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An Unemployed Christmas
by Jai and Aaron Robinson

“I am sorry to have to do this to you, Bopbit, but I am going to have to let you go,” said a depressed Santa Claus. Santa’s usually plumb belly was a little smaller than usual and his cheeks that were normally a rosy red were now almost the colour of the snow falling outside. “I just don’t have any work left for you, and on top of that, with the rising costs of having to buy all the presents, I just can’t afford to pay you any more.” The elf that was being fired looked sadly at Santa and slowly left the office. Santa left the office soon afterwards, heading home for the night.
When Santa arrived home, his wife, Mrs Claus was waiting for him. “Is something wrong?” she asked when she saw the sad look on Santa’s face.
“No one wants little wooden trains or tin soldiers any more, all they want now days are brand names and electronic gadgets.” Said Santa to Mrs Claus. ‘That is the fifth elf this week that I have had to lay off.’
‘I am sure things will get easier soon dear.’ Mrs Claus said putting a comforting hand on Santa Claus’s back.

The unhappy elf trudged through the thick snow of the North Pole, back to the elf village. Bopbit was wearing green clothes with red stitching and golden buttons down the front of the coat, he also wore a warm hat the same colour as his clothes. Bopbit was considered to be tall for an elf and had a lot of friends in the elf village, of course, elves are almost always friendly towards each other.
Usually throughout the day, the village that Bopbit lived in would be empty, as all the elves would be working happily in Santa’s workshop, but now the modern age was finally catching up with the North Pole. Unemployment was now in existence, just a couple of Christmases ago all the elves had jobs but now unemployment was rapidly rising.
Just as Bopbit was arriving at his house he meet his friend Tenpe, who was also without work. “Hay Bopbit, what are you doing here?” Tenpe called to Bopbit in a cheery voice. Tenpe was one of the first elves to lose his job but it didn’t seem to worry him at all. He had brown hair with brown eyes and wore a red scarf around his neck.
Bopbit replied to Tenpe glumly “I lost my job today”.
‘It won’t stay that way for long’ said Tenpe excitedly ‘I heard that a group of elves have thought of a way that we could learn to make more modern toys for the children! I was just on my way to the meeting they are holding right now, you should come too.’
‘I think I might do that Tenpe’ Bopbit said, his spirits already lifting. With that the two elves walked off towards the meeting hall.

By the time Bopbit and Tenpe had reached the elf hall the meeting had already started. There were fewer elves than Bopbit had expected all though there were still a lot of elves in the hall. Tenpe knew the speaker. Her name was Entila. She had long blond hair and blue eyes, she was not especially tall and was wearing clothes much like the other elves. “We must upgrade our workshop to meet with demands!” Entila said, “But the even most modern work shop is useless if there is know one to run it correctly.” Entila paused for a moment while she had a drink of water. She was not used to public speaking and was quite nervous. Some of the elves that had come to the meeting were from another village so she did not know them and she wanted to appear confident. Entila continued, “To learn how to operate this upgraded workshop a group of elves will have to leave the North Pole and learn new toy making skills. After these elves have arrived home I am sure that they will not have a great deal of problems teaching other elves what to do.”
Some members of the audience were very shocked about the idea of having to leave the North Pole, after all, no elf had left the North Pole in years unless they were helping Santa with his present run. “Any volunteers?” Entila said not expecting any response very quickly. The hall fell completely silent. The elves just looked to each other wondering if any one would volunteer. After several minutes the silences was broken by a stranger from another town
“I will go.”
“Great!” said Entila “I have decided I should go as well, any one else going to join us?”
Tenpe jumped up and said with great excitement ‘Bopbit and I will come too!’ Bopbit was stunned, he didn’t even like to leave Poler Town let alone want to leave the country.
“Fantastic that is four coming now.” said Entila now more confidently “We will only need a few more elves now. Come on people, some of you must want to come along with us.” It was only a few moments before two more elves volunteered. They were both sitting next to each other and were strangers from another village. “All right then we will leave the North Pole in two days time on Santa’s mail plane.” Said Entila happily.

It was the afternoon before they had to get on the plane when Bopbit met Tenpe again. Tenpe had rushed home after the meeting in the hall to pack for his trip. “Why did you volunteer me for this task? Now every one expects me to do something that I do not want to do.” Said Bopbit crankily to Tenpe.
“Come on Bopbit it will be fun! You need to get out more anyway.” Pleaded Tenpe “Any way, you better pack your things, it is too late to back out now!” With a sigh Bopbit headed off to his home so that he could start packing. Meanwhile the three strangers that had volunteered at the meeting arrived back in town with their thing ready for the trip.
After a long sleepless night, the day Bopbit would have to leave finally arrived. Bopbit, Tenpe and the others arrived at the mail delivery building with their suitcases, but a lot of other elves had gathered to wish them well on their journey. Like always the plane arrived on time at five o’clock in the morning. Also like always, there were bags upon bags upon bags of mail. There was so much mail for Santa that it took two hours for the mail to be all unloaded. All the while Bopbit was getting more and more nervous. Eventually the group of elves were aboard the plane. With a great cheer from the crowd the plane took off.
“I wounder why the elves are so happy to see the mail plane?” said Santa to Mrs Claus who were both walking to the mailroom to start reading letters.
“Perhaps they got a package dear, you know how excited they get when they get mail, especially in these hard times.” said Mrs Claus.

All the elves aboard the plane were very nervous about leaving the North Pole, especially without Santa knowing.
Entila had been talking to the elves from the other village for some time and had got to know them quit well. Entila introduced the three strangers to Bopbit and Tenpe. “Bopbit, Tenpe, this is Asona, Lee and Thompson. They tell me that they are from a town very close to ours.” Tenpe and Bopbit stood facing the three elves. Asona had red hair that went just past her shoulders, like all the elves she was wearing the usual green clothing, although the clothes that the elves from the other village were wearing was a bit darker green. Lee had blond short hair and his skin looked pale, although it could have only looked that way because he was standing next to Thompson. Thompson had black hair, dark skin and was very tall and muscly, for an elf. Bopbit almost looked short compared to him. “Now that you all know each other let’s get to work, firstly we have to decide where to get off this plane. We should choose the country that can teach us the most about toy making. Any suggestions of where to go?” Said Entila taking command. Until that point none of them had even thought about where they were headed.

“Well, I think that a lot of the toys that children want these days come from the USA,” said Bopbit. “Perhaps that would be a good place to start.”
“Yes, I agree.” said Tenpe.
“But a lot of the latest electronic gadgets are made in Japan” said Lee
“That’s right,” said Asona “So where should we go?”
All the elves sat down to think about this for a while. Eventually Entila had an idea “I know!” she said, “Why don’t we split up into two groups. Asona, Lee and Thompson, you can go to Japan and Bopbit, Tenpe and myself will go to America. We will contact each other in two weeks time to see how the others are other is going” Everybody agreed that this was a good idea.
The plane arrived in the USA first. Entila, Bopbit and Tenpe picked up there belongings and got ready to get off the plane. “Good luck.” Said Asona.
“Thankyou, and good luck to you as well” replied Entila.
The three elves stepped off the plane into the big American city. They decided that the best way to learn new ways of making modern toys would be to get a job in a modern toy factory. After the three elves had found a suitable hotel to stay in, they set off for the employment office.
By the time that they had arrived at the employment office in was around midday (It was hard getting around the crowded city streets when you have to doge and weave to avoid get stood on). There was a large line in the employment office so by the time the three elves had made it to the front desk it was some time in the afternoon “Next please.” said the office woman.
“We need to find jobs in the toys industry” Entila said on behalf of the elves. The office woman was quite startled, she had not seen the elves standing there and expected the man standing behind them to step toward the counter.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there” said the office woman “So you say you would like a job in the toy industry then, let me see… ah here it is I think I may have just the job for you. My, you are lucky this must be almost the last toy job there is in the city and there is three vacancies so you can all have a job together. Just go over there and fill in this application form, once you have done that go right over to the business and ask them if you can have the job. Next please!” The man standing behind them then shoved the three elves out of the line and approached the counter.

The elves filled in the form and then headed to the address on the form. The arrived at about two o’ clock, the place was a toy factory for the company called Manvel Toys, a name the elves has seen mentioned on letters to Santa many times. Tenpe was the first into the building he handed his form in to the man at the counter, (He had to stand on a nearby chair to do so). “Wow!” said the man at the counter “You guys look like real elves, Oh hi my name is Mr Manvel.” Bopbit and the others introduced themselves to the storeowner. Mr Manvel continued “Well I would be happy to let you work here we need all the help we can get! Our toys are in hot demand this year.” He took their application formes and showed them into the factory.

Meanwhile, over in Japan Asona, Lee and Thompson were getting off the mail plane. Following a similar procedure to their friends in the USA, they were soon lucky enough to find themselves about to start their first day of work in an electronic toy factory.
“Wow, this looks complex.” Said Asona as they were shown all the high-tech gizmos that they learn how to use to make the toys. Eventually Lee decided to take up a roll operating the computers that were used to program the devices that were made while Asona and Thompson worked to build the devices for Lee to program. Despite the tools and techniques being quite different to what they were used to, it did not take very long for the elves to learn the skills required to make the latest electronic toys, however, over in America, their friends were having quite a different experience.

When Entila, Bopbit and Tenpe first entered the workshop, they were amazed. It was almost the same as their own workshop back at the North Pole! There were a few new machines and gadgets that they had not used before and the toys were mostly made of plastic instead of wood but apart from that little else had changed.
As soon as the three elves had learnt how to use the new tools (which didn’t take long) they were able to produce toys just as well as they could at home. The other workers in the factory were amazed at how good the elves were.
“This is almost exactly the same as working at home,” said Entila “So why do all the children want these toys and not the ones that we make?”
“This is why,” said Bopbit and he held up a small plastic label that read “Manvel Toys” The elves had been told to attach one to every toy that they made.
“Is that really all it is” Entila said sadly.
“Well that doesn’t help us,” said Tenpe “We can’t just put a Manvel label on our toys at home, that would be wrong.” The three elves continued to work at the factory, trying to find a solution to their problem and no time at all the two weeks was up, and it was time to speak with the others.
Tempe’s elf-phone suddenly started ringing with its Jingle Bells ring tone. It was Thompson calling all the way from Japan. “How are you guys going over there in America? We are doing great over here. We have learnt a lot of new toy making skills and techniques and I don’t think it will be too hard to teach everyone back at the North Pole how.”
“That’s good to hear,” said Tenpe “but unfortunately we are not having quite as much luck over here. We found that the toys are made in a similar way to they are back home.”
“Well that’s good isn’t it?” asked Thompson
“No,” replied Tempe “you see, what the children want these days is toys with a fancy brand name on them. We don’t know what to do.”
“Oh, I see,” said Thompson glumly “maybe you should try asking your boss. Whenever I needed help with something I asked my boss and he always tried to help, after all, honesty is the best policy.” The two elves said goodbye to each other and hung up the phones.
Tenpe told Entila and Bopbit what Thompson had said. “It’s good to here that the others are doing well anyway.” Said Entila.
“Yes, agreed Bopbit “and I think what Thompson said is a good idea. We should ask Mr Manvel what to do.”
The three elves went to meet with Mr Manvel. “Can I help you?” said Mr Manvel as they entered his office.
“Um, I hope so,” said Entila, not quite sure how to put it.
“You see,” said Tenpe “The reason that we look like elves is because we are elves. We came here all the way from the North Pole so that we could learn how to make more modern toys for all the little boys and girls of the world but when we got here we realised that what they are really looking for is the brand name so we don’t know what to do.”
Mr Manvel was both shocked and amazed. “Wow!” he said, “I have real elves working in my factory. I see what you mean about the brand name as well but I assure you, my company does make quality toys.” Mr Manvel went silent for a while as he tried to think of something. Eventually he had an idea “Why don’t I allow you to make Manvel Toys at the North Pole! Then Santa can buy the toys directly from the company, which will be a lot cheaper than buying them from the shops and I will still make money for myself and my workers.”
“That sounds like a great idea!” said Entila happily
“It should solve all our problems!” said Bopbit.
“I can’t wait to tell the others!” said Tenpe

In a few days, it was time for the elves to go home, they went to the airport and waited for Santa’s mail plane. When it arrived, they climbed onboard, happy with their success. A short while later, the aeroplane landed in Japan. Asona, Lee and Thompson boarded the plane. All the elves were glad to see their friends again.
“So how did you go?” asked Thompson.
“We did great!” replied Tenpe.
The six elves spent the rest of the plain trip discussing everything that they had learnt on their journey.
When the plain arrived back at the North Pole, a huge crowd of elves greeted them. Everyone wanted to know how it went. The six friends held a meeting in the meeting hall. All the unemployed elves sat and listened as Entila and Thompson told them all about the adventures that they had and reported on all that they had learnt. All the elves in the hall were delighted at what they heard.
The very next day all the unemployed elves helped to convert one of the old, disused workshops into a new, modern workshop ready to make all the latest Manvel toys and electronic gadgets. Asona and Thompson instructed some elves on how to make new electronic components, Lee directed elves in the use of the new computer systems and Entila, Bopbit and Tenpe showed other elves how to adapt their toy making skills to make modern toys. In no time at all, the elves had created a modern workshop ready to produce the latest, brand name toys.
“Well I guess it’s time to tell Santa and see what he thinks,” said Entila. Bopbit picked up one of the new Manvel toys that they had made and Entila, Bopbit and Tenpe walked off to Santa’s office.
“Where did you get that?” Santa asked when he saw Bopbit holding the popular Manvel toy.
“We made it!” Tenpe said with a big smile.
Santa looked at the three elves with a worried expression on his face “You can’t just copy the toys made by another company. You could get in big trouble.”
Entila smiled and held up the contract that had been given to them by Mr Manvel at the Manvel toy factory in America, stating that they were allowed to make Manvel toys. Santa took the piece of paper and began to read it. At first he didn’t think it was real but then he saw Mr Manvel’s signature on the bottom and he knew that it was. Santa looked up at the elves. “This is incredible,” he said “Where did you get this.”
“In America,” Bopbit said.
“You went to America!” Santa said, totally shocked.
“Come on Santa, we have something to show you” Entila said. She took Santa by the hand and led him towards the new workshop. When Santa walked into the new workshop his eyes began to twinkle and his cheeks became a bright rosy red again. “Ho ho ho, this is fantastic!” Santa said. “This is going to be the merriest Christmas I have has in a long time!”