Stories for Grand Children

Rum Tum Tuddly was trying to fasten his little green jacket and couldn’t. “Oh Dear”, he said “It must have shrunk again when Mrs Bumble washed it”. But it hadn’t. Rum Tum Tuddly was just getting fatter and fatter, and do you know why? Well, he loved to eat and his favorite snack was chocolate. He was one of the many little elves who help the Easter Bunnies to make those lovely Easter Eggs and he would often have a little nibble if he found a broken one. “After all, you can’t wrap broken ones”, he would mumble with a mouthful of yummy chocolate “and I must make sure they taste nice”. Then he would go on with his job of wrapping the eggs in beautiful shiny paper.

One morning, Mother Easter Bunny was counting the eggs and popping them into the different sized baskets for the different size Easter Bunnies to deliver on Easter morning. As she came around a corner, there was Rum Tum Tuddly sitting down, having another snack. “Ah ther you are, come with me please, I have a special job for you”, said Mother Easter Bunny. So Rum Tum Tuddly followed along behind Mother Bunny, down a long hall they went, around a few corners, and then down some steps. They arrived in a large kitchen that Rum Tum Tuddly had never seen before, and it looked like there was a party happening.

“Sit down and have something nice to eat and then we will talk about a special favor I would like you to do for me. You certainly are the right shape for this job”, Mother Bunny said with a small smile sneaking onto her face.

All the other little bunnies around the table stopped munching on goodies to nod at him and have a little chuckle between themselves.

“Thank you for the party but…..am I in big trouble?” asked Rum Tum Tuddly.

“Goodness no, but I do have a job for you, a very important job. Grandfather Bunny has hurt his foot and can’t help with the eggs this year so I would like you to take his place. He usually carries a large basket and I think you are about the only one who could carry it”, said Mother Easter Bunny.

Garndfather Bunny was a bit grouchy as he heard about his job being given away to someone else, and not even an Easter Bunny at that. He said “It’s not my fault that I fell down a hole”, and he frowned at the little bunnies who were giggling and teasing about a rabbit falling down a rabbit hole. “I forgot I was on the roof and when I found the football Baby Bunny had lost, I just kicked it and overbalanced”. Grandfather Bunny realized how funny it was and started to chuckle as he said ” anyway I’m waiting to see Rum Tum Tuddly in my Easter costume”.

Rum Tum Tuddly gasped in surprise, “Not an Easter Bunny costume!”

Mother Bunny smiled and said “It’s not so bad to be an Easter Bunny, It really is quite fun and you are the right size and shape for it. Come along and try it on, we don’t want you to frighten the children, should they accidentally see you, so wear the costume you will”.

Rum Tum Tuddly said anxiously, “Aren’t you a bit worried about my tasting all the eggs until there are none left?”

Cuddly Mother Bunny stood up on a chair and reached into the very top of the cupboard and brought down a little tin that was very dusty. “Goodness, it’s a long time since I had to use this”, she said as she dusted off the top and lifted the lid. “Come over here, dear, and close your eyes for a moment”.

“Oh dear, I’ll be good. I won’t do it again”, babbled Rum Tum Tuddly, “Will this hurt?”

Mother Easter Bunny smiled kindly and said, “We don’t hurt people, now close your eyes”. She took a sprinkle of shiny Magic Dust and it made a slight tinkling noise as it drifted down over the nose of Rum Tum Tuddly. He sneezed and giggled at the same time and said, “That was nice, it sort of tickled. Could you do it again?”

Mother Bunny smiled and said, “No need, you won’t even think of a snack now. Okay then, hurry and get into your costume because the others are nearly ready to get started”.

Rum Tum Tuddly had been thinking very hard about this over the last few minutes and he had decided that it did seem rather like fun, so he willingly put on the costume and the special hat that Mother Bunny had sewn with two long furry ears, and there he was. He twisted and turned in front of the big mirror with all the other little bunnies. Some were polishing their little pink noses and some were brushing their fluffy little tails, everyone trying to look their best for the Big Delivery. “My word”, he said proudly, “I do look rather grand”.

Grandfather Bunny came over and smiled kindly at him. He said “The way to get started on the Fun Day, is to stand in line over there with all the others, and when it is your turn you must step up to the Magic Stump, stamp your feet twice and say ‘Diddly Hi, Diddly Lo – and off we go’, and don’t forget to twitch your nose . Oh, and don’t drop your basket”.

Rum Tum Tuddly was looking a little worried and said, “That’s an awful lot to remember, and how do I get back? Perhaps I had better not go after all”.

Grandfather Bunny winked wisely at him and touched the side of his nose, “It’s as easy as falling off a log, but this secret you must never tell to anyone. When you have finished your list, and your basket is empty, you will find a piece of Magic Clover. All you do is close your eyes and nibble on it, and there you are – or should I say here you are”.

Rum Tum Tuddly grinned widely and said, “It does sound like fun, can I start now? I have my basket of eggs and my long list”.

Grandfather Bunny nodded and smiled, so Rum Tum Tuddly joined the line of happy, excited bunnies. He looked down into the basket of eggs and thought “The Magic Dust really does work, I don’t even feel like tasting them. Oh my, look at my list, I hope I have enough eggs”.

Soon it was Rum Tum Tuddly’s turn to step up onto the Magic Stump. It was very large, and very old, and the center was worn into quite a hollow from all the little bunny feet that had stamped on it over the years. Up he stepped and he turned to look at Grandfather Bunny. “I’ll do my very best work for you and I will be ever so careful not to wake the children”. Then he turned and closed his eyes, stamped his feet twice, said the Magic Words and twitched his nose. He opened one eye to peep at what was happening and just had a moment to see Grandfather Bunny smiling at him and then, in a twinkle of time, he was in a garden – his first little delivery.

The list said – ONE LITTLE GIRL, MAKE IT EASY. So he put the eggs where a very small child could easily find them, then skipped off to the next house.

Rum Tum Tuddly soon became quite clever at hiding the eggs in many different places, making it easy for the little children and much more difficult for the older children, so that when they found them it was much more fun.

As soon as he thought his basket was empty, it became magically full again, so he would turn the page and race off to the next house on the list.

When the little book of children’s names was on its very last page and down to the very last name, Rum Tum Tuddly hid the eggs carefully and stood up and stretched out tall, well as tall as a little elf could stretch, and yawned widely. He was smiling to himself and thinking what a fun time he had enjoyed when a little voice called out, “Look Mummy and Daddy, I can see an Easter Bunny and he’s yawning”.

With a twitch of his little Bunny Tail costume, Rum Tum Tuddly ran amongst some trees and quickly nibbled on the Magic Clover Leaf that just happened to be right there, waiting for him. Within the wink of an eye he was back home again joining in the fun and laughter with all the other little Easter Bunnies.

They had all done such a good job of delivering all those Easter Eggs on that special morning and everyone was quite proud of themselves and their friends.

Little Jenny was always asking questions and some of them were questions that even Mummy and Daddy couldn’t answer. So, one evening when Granny came to say goodnight, Jenny thought she would ask her. Here is one of the stories that made Jenny a little wiser, about how Santa knows who is being good.

There is a very large tree, right outside Santa’s house. This is a magic tree and it is so large that you have to lean very far back to see to the very top, and so old that even Santa cannot remember when the tree was small.

Now, whenever Santa wanted to have a little look at whether Jenny or any of the other little boys and girls was being good or bad, all he had to do was to come out to the magic tree and have a look into the shiny drops that hung from every branch and twig, the whole tree seemed to shimmer and shine. If the children were being good Santa would chuckle and nod, but if they were being naughty Santa would shake his head sadly and let out a big, sad sigh.

Now you may wonder how Santa could see to the very top of the tree to see into the very high drops, well, I’ll tell you a little secret. Santa has magic eye-glasses too, and when he puts on these magic glasses he can see quite easily into the top shiny drops and see all the children in them.

Santa’s elves are usually very busy and hard working but sometimes the newer elves are a bit mischievous, and the two little elves that had only recently arrived to be Santa’s helpers were two of the cutest, the smallest, and also the naughtiest elves ever. Their names were Timothy Tom and Dippety Dan and, when they had an idea, they would become so excited about doing it that they would talk really fast and almost at the same time, as friends sometimes do.

One evening, as they were putting on their elf pyjamas with the tiny reindeer on them, they chatted away about how the toys were nearly ready for Santa to deliver and how they could soon have a turn helping to look after the reindeer. They chatted about how much fun it was to take carrots and cake out to give to the reindeer as special treats. Then they started talking about how full Santa’s tree was becoming so full there might not be room for the new babies being born to have a shiny drop of their own. They looked at one another and Timothy Tom said ” We should make some more shiny drops for Santa”. Dippety Dan thought for a few seconds and then answered ” If I could find Santa’s magic book, I think we could make some more shiny drops”. They looked at each other and giggled wickedly, ” Lets do it now” they both said together.

Now everyone else was in bed sleeping soundly after a busy day in the workshop, so the two naughty elves crept along the hallway listening to the other elves having a little snore. Suddenly a loud snore startled them and they clung together for a minute and then started to giggle as they continued to creep along the hall, trying not to laugh out loud. They came to the top of the stairs and crept slowly down towards Santa’s big desk with all the letters on it from the children asking for a special something.

Dippety Dan tried as hard as he could to open the drawer where Santa kept his magic book, but all it did was make a loud squeaky sort of noise, so Timothy Tom came to help. ” I am so strong today that I could do this all by myself,” he said. They both pushed and pulled and tugged, and suddenly the drawer shot out and fell upside down and oh goodness what a mess. The papers were everywhere, and quite a lot fell on top of the two little elves. The papers were fluttering all around the room and from beneath one pile of papers could be seen a little nose. Then all the papers began to heave up and down a little foot poked out, then a leg, and over the other side a hand poked out, and then an arm. Then one curly little head popped out and with a giant heave two little elves stood straight up and looked around at the mess.

They looked at one another and said together, ” Now look at what you’ve done!”

Dippety Dan said ” Oh, let’s just shove it all back in the drawer and maybe Santa won’t notice.”

“Wait!” said Timothy Tom, ” There it is!” and he pointed to something under the edge of the pile of papers.

It was indeed, Santa’s magic book, all covered in red with a snowy white “SANTA” written on the front. Timothy Tom and Dippety Dan started turning pages and suddenly there it was, a page all about the magic tree. Their eyes went big and round as they read the magical words. They looked at one another and said,  “We can do this!” – Oh dear, they didn’t realize how many hundreds of years of practice it took Santa before he could get it right.

Timothy Tom and Dippety Dan struggled out to the magic tree carrying the big, heavy book of magic. “Now,” said Timothy Tom, “You stand beneath the tree and read the magic words and I’ll wave my arms up and down as the book says.” The book was put down on the ground near the tree and Dan lay down on his fat little tummy and read -

“Shiny drops grow for me,

To help me fill this Christmas tree,

The children good and children bad,

At Christmas time no child should be sad.”

Timothy Tom stood nearby and waved his little arms up and down and round and round so fast that he looked like he was trying to fly and, as he became more excited, he started to jump up and down as well. He got so excited he started to sing at the top of his voice, ” Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All The Way…….” and suddenly everything went dark and Timothy Tom said, ” Now look at what you’ve done. You are in so much trouble!” “Me?” shouted  Dippety dan, “You must have done something wrong! And what was with the Jingle Bells bit?”

They ran at each other and started to fight, rolling over and over in the snow, and grunting loudly as they struggled and blamed each other.

“Now then,” Santa said from the doorway, “What has been going on here and why is it so dark? Where are all the shiny children drops?”

The fighting stopped and the two little elves climbed to their feet to gaze upwards at the tree that had been so bright and shimmery only a few moments earlier. As the elves looked up at the tree their eyes grew bigger and bigger as they realized what they had done. “Oh my goodness. Can you make it shine again Santa? We didn’t mean for this to happen, oh we are so bad. Even when we try to help things go all wrong.”

Santa looked down at the two little faces and shook his head. “Will you promise to be good,” Santa asked, “And never touch my magic book again?”

The two little elves were so anxious to please Santa, and so busy nodding, that two little elf heads bumped together and they both fell down in the snow. Santa gave a big belly laugh as he helped them up to their feet and brushed the snow from their pyjamas. “Off to bed with you now and in the morning I will have to give you extra chores. Yes, I think you can both brush down my beautiful reindeer and polish the sleigh as well. That should keep you out of mischief for a while.”

The two little elves gave Santa a great big hug because eveyone knew that one of the best parts of being a Santa’s Helper was being allowed to help with Rudolph and the other special reindeer. “Can we help you fix the magic tree before we go to bed?” they both asked together, but as they turned to look at the tree they noticed it was all shining and glimmering in the moonlight.

“How did you fix it so quickly?” they asked, both so amazed because they hadn’t seen Santa do anything unusual. Santa, as we all know, is a little different and very special so he hadn’t actually done anything unusual at all. “In a way you helped too,” He said with a chuckle.

“But we were the ones that broke it!” the little elves said in amazement.

“Yes, I know, but you were only trying to help me make it bigger, weren’t you?” Santa said as he smiled down at them.

“How did you know that?” asked Timothy Tom.

Santa smiled mysteriously, winked one eye and said “Santa knows everything, my little friends.”

They all turned to gaze again at the beautiful tree and Santa said, “You wish very hard now for the tree to grow bigger and I will tell it the magic words to make new shiny drops for the many new babies. We should be finished then, for the time being, and just in time for my Christmas visiting rounds.”

The elves squished their eyes shut very tightly and wished with all their might that the tree would grow and they could hear Santa singing his mysterious words. Then all was quiet, so they opened their eyes ever so slowly and the sheer size and beauty of the magic tree made them gasp and clap their hands in joy.

Santa nodded his head and said, “If  you had not been truly sorry, and wished very hard for the magic tree to grow, it would not look as bright as it does. I know you will be very good helpers in future and, when it is your turn to come and help deliver the presents to the children, you will realize just how important the job really is.”

The two little elves felt so good about helping Santa and looking after all the children that it was a long time before they forgot and got into mischief again. ( Santa told me it was almost TWO WEEKS, but that is another story. )