red and white one. The sign read “Slow Down - Reindeer Crossing Ahead”. In the distance, Bobby could see some other signs and a few buildings were starting to come into view.
As Uncle Bill slowed the truck some more and turned into the drive, his nephew sat there silently. He just couldn’t believe his eyes. Uncle Bill laughed quite out loud, then turned to him, and said, “Surprise!” He told his nephew to hang onto his seat, and said that he might not ever, ever, believe whom he was about to meet.
After they parked at the loading dock, Bobby saw people hurrying around. Uncle Bill said to him, “Go ahead, get out and take a look around.” Then Bobby climbed down out of that big truck and stood there on the ground.
At first he just stood there, in complete and utter awe. He had a very hard time trying to believe it all. As he stood there and wondered at everything he saw, he realized that the people weren’t very tall. In fact, if Bobby didn’t know better, they might even be elves, although they didn’t look like the ones he had read about, in all those books sitting on his shelves.
They were just real short people with almost-pointed ears, some more than others. And they seemed to be of every nationality that he had ever heard of. As Bobby started walking toward Santa’s great big house, people would stop and greet him; everyone said hello. They all seemed to know his name, and he wondered how that was so.
Santa’s house was huge, made of red bricks, and it had white trim. Bobby was really hoping that he might be invited in. Just when he was about to knock on the door, quite to his surprise, it opened and there was a man standing there. The man wasn’t as tall as Uncle Bill, but he was bigger around. And when the man started to laugh and hold his belly, Bobby knew that he had found-- Santa Claus!
Santa greeted the young man and called him by name, and said that he’d wondered if Uncle Bill was ever going to bring him around to see the place. Santa had had many long visits with Uncle Bill, I guess. Bobby was in wonderment and started asking questions a hundred miles an hour. Santa just laughed, and then asked if he would like a tour of the place. “Who wouldn’t?” said Bobby.
Santa showed him the house where everybody lived. Bobby thought it looked big from the outside but it seemed even bigger inside. There was a very large dining room where everyone could eat, and a living room that was big enough for all to have a seat. Everybody that worked here also lived here, there was a bedroom for everyone and no one had to share.
They went over to the toy factory and Santa showed him how everything worked. There were an awful lot of people, and machines making toys--the combination of the two made an awful lot of noise. Santa said there was not a single toy that wasn’t being made there. As Santa was showing Bobby the gift-wrapping department.
One of the workmen came and told Santa that they were having a problem; Santa said that he would have to go and tend to something very important. But it would be okay if Bobby stayed and looked around, and told him to let someone know if there was anything else he’d like to see.
Well, it was all very exciting to Bobby. The big yard, the house, the factory. Finally, getting a little tired of getting underfoot and having to keep saying “Beg your pardon”, Bobby thought he would just go outside and see what else there was to see. He looked out over the huge estate and saw the house, the yard and the factory. And ‘way over yonder, there was a different type of house. It looked kind of like a barn, only nicer. He decided to check it out.
When Bobby opened the great big doors, he saw that it was a barn. Going inside, he noticed a very long hallway. On the left side, there were ten windows; on the right, there were ten doors. As he started to walk down the hallway, he noticed some signs above the ten closed doors and this is what they read.
The first one read Dasher, and the second one, Dancer; the third one read Prancer, and the fourth one, Vixen. You probably have guessed that the fifth one read Comet, the sixth one, Cupid; the seventh one read Donner, the eighth one, Blitzen. The ninth one had to be the most famous of them all, if he had read all the names right, hanging on that wall.
Well, he had, and the ninth one did read “Rudolph.” But Bobby stared in complete wonder at the tenth door! He read it aloud and this is what it said--”Randolph”! He was taken by surprise, and turned around and sped to tell his Uncle Bill of the sign that he himself had read.
Uncle Bill was just about done helping to unload the truck and told Bobby that Santa, as he normally did, had asked them both to supper. Later Santa himself would tell Bobby about the sign that he himself had read.
It was ‘way after supper, later on that night, when Santa said, “It’s getting late, and I’m tired now. I think I’ll go to bed.” Bobby looked at Santa Claus and wondered if it would be all right. He knew he shouldn’t make Santa Claus stay up too late at night. “Excuse me, sir. Oh, pardon me; I don’t want to keep you from your bed. But my Uncle Bill said that you would tell me of a sign that I myself have read.”
“Ho, Ho, Ho!” said Santa. “I bet you’re talking about the sign in the barn that reads ‘Randolph’. You probably have never heard of him, have you? Well, it has been kind of a secret around here for years, and if you promise not to tell, I’ll explain just why!”
You see, a long time ago--I can’t remember when--I used to have only eight reindeer. And that’s all I’d ever needed. Eleven months of the year, the reindeer all act like other reindeer, just busying themselves with foraging for food out in the pasture. Then, about a month before Christmas, I put them on a special diet of clovers. Not just any clovers, but four-leaf clovers. It’s a secret that I have, to make reindeer fly.
Well, as you may know, four-leaf clovers are very, very hard to find. And to locate enough of them to make reindeer fly used to take a lot of my time. It was on one of those clover-hunting trips that I happened by two little orphaned reindeer with shiny noses. They were so little and in need of food. I brought them back with me and put them in the barn with all the other reindeer so they wouldn’t be lonely, and I named them Rudolph and Randolph. I searched far and wide, but I never did find out what happened to their parents.
It wasn’t very long before they got comfortable and would venture out to play in the yard with all the other reindeer. But the others were so big, and the brothers were so small, that they couldn’t play in all the games that reindeer play. Being a lot smaller than the others, they preferred to go and play by themselves.
It turned out the reason they were so little is that they were identical twins. They sure acted like twins, too, and when you first looked, you couldn’t see any differences at all. They jumped alike and ran alike. They even used to stop alike. Except Rudolph, he was always a little better at stopping than his brother, but that never seemed to bother Randolph. Because it’s not winning or losing that’s important; it’s how you play. Anyway, I guess the only real way to tell them apart was to look at their noses. You see, Rudolph’s nose was red and Randolph’s nose was—brown!
When Thanksgiving would roll around, all the reindeer would start eating that special clover and they’d go outside and practice their flying abilities, to get ready for that one and only day of the year when they had to really work. When the day before Christmas would come, I’d hitch up the big reindeer to the sleigh, and tell the little ones, “Now you boys go and play, and perhaps you can come another day.” The reindeer and I would take off and deliver all those toys to the good little girls and boys. And everything was always okay.
But one year, the day before Christmas, it got so foggy I didn’t know if I’d be able to go. In fact, I almost didn’t. If it weren’t for the rest of the folks here and Mrs. Claus, I wouldn’t have, either. You see; the weather was so bad that they canceled all flights around the whole world. Nothing was flying. I mean to tell you, it was awful! There hasn’t been a day or a night quite like that since. We were sitting around and discussing just what I was going to do, when someone asked “What’s that glowing ‘way over yonder, just about where the barn should be?”
We got all d
ressed up to bear the weather and set out to see. As we stepped outside, we had to be very careful because we could not see anything anywhere except that glow. So we walked in the direction of the barn and, quite to our surprise, it turned out to be the glowing of Rudolph and Randolph’s noses.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that, if we could use that light to guide us to the barn, then why couldn’t we use it to guide the sleigh? The question now was, which one of the boys would we use, Rudolph or Randolph. It was a very hard decision to make, but one that had to be made.
Rudolph was the older of the two--they told me he was the firstborn and he always did manage to do some things just a little better than his younger brother. And then there was the fact that his nose was red just like the lights on all of the world’s aircraft. We decided that it should be Rudolph, and Randolph also agreed.
Well, Rudolph was so excited that he could hardly stand it. Randolph tried to get him to relax and told him to go to sleep, ‘cause you don’t want to be tired. It was