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.

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. )

It was no wonder that it was one of their favorite games, to go Whoooosh, all the way down, way past all the other little friends that were all chattering together as they trudged their way up for another exciting slide.

Percy slid down so fast that he tipped right over and fell upside down into a deep snow bank. After he tunnelled his way out he lay there, chuckling softly, and gazed up into the cold night sky and guess what he saw…..It was Santa’s sleigh and it was piled high with exciting looking parcels and many large bags that were absolutely bulging with toys.

Rudolph and all the other reindeer looked so smart with their harness all shined up for their special night helping Santa, because everyone knows how very, very special Christmas is.

The reindeer were all galloping along so proudly when suddenly the sleigh lurched a little and one of those important sacks fell over the side and fell slowly, slowly toward the icy ground. Percy called out to Santa but the tinkling bells on the reindeer harness were so loud and Santa was having a little nod off between stops so he simply didn’t hear Percy calling to him. Percy called again and again as Santa’s sleigh tinkled across the sky overhead, but Santa still couldn’t hear him.

Percy became all excited and started running around in circles and flapping his little wings, calling to his friends “Quick, quick, come and help me!” This looked like so much fun that the little penguins came quickly and joined in, even though they didn’t know about the falling sack yet.

The funny sight they made all twisting and turning, flapping and tumbling and laughing joyously made Rudolph start to chuckle too and, one by one, all the other reindeer started laughing as well. All the happy noises woke Santa up and he peered over the side to see what the fuss was about just in time to see the sack slowly tumbling end over end towards the icy ground. “What clever little penguins to make me see what was happening, because we would have needed to go back to the north pole for more toys.”

So Santa called gently to Rudolph and the sleigh slowly turned and made an unexpected stop at the penguins home. The excited little penguins all clambered around for a special smile and a cuddle from Santa. “Ho Ho Ho, now who was clever enough to start all that noise so that I would see my sack of toys falling?”

All the little penguins pointed a little wing at Percy and called out “He did, he did!” Percy hung his head shyly and shuffled his little feet in the snow. The next minute he felt something warm being put on his head and, oh dear, he couldn’t see. The other little penguins all giggled as Santa said “Ho Ho Ho, now you really are one of Santa’s helpers, but I have it on backwards.” Percy felt the red hat, for that’s what it was, lifted off his little head and then put back on with the long red piece hanging beside his face and the big white bobble down over his shoulder so that, when he wagged his head, it tinkled merrily in time. “There you are, my little friend.” said Santa.

Percy waddled around in little circles, waving his little wings and calling “Quick, quick, quick” to show how proud he was to be a Santa’s helper and how happy to have a special hat from Santa. Santa chuckled again and climbed back into his sleigh. “Come along now my lads,” Santa called out to Rudolph and his team, “off to finish our job, and thanks again to Percy and his special little friends.”

They all waved merrily and as the sleigh swooped up into the night sky a sprinkle of Santa’s shiny happy dust fell upon their upturned faces. They all smiled at each other and started to chase each other around and around in circles, flapping their wings and calling “Quick, quick, quick.”

And that is how Santa last saw them as he looked back and waved.

“Let’s ask Nanny if we can play in the big old toy chest”, Jaimi said.

Nanny said, “Of course, you may use anything in it. The toys all belonged to your mothers’ when they were little girls, there are some also belonging to your uncle.”

The lid of the toy chest was very heavy, so the two little girls really had to try very hard, and then with a squeaky sort of noise, up it went. The little girls bent to the task of discovery.

Jaimi lifted up an old gray elephant with a long nose and big ears. It had a bright red saddle on it’s back and a funny little hat with tassles on it. “I think I’ll play with this afterwards,” and she put it aside.

Kim found a long neck sticking out from the bundle of toys and tried very hard to pull it out, but it seemed to be stuck amongst the other toys. Suddenly it came out and it was so sudden that Kim finished up sitting down on the floor with a long legged giraffe sort of nearly covering her.

The two little girls chuckled and then put the giraffe over near the elephant to have another delve into the depths of the exciting chest. They found a long legged doll, several cars and trucks, furry cats with big green eyes and big bows around their necks, and right down the bottom in the corner was a large furry teddy bear sitting on a drawstring bag.

The little girls had a wonderful game with all the toys and then suddenly they heard a rumbly, growly noise. They looked at one another with big eyes and both said at once, “What was that!?”

A funny, rumbly growl sounded again and then, “It was only me, I’m very sad. I used to have a lovely jacket and cap and now no-one wants to play with me because my growly noise doesn’t work very well. The children don’t come to play with us now and it’s been a very long time since anyone took me out of the chest for a tea party.”  “Oh we will.” “Oh yes we will, and we don’t mind if your growler doesn’t growl any more.” The children agreed and took turns to cuddle the ‘Old Ted” to make him feel loved again.

“Ah choo!” The little girls jumped and said, “Goodness, that was loud,” and, “Who did it?” They looked at each other in amazement.

“Oh dear, it did habben loud, didn’ it! I s’pose it’s all this dust. Ah choo! Ah choo! Oh dear, there’s dothing worse than an elephant with a ruddy dose!” The little girls were trying very hard not to giggle at the idea of an elephant with a runny nose and a bad case of sneezes. Kim kindly wiped the trunk of the little old elephant with her handkerchief.

“Oh yes there is! I have a sore, sore throat and I feel all sort of scratchy and scrunchy all the way down my throat. Oh dear, it hurts so!” The little girls looked all around and saw the giraffe standing over in the corner looking so miserable that the girls found a clean hanky and put it around the giraffe’s long neck. “Oh thank you, that’s feeling much better, you are both very kind,” the giraffe said.

The little girls were having a lovely time with the toys, the big eyed cats were very friendly even though one kept trying to chew the big ribbon off, “because it made him feel silly”, he said when he was asked. The other cat was rather shy and tried to stay in the corner, and when the little girls tried to coax her out into the game that they were playing, she sat back and said, “The children that we belonged to loved me nearly to pieces, I think I’m in trouble, look my tail is nearly off and I have one ear that hangs down nearly to my nose. Maybe you had better just leave me here to snooze while you play.”

Jaimi and Kim looked at one another and said, “Maybe Nanny could make you feel better, let’s see if she can.” So the old pussy cat was taken out to leave with Nanny to be mended. Nanny sat down and stitched away and chatted kindly to the worried pussycat, “Let’s see now, don’t worry, it won’t hurt a bit. There now, you can see properly out of those big green eyes, and now just a few more stitches and your tail will be alright for waving around again. Any more stitches needed now? There we are girls, Mother Cat is as good as ever!” The two little girls thanked Nanny and took the pussy cat back to their game.

“Let’s have a tea party for the animals.” The little girls set up the tea set and sat all the animals around and waited with smiling faces to refill the cups and pass around the pretend afternoon tea. While Jaimi and Kim were busy with their game, they were suddenly startled to hear loud arguing coming from the bottom of the trunk, and as the children had already taken all the toys out, they tip-toed over to peep in. To their surprise, the quarreling was coming from the drawstring bag and it was bulging in all directions; in and out and all about.

It sounded like this. “Take your foot out of my ear!” “Well you have your strings all tied up in knots and now you have mixed my legs up with yours!” “Did not!” “Oh yes, you both are mixed up like a plate of wet spaghetti and now I can’t move my beautiful wings!” “Stop weeping, you fluffy yellow thing.”

Jaimi said, “Maybe we better call Nanny, because they sound naughty!” Kim thought a moment and said, “If we peep into the bag, we can see what’s happening.” So the little girls lifted the bag out of the trunk and undid the drawstring and then, after they had a little whisper together, they said, “One, two, three!” and together they tipped the noisy, quarreling unknown things onto the floor.

“Oh what a bump!” said the yellow thing. “Stop your whinging!” said the grumpy one with the red feathers around its neck and on its tail. “Oh I’ll never get my beautiful long legs undone!” “You only have two legs to unwind, I’m in twice as much trouble with four legs.”

The little girls sat down and looked very hard at the jumbled mixture of legs, bodies, arms, heads, feathers and strings. “Why they are some sort of puppets, I think!”

“Of course we are puppets, we are special string puppets,” said one of the crazy mixed up puppets. So the girls slowly started sorting out one from another until finally they had a wiggly wobbly horse, a feathery red grumpy rooster, a long legged ostrich with yellow feathers, and a something that neither Kim nor Jaimi could decide.

Suddenly the wiggly wobbly horse stood up on his shaky legs and bowed his head and said grandly, “Good afternoon children, my name is Wibbly.” The little girls bowed back and said, “Good afternoon.”

The feathery red grumpy rooster said, “Hmph! I suppose you want to know my name too, don’t you?” “Not really, thank you, because you are very grumpy,” the little girls said. “Very well, I’ll tell you, my parents called me Rossiter.” The grumpy rooster almost smiled as he straightened his neck to show off his red feathers. The little girls tried not to laugh, “Rossiter Rooster indeed!”

“I’ll tell you what my name is now,” said the long legged ostrich with yellow feathers, “It’s Ogilvie L. Ostrich, and please don’t ask what the L. is for!” Of course this made Kim and Jaimi want to know. So, after some coaxing, he nodded his head and bent his long neck over to them, and said, “It’s L.L. really and it’s Long Leggy.” “So your name is really Ogilvie Long Leggy Ostrich.” The little girls were so surprised that a string puppet could have such a long name, but he was rather a dear.

“What is your name then little puppet?” asked Jaimi and Kim of the little something puppet that was trying to make itself smaller on the floor. “Oh you don’t want to know about me,” it said. “Yes we do.” “Oh yes, we want to know what to call you when we play together.”

“Oh well, it’s not a secret really, if you hold my feet down on the floor and then the other one stand up and hold my head I’ll tell you.” So Kim held its feet and Jaimi stood up and held its head. “I’M A CONFUSALUM BIRD AND I”M BIGGER THAN YOU,” it shouted as it towered over the two little girls.

Jaimi got such a fright that she let its head drop and Kim got such a fright that she let its feet go and it fell in a heap. “Oh dear, I always frighten people and then they won’t play with me again!” whinged the little huddled heap on the floor. The girls said crossly, “We’ll play with you if you don’t shout or whinge.” “Will you really?” said the confusalum bird. “Well you can call me Commrie like my Mum did.”

So for the rest of the afternoon Kim and Jaimi had a wonderful time with their tea party guests, and only had to stop three or four quarrels between Wibbly, Rossiter, Ogilvie L.L. Ostrich and Commrie Confusalum who would keep trying to reach across the tea set at the same time and so their long legs were always getting mixed up.

When their mothers arrived to take them home from their day at Nanny’s house, they tip-toed along to see what the children were doing, and before they knew what was happening, they had also joined in to the afternoon tea party with some long ago much loved friends, and a good time was had by all.

As the toys were packed back into the big old toy chest, they were kissed and cuddled by the two little girls and told that they would soon be back to have another tea party afternoon. All the toys were yawning and nodding sleepily and waving goodbye until the next time, and while they waited the toys all had smiley faces, as they had sweet dreams of the fun times still to be had when next the children came to visit.

Tea parties and toys and children really seem to go together very well, don’t you think?