I love participating in various challenges especially writing challenges with prompts. Author Dan Alatorre hosts this amazing Flash Fiction Challenge where he gives a scenario and a keyword (actually its not him, its the randomizer that picks the scene and the keyword for you from his list) and you can write anything within a 1000 words  based on the scene, the keyword must become a part of your caption.

The list this time were all based on Holiday Scenes. The random number I got was number 4 and keyword number 8. My scene:  “One reindeer laying down with five other reindeer glaring at her.”  and my keyword was “Present“.

If you are interested in participating, click on the link above to read the instructions and choose your scene and keyword. Here is the story I came up with. Hope you enjoy it!

Present Speculation 

It was a beautiful winter night and the snow began to softly coat the ground with all it’s glory. Santa’s reindeer were relaxing before the big  Christmas event.

The conversation among them was a real eye opener!

“Who do you think will get the present from Prancer?” Donder inquired.

“Dasher spoke up and answered, “I bet it will be Rudolph because he is the favorite reindeer and he gets everything!”

Comet remarked, “it’s too bad all of us won’t get one.”

Cupid laughed, “come on, you know there are too many of us, so that’s not possible.”

Blitzen wailed, “I know, but why can’t it be me this year?  I heard Dancer got her present last year.”

Prancer had overheard the conversation and told them they just needed to stop the nonsense and back off because it wasn’t possible for her to give everyone a present this year.

They questioned her once again. ” Who will get the present  this year?”

Prancer looked at them and laughed, “you will find out in due time, but  now we need to get ready to help Santa deliver all the presents to the children.  They are counting on us tonight and it’s our job to deliver.  So, stop your speculation about who gets my present and let’s get to work to make this the best Christmas delivery ever!”

As usual, all the reindeer worked together and followed Rudolph’s lead.  It turned out  a fantastic adventure for them and they came home feeling exhausted, but full of Christmas Cheer.

Donder yelled, “Rudolph is calling us to go to the barn.  I think Prancer is going to give her Christmas present to one of us now!”

Dasher wailed, “sure it’s going to be given to Rudolph, you know that!”

All the reindeer entered the barn and there lay Prancer with a sweet little reindeer calf and Vixen was proudly standing beside her.

Prancer said, “my Christmas present is for Vixen this year guys.  Perhaps I can give another one to one of you next year!”

Copyright © 2015 Written by Jessie Cross ~ All rights reserved

ARTICLE IN THE SUN NEWS …. (reference…SUN POST HERALD  (12/23/2010 at 1:48 p.m.)  asked teachers at several schools to share pupils responses to a couple of questions.

1. How does Santa Claus get his reindeer to fly?         Answers:  “Santa puts his magic on the snow when it falls on Christmas Eve. When the reindeer eat it they can fly.”    “Santa puts magic dust on the collars and belts.  That makes the reindeer fly.”    “Santa trusts God to make his reindeer fly for Christmas Eve.”    Santa Claus makes magic carrots.”    Santa uses Christmas spirit to make his reindeer fly.”
2. What is your favorite holiday/Christmas song?      Answers:  “Frosty the Snowman because its catchy.”    “I like Rudolph the red nose raindeer because I  love raindeer.”    “Twelve Days of Christmas because it counts up to twelve.”    “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth because I want mine to come in.”   “Deck the Halls because I like the la, la, la, part.”    “My favorite song is Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer because it reminds me how people used to treat my friends so every time I hear it it makes me feel good about myself.  Because when people are mean to my friends, I stand up for them.”