell him what a Purple scurf was.

 

However, Santa was not ready to quit and nor were any of his dedicated team of flying reindeer and so, putting on space helmets over their large reindeer antlers, they took their quest into outer space.

 

First they travelled to the moon and searched all of its large, dusty craters for a purple scurf and spoke to the silver moon moles that live upon the moon but, sadly, they found nothing on the moon.

 

So then they travelled to Mars and Venus and rode round the rainbow coloured rings of Saturn and Uranus and went to Mercury and Neptune, even Pluto which is the farthest planet of all from the Earth but none of the strange creatures that lived on those planets, even though they had many odd things upon their worlds, had ever heard of a purple scurf.

 

They even peered inside a big, black hole to see if the purple scurf might be hiding inside but, alas, there was only a very bad tempered, orange Space Dragon who might have eaten Santa, his sleigh and all his reindeers up if he hadn’t been allergic to the prickly green holly that Santa had pinned upon his hat.

 

And so, sadly, flying back home across the stars, Santa shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

 

“Well”, he said, “At least we tried our best but we’ve searched all the corners of the Earth and the Galaxy and we still haven’t found a purple scurf and I don’t know if we’ll ever find one”.

 

But then, just as Santa and the reindeers were re-entering  the Earth’s atmosphere, the jolly old man’s eyes lit up as he had a brilliant idea.

 

“If there’s one person who knows what a purple Scurf is, then it’s the little girl who asked for it in the first place”, he said.

 

Then, tugging upon the reins, he ordered the reindeer to head for the home of little Molly, aged 4 and a half and then, landing upon the snow covered roof of her house, he slid down the chimney pot and made his way, on tip-toe, across the living room and up the stairs to the little girls bedroom where he found her lying fast asleep; her arms wrapped tightly around a teddy bear.

 

“Ahem!”, he said, tapping her gently upon the shoulder with one of his large red, velvet mittened hands.

 

Opening her eyes, at first the girl thought that she must be dreaming but then Santa Clause showed her the letter that she had written and explained to her how he had searched all around the world and even across the stars and still had not been able to find a purple scurf.

 

“Purple Scurf?”, asked Molly, confused but then, looking at the letter, suddenly it all became clear.

 

“Oh”, she said, giggling, “I must have written a U instead of an A, I didn’t ask for a purple Scurf, I asked for a purple Scarf”.

 

“A scarf?”, laughed Santa, his big round belly shaking as he laughed, “Oh well that’s easy to get”.

 

And then Santa reached into his sack and pulled out a long, glittery purple scarf covered in silver snowflakes and Molly, wrapping it round her was very happy indeed.

 

Then, giving Molly and her teddybear Archie a big hug, Santa got back into his sleigh and flew home to the North Pole because he still had to deliver all the other Christmas presents to the little boys and girls around the world so that they, like Molly, would have a very happy Christmas.