Dash the Reindeer

Once upon a time, in a little town not so far away from here was a little boy called Ben. He was a handsome little boy with blonde hair and big blue eyes. He lived with his mummy in a house up on the hill.

It was a cold day in November, not quite cold enough to snow but cold enough to turn the tips of your ears red and make your nose tingle. Ben spent all day at nursery where the nice ladies took good care of him while his mummy was at work. And after nursery Ben’s mummy took him to get his hair cut.

Now the man who cut Ben’s hair was no ordinary hairdresser. For a start he had bright blue hair in a big spike on the top of his head! Ben was a very good boy, he sat very still and didn’t cry once while the man cut his hair. The hairdresser with the blue spiky hair was impressed at how well behaved he was and gave him a lollipop and asked

"What does a good little boy like Ben want for Christmas?”

“A reindeer” replied Ben

“a reindeer?”

“yes, a reindeer called Dash”

The blue hairdresser was one of Santa’s helpers and so he wrote a letter to Santa with the little boys request for a reindeer called Dash for Christmas. As you know the traditional way to send Santa a letter is up the chimney but Santa’s helpers have a special way, the man with the blue hair folded his letter up into the shape of a star, and threw up it up in the air, the wind caught hold of it and blew the star across the world to the North Pole. Santa was sat at his desk when the letter arrived, he unfolded the star and began to read.

Santa had a problem, he stroked his beard and scratched his head. He knew Ben was a good boy because his name was right there on the Nice List on his desk in front of him. But Santa couldn’t give him a reindeer. Santa needed all his reindeer to pull his sleigh on Christmas Eve and help him deliver the presents to the little boys and girls around the world.

But Ben’s Christmas request did solve a different problem over in Lapland. Rudolph and his wife had been having trouble picking out a name for their son and the name Dash would suit him perfectly! So the newest arrival to Santa’s reindeer fleet was christened Dash and on Christmas Eve Dash was chosen to help lead the sleigh up at the front next to his dad Rudolph.

With Rudoph and Dash leading the sleigh Santa had an idea. When he arrived at Ben’s house on the hill to deliver his presents he landed the sleigh in the garden where there was a huge trampoline. Santa bounced high on the trampoline up to Ben’s bedroom window. Ben was in bed asleep when he heard Santa knocking on his window. He jumped out of bed and opened the window for Santa to climb in. “Santa, is it really you?” asked Ben reaching up to tug on Santa’s beard.
Santa gave a big belly laugh “Ho ho ho! Yes, it really is me, “now lets go outside so you can meet Dash”

Ben raced downstairs and out into the garden where the reindeer were waiting for him. Ben fed Dash and the other reindeer the carrots he had left out before he went to bed while Santa enjoyed the mince pies. He watched Ben play with the reindeer and was sorry that he couldn’t leave Dash behind. Santa explained to Ben that Dash was needed back at the North Pole for some very important jobs and that they had to leave now to give all the other boys and girls their presents. Ben said goodbye to Dash, he gave him a big hug and whispered in his ear “I love you Dash” and when he placed a kiss on Dash’s nose it glowed bright red, just like Rudolph’s! Santa promised that he and Dash would come back and visit him every Christmas Eve and Ben promised that he would be a good boy for whole year.