Seán and Woody Save Christmas – FULL VERSION
Fourth Class Collaborative Narrative (complete version)
Milford NS December 2019
One frosty December morning, Misty the elf was hammering away at toys and humming contently. Since being introduced to Santa’s clan of elves in the North Pole, he had managed to contain his mischief. Now his mind was plotting its greatest plan ever, one that would go down in history. He could see it now. He would make his father proud. For his father, who lived far away, was the one, the only, the infamous Grinch.
It was exactly one week until Christmas, so the whole North Pole was buzzing with excitement and extra work. Misty, the Head Toy-Engineer, calmly waited for the opportunity to bail off work. Finally, it came. Santa made a welcome announcement over the igloo-com.
“Ho, Ho, Ho my merry workers! Boy, have I got news for you! I’m just popping out tooooo ….. Holly’s Jolly Pancake Pantry! Keep working and stay jolly!”
While everybody else started working even harder (Misty didn’t think it was possible) he slipped away. He trudged to Santa’s Man Cave, pointy-toed, jingle shoes leaking and feet soaking.
“They’ll never find me here,” he chuckled.
When at last Misty reached Santa’s Man Cave, he was in a foul mood. His tune soon changed, as he spotted a candy-cane lever on the wall, peeking out from behind a bookcase. After running to flick the switch, he soon found himself cascading down into the darkness and landing on the floor with a thump.
He flung open the scarlet, fur-trimmed, double doors with great gusto. As he caught a glimpse of the glamorous interior, Misty couldn’t hold back his emotions.
“Oh my goodness,” he breathed in disbelief. Inside the secret chamber, there were TVs, sofas, and vending machines galore with every kind of cookie you could think of. It smelled distinctively of gingerbread men, cinnamon and buttered popcorn. There was a large red couch in front of a cinema-sized TV. The Liverpool vs. Barcelona FC game was playing.
Blood-red skis with matching poles were strewn across the thick fur carpet and the walls were covered with posters of Santa himself in various different poses and fan–letters.
Suddenly, Misty heard a muffled cough coming from outside. He shifted uncomfortably and then dived into a basket, as Donner, the reindeer trotted casually into the room.
“What are you doing here?”exclaimed Misty. “You shouldn’t be here!”
“Umm, yeah well you shouldn’t be here either,” responded Donner grumpily.
“Okay, so I shouldn’t be here, but I was so bored and sick and tired of being the Head Toy-Engineer, I was thinking we should go for a sleigh ride. What do you say?”
“ We are not allowed to go on a ride until Christmas Eve.”
“Well Santa has made an exception for the two of us to go for a ride,” snapped Misty cheekily.
Donner shrugged with confusion.
“What’s in it for me?’’ Donner asked suspiciously.
‘’I’ll give you a hoof massage when we get back,’’ whispered Misty.
“DEAL’’
“Well Ok, let’s go!”
Misty attached Donner to the rope and clambered into the sparkling sleigh. But not just any sleigh, the fastest sleigh on earth… the !!!! SLEIGH 2000!!!! Misty was as excited as a child opening gifts on Christmas morning. He hurriedly attached ropes to Donner, hooked them up to the sleigh and took off into the night sky.
He pondered where to go.
“OK, I am heading to the centre of Europe,” he decided, and in a flash, Misty flew at supersonic speed north of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius (26 kilometeres to be exact) and landed near the village of Purnuskes. Misty was thrilled to see the compass on the ground, as directions were badly needed!
“Oh cool, now, I know I’m heading west to the Wroclaw Christmas Markets,” he declared.
Misty loved speeding and before long, was zooming at the
speed of light, though distracted by a shiny, yellow star below.
Suddenly, fireworks exploded on top of the christmas tree in the market square and Misty couldn’t believe the magical sight beneath. It was the famous Christmas Market of Wroclaw that the Polish elves speak of. Misty was dazzled by the amazing colourful lights of the market stalls. Happy families were tasting traditional christmas food and drinking delicious hot chocolate. Warm memories came flooding back….especially of his time as elf on the shelf in Italy
For a moment, Misty felt a little guilty that these jolly people would not get any christmas presents…but… “ANDIAMO ADESSO!!!! ”
Beneath the twinkling sky, the snow glistened and sparkled. As the sleigh soared over the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it seem as if thousands of people were having a celebration. They looked festive, wearing red and green. For a moment, Misty thought they were Santa’s helpers, searching for the sleigh.
Donner landed the sleigh expertly and immediately, Misty, instead of being captured, was recognised by his human family and praised for turning up in authentic costume! So proud, Misty was awarded The Best-Dressed prize … pizza! It was delicious, but no time to eat it all!
“No wonder Santa needs an extra-large suit at Christmas time!” Misty remarked to Donner. “Anyway, I’d better check the time.”
But there was one problem…Misty had forgotten the time-traveller watch, so the next logical thing was to dash to Big Ben.
“Full throttle to London, Donner,” and they shot through the air in a whoosh. “Seven fifty nine…just perfect.”
As the clock struck eight, and reading time started in the human houses, Misty felt a huge desire to get stuck into a good book. But where would he find it? Flashing signs pointed the way to Dublin, though EXIT seemed to have a new spelling …BREXIT.
He tightened Donner’s collar and they set off aimlessly west.
Soaring over the sea, as fast as a hurricane, Misty finally hovered over land again. He could see ships berthing at the port of Dublin below.
The lights of the Long Room of Trinity College flickered, as the Elves on the Bookshelves flicked through the shimmering pictures in the Book of Kells. Misty landed the sleigh and hopped out on the roof, jumping up and down excitedly. Suddenly a light fell down from the ceiling, setting off an alarm. Security came swarming. So, once again Misty ran, cartwheeled into the sleigh and was off again… But not before his escapades made the front page of The Irish Times:
| “Trinity to shelve Book of Kells for four months”Famous manuscript will be removed from public display until next March to facilitate conservation works…Elves on Shelves helping the gardaí with their enquiries. |
As the duo fluttered down the west of Ireland, Misty thought he caught a glimpse of Ireland’s greatest surfer Senor G., catching the waves off the Cliffs of Moher, before finally arriving at the flood-lit Gaelic Grounds, where Limerick had just beaten Cork by a point in the first round of the League.
Sportingly, Misty invited some fans into the sleigh who were going onwards to Thomond Park to watch Munster against the All-Blacks.
As Misty flew over Thomond Park, to his amazement, little red elves were running around the pitch while the crowd urged them to “Stand up and Fight.” A strange looking ball shot high up in the air, almost clocking Misty, who by this stage was terrified. The crowd roared, “Go, Earlsy … GO… GO… YEAAAAAAAAH!”
Misty was not waiting for this Earlsy to catch him and left Thomond Park in a hurry…just like most teams, apparently. In no time at all, they were heading towards Castletroy.
“I’ve never seen anywhere as beautiful as Limerick,” shouted Donner. “Quick Misty, look at those delicious carrots growing in Milford’s school Garden!”
Transfixed, Donner forgot what he was supposed to be doing and he raced to the vegetable garden. Misty tried his hardest to steer him away but lost control and the sleigh plummeted, swirling, twirling and whirling until they crashed with a BANG and landed noisily on the Living Bridge, lucky to be alive.
Tumbling face first, Misty landed on the compact decking boards. As for Donner, he was the opposite of Misty. He landed on his back, howling in pain. The magic flight particles that were swirling around him vanished.
At that moment, (luckily for everyone) Seán and Woody, two local lads, were on the UL campus, walking their dogs. Seán’s dogs smelled smoke and they started barking. Soon Seán and Woody smelled it too.
“ Do you smell that?” asked Seán to Woody.
“Ya!” replied Woody.
“It smells like oil!”exclaimed Seán. “It looks like it’s coming from that bush, near the bridge.”
“Let’s find out what it is,” replied Woody as they went to investigate. Pushing the leaves away, to their shock, they found the sleigh with Misty and Donner in a tangled heap.
“WHAAAAAT!” gasped Seán, who ran to help.
“Are you okay?” asked Woody, helping Misty off the ground. “It looked like quite a fall.” Misty nodded.
“I’m okay!” he replied tentatively.
It took two hours, but Misty told them nearly the whole truth. About how he’d contained his mischief for years and eventually stolen Santa’s sleigh.
“But I still don’t get it.” Seán uttered.”Why did you do it?” Misty hesitated. He had to trust the duo. They were his only hope of getting the sleigh back in action.
“Well,” she began. “Can you keep a secret?”
Seán and Woody were shocked. Was this secret really that serious? “Ok….” they chorused. It was almost as if they had practiced.
“I’m… I’m….. I’m the Grinch’s son!!!” Misty managed to shriek. “And I’m in huge trouble now. I only meant to take the sleigh for a quick spin. If I don’t get back in time for Christmas Eve, Santa will never forgive me.”
Seán and Woody gave each other worried looks. But deep down inside they knew they had to trust this mischievous elf, in order to get the sleigh back to the North Pole for Christmas Eve.
“ I have a great idea let’s go to the Milford National School Gym,” said Woody smartly.
Seán, Woody, Donner and Misty tried to drag the sleigh back to the gym but half way there, they all nearly collapsed under the weight. Luckily, the Limerick hurling team were coming back from the Gaelic Grounds and they saw the hapless lot having trouble carrying the sleigh. Gearóid Hegarty offered to give them a ride in his Lamborghini.
“Class!” they shouted but Seán remembered the sleigh.
“Where will the sleigh go?”
Gearóid said, “We can just leave it up to Woody”. Woody looked shell-shocked.
“ Neh, I’m only joking” said Gearóid Hegarty heartily. “I’ve got a trailer in the back, you can put the sleigh on it.
“But we can’t let the teachers see!” exclaimed Seán.
“ Oh, I’ve an invisibility cloak that we can use,” exclaimed Misty.
“Nice,” whispered Seán. “But how are we supposed to bring the sleigh into the gym?” asked Toby.
“I’ll call my friends!” exclaimed Seán.
Half an hour later…
”So you’re saying that you and Woody found a Christmas elf?” Emily asked, unconvinced. Seán nodded, and Woody smiled to his approval.
“We don’t believe you,” she whispered. But a moment later, Ollie froze and his face turned pale. Standing in front of them was Misty.
” Holy Shmoly!” cried Aoife.
“What is t-that?” said Harry, shivering.
“It’s only an elf, Harry. Don’t be a scaredy cat,” replied Moya, laughing.
“What is your name?” asked Adi bravely.
“My name’s Misty,” replied Misty. You could hear that he was scared.” Could yeh help me fix this sleigh?”
“Of course we can!” everyone chorussed.
“We can bring it into the Gym and see what we can do,” suggested Jack.
“Ho-kee-do-kee,”replied Misty
At the crack of dawn on Saturday morning, Seán and Woody sent out text, emails, letters and even messages in bottles to tell everybody in Mr.Gallagher’s 4th Class (everybody except Mr. Gallagher) to come to the school gym 6am sharp to help fix the sleigh in time for Christmas.
Everyone arrived at exactly 6am, which was extremely convenient. To their amazement, they found Donner, basically half-dead on the gymnastics mats in exhaustion, and Misty foraging in the gym cupboard for food.
“Hello Misty,” cried Seán cheerfully.
“We are here to help you and Donner fix the sleigh!”
“Really? You would do that for Donner and me?”exclaimed Misty.
“Of course we would,” enthused Woody. “And all of 4th Class too!” Naoise looked puzzled. “But won’t the teachers find out?
“No problemo, Naoise, there is an invisibility cloak in the sleigh. Whenever a teacher comes in, we can cover it up!” explained Seán matter-of- factly.
“You are a living genius Seán,” Woody gushed. Seán smiled contentedly.
”You don’t need to remind me, Woody!”
Noah agreed to watch out when the School Band had rehearsal in the gym. He decided he’d set up near the storage room to guard the tools and decorations. Misty and Donner told the class the whole story.
“And that’s how we crashed our sleigh but we need to fix the sleigh in a week,” Misty explained, “ but we need an engine.”
“I know, we can get one from Mr. Moore’s Car,” whispered Kevin
“But that’s stealing,” replied Jojo.
“We’re borrowing it, Jojo,” whispered Anna, her fingers crossed behind her back.
“Fine, we’ll take it out of his car,” Jojo muttered .
“Let’s Go,” whispered Seán.
Aidan, Adi, Jack and Cian left to relieve Mr. Moore’s car of it’s engine. The clever plan was nearly scuppered as Ms. Rael was beside the car.
“Hello boys,” she chirped.
“Hi, Ms Rael,” answered Adi.
“Mr Moore told us to get something out of his car,” they said.
“Ok, let me get for you,” she offered.
“No that’s ok,” said Cian.
“We’re fine,” said Jack
“Bye then,” said Ms Rael, and all sighed with relief as they swiftly put their STEAM skills to work, ‘liberating’ the engine.
The children worked all day and all night until they were phsically demented.
Courtesy of Misty, gallons and gallons of hot chocolate were made to keep everybody happy as they worked.
“Oh no!”shouted Lily in panic, “I think I hear Mr. Nelligan coming!”
Mr. Nelligan burst through the double-doors, wearing cobalt coloured pyjamas with yawning moons and golden stars. His sleeping mask completed the ensemble, topped like a cherry on top! He grasped a giant bowl (the kind of mixing bowl you would use in baking to be exact) of coffee. Luckily, he was so frazzled, he did not notice the extremely large, obvious sleigh, right in the middle of the gym.
“Hey kids!” he boomed, talking to the wall. “You should be in class!”
“U-uh Mr. Nelligan, we are over here!” shouted Sophie.
“A-and also i-it is Sunday.”
“WAIT!! IT IS MY WELL DESERVED DAY OFF! I AM LEAVING!” shrieked Nauseous Nelligan as he sped off.
“Well thank goodness he is gone,” said Marcel in a relieved tone.
“Yes, thank goodness,” exclaimed Bella.
“Can everyone smell that?” asked Anna, “because it smells just like gingerbread!” Everybody, as quiet as a mouse, crept into the staff room to see what the wonderful smell was.
“Mmm…gingerbread!”
Standing in the middle of the staff room was Ms. Fenton, scoffing all of the gingerbread!
“WhAt ArE YoU DoInG HeRe?” roared Ms. Fenton, her mouth full to the brim with icing and gingerbread. “GET OUT NOW!” she roared furiously, shaking her fists at them, while reaching for the bell. Thankfully, Ms. Newman, Ms. Seymour and Ms.Cahill were passing by, and smuggled the tasty Christmas treats to the children, as they ran back to the gym to finish the project.
Once they were done rebuilding the sleigh, not one child trusted Misty and Donner to return it safely to the North Pole. There was just too much at stake. So they completed a Google Survey, which decreed that Seán and Woody should accompany the mischievous Misty and distracted Donner back to the North Pole in time for Christmas deliveries!
Bursting with delight, Seán and Woody boarded the reconditioned Sleigh 2000, with Misty demoted to the back seat. The sleigh hummed and thrummed, rising into the air. Within seconds they were flying over Finland, in the direction of the North Pole.
As the sleigh landed in a flurry of snow, Santa’s elves didn’t look too pleased with Misty but they quickly fetched Santa, who was distraught that his pride and joy, his Sleigh 2000 was still on the Missing List.
“Holy Christmas, Misty you’re back … and with the sleigh??!!?” Santa gasped”
“Santa it’s good to see you too. I am sorry about stealing the sleigh but it was…… because please don’t be mad, I am working for the Grinch,” sobbed Misty. The elves held their hands to their mouths and started whispering.
Misty explained everything to Santa and looked ashamed of himself.
”Misty,” Santa began, “I forgive you, as I believe you’re sorry. You’ve also returned the sleigh as an eco-friendly, snow-powered turbo 2000 model. You must have had some help from Green Schools children! I don’t think you should return to that nasty Grinch. Instead, stay with us here in the North Pole and be one of my best Wrapping Elves.”
“OMG, Santa I would love that!” gasped Misty excitedly. Then, was a huge hug. Santa turned to Seán, who was still mesmerised by all he was witnessing.
“Seán you have been a huge help to me, which way do you want to go home: floo powder or a ride on my sleigh?”
“ I thought that Harry Potter stuff was fake!” replied Seán, amazed.
“Well,” explained Santa, I was a Hogwarts Prefect in my time, so which way do you want to go home?”
Of course, Seán picked the sleigh.
Santa looked puzzled. “Now what are we going to do about your present? You have to get a special reward. Seán thought and whispered in Santa’s ear.
“Ho! Ho! Ho! I just may have a few vacancies, Santa chuckled as he winked to Seán and Woody.”
So Santa, Seán and Woody harnessed Rudolph and Blitzen (Donner was sent for further training by the Reindeer Council) and took off once more into the cold night air. As they flew over Milford, they heard the resounding chorus of Shotgun, as Gaeilge, followed by Oíche Chiúin.
Santa was impressed. “Ah”, it must be close to Christmas Pageant time in Milford. Such great boys and girls.”
“You don’t know the half of it Santa!”
Seán and Woody exchanged a satisfied look, just before they miniaturised and whooshed down their very own chimney.
“Woody, I think we’ve just gone and saved Christmas.”
“Yip Seán, that’s enough adventures for 2019. Can’t wait for normal school life to resume in 2020.
Seán had a little giggle. “Well, it will be normal for the Milford children…but the staff may need some In-Service Training. Santa’s doing a little re-deployment over Christmas.”
HO! HO! HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
Mr. Moore: Chief of Elf-Security and Re-Training
Mr. Nelligan: Chief Sleigh-Bell Tuner
Ms. Fenton: Spell-checker of Christmas Lists
Ms Hill: Christmas Decoration Supervisor
Rose: Santa Wish-List Coordinator
Joe: Elf-Shelf Maintenance
Ms. Murray: Chief of Elf-Hygiene
Ms Doody : Elf Dance Choreographer
Ms. Reidy: Christmas Music Composer
Ms. Taylor: Elf Costumier
Ms. O Neill: Elf Berry-Juice Supplier
Ms. Walsh: Personal Elf- Chef
Ms. Hannigan: Christmas Story Reader
Ms.Moloney: Elf Fashion Blogger
Ms.Munnelly: Creator of Christmas Treats
Ms. Dolphin: Coordinator of Ice-Fishing Competitions
Ms. Rael: Junior Elf teacher
Ms. Mitchell: Chief of Christmas Wrapping Design
Ms. Larkin: Chief of Elf-Debate
Mr. Gallagher: Elf Fitness
Ms O’Sullivan: Head of Christmas Cheer
Ms. Crosse: Chief of Elf-Floristry
Ms. Barrett: Elf Strictly Come Dancing Judge
Ms. O’Dwyer: Elf-Look Influencer
Ms. Newman: Elf-News Editor
Ms. Burke Christmas Jumper Production
Ms. Griffin Elf Toy-Tester
Ms. Seymour: Elf Hair-Stylist
Ms. Cahill Cross- Country Reindeer Trainer
Ms. Duggan Chief of Cookie Making
Ms. Quinlan Senior member of Elf Electronics
Ms. H O’Sullivan Christmas Cake Stylist
Mr. Kelly Elf-Football Scout
Ms. Fitzpatrick Trainer of Elf-Hurling
Ms. Ryan Toddler-Elf Supervisor
Ms. O’Meara Head of Baby-Elf Nursery
