Chapter 1. Kitty Christmas
Hi! Kitty Christmas, here. Santa's Numero-Uno-Cat,
at your service.
I
must say, it's about time they put me in a Christmas
tale! I mean, they've got hundreds of Christmas
specials, but have they ever even once shown a
single scene with Santa and Mrs. C's kitty in
the picture? Not once!
Now
I ask you, don't the Claus's seem the kind of
folks who'd have a cat cuddled up in their lap
by the warm fire up here in the cold North Pole?
Of course they do ... two in fact ... Me and Mrs.
Kitty! So, what's up with that?
Personally,
I think it's a reindeer conspiracy. Some kind
of union thing -- won't ever see a Santa special
without those reindeer sticking their antlers
in the picture. But don't get me started on that.
THIS
story is narrated by Santa's cat. Me, Kitty Christmas.
And don't be thinking that it's strange for a
cat to be talking, either. You can't catnap in
Santa's lap without a little magic rubbing off
here and there. And I'm a heavy-duty lap-napper
so you can bet I'm REALLY magical.
Why,
there was this one time I had so much magic dust
on me that I... Oops, that's a totally different
story. I guess I should start this story already
before the commercials come. But before I do,
I just want to say that I'm not too happy with
the title of this here Christmas special. I mean
it's a great story and all -- how could it not
be since I'm narrating it? But they've got the
title all wrong. It's ME that saved Christmas
that year. The BetterWorld Kids helped, I'll give them
that. But without me, Christmas would have been
cancelled that year. Actually it would have been
cancelled forever!
Yessiree,
Bob, this is a Christmas tale like none you've
ever heard! So fasten your seat belts, and hold
on to your thinking caps, 'cause this story'll
make you think. There's some real meat to it.
Or tofu, anyway, since we're all vegetarians up
here in Christmas Town. (Yet another thing those
Christmas specials never mention!)
As
I recall, it was particularly gloomy that whole
year. Even up here in the North Pole where everyone
is ALWAYS cheery. There was a nasty dark cloud
that had peaked its head over the distant mountains
before Santa had even gotten back from his Christmas
deliveries the previous Christmas Eve. And it
just kept creeping closer as we turned the calendar
to a new year.
I
remember Santa shaking his head in sadness as
we sat together on the Bench of Dreams at the
edge of the North Pole, way back at the start
of the year.
Santa
and I always loved to take a walk together and
stop there to watch the lights of the Aurora Borealis
dancing in the sky. You see, from the Bench of
Dreams, Santa can see Forever. All the things
that are taking place now, in the past and in
the future, too.
Usually
we'd sit in a peaceful silence for a while, with
me cuddling up in his lap. Santa would point out
at the forever sky, and I'd look up sleepily,
but in the dancing lights I could clearly see
an especially good girl or boy doing some kind
and compassionate act. But that time when we sat
on the Bench of Dreams, the lights only danced
faintly, and Santa sighed softly, "There's too
much sadness in the world." He didn't speak another
word.
As the months passed by the lights didn't even
dance at all in the Forever Sky, and all we saw
over the edge of forever was a soupy grey fog.
The dark cloud kept creeping closer and closer
trying to throw Christmas Town into darkness.
Of course there's mighty powerful magic up here
in Christmas Town, so we were pretty confident
it wouldn't reach us, at least that's what we
hoped. And yet, I guess the cloud caused everyone's
spirits to be dampened a bit. Usually there's
a lot of humming and singing going on all the
time up at Christmas Town. But that year you hardly
ever heard a happy tune being whistled. Yep, it's
safe to say everyone was feeling more than a little
down.
Santa
did his best to keep our spirits up, you can count
on that. But it wasn't an easy thing to do.
Things
went on that way until one particular morning
in the middle of July, when the holiday cheer
should have been really picking up steam at the
North Pole. That's when Santa does the pre-check
on his list, to make sure he's got enough toys
scheduled for production for all the good little
girls and boys. Usually the elves have to go into
some heavy-duty overtime over the next six months
till Christmas, because, well, Santa's a real
softy and he's notorious for giving everybody
the benefit of the doubt. A little too much if
you ask me. And believe me, I've told him on quite
a number of occasions, although he's never specifically
asked for my advice on the matter.
But
that year, well, I didn't have to lecture him
about the state of the world. Because that year,
Santa checked his prelist. Then he checked it
twice. He checked it a third time. He just couldn't
believe his eyes. "It's worse than I even imagined!"
he gasped.
Mrs.
Claus hurried over to have a look. "Oh my, seems
like practically everyone's so naughty this year,"
she sighed.
"Yes,
Mama, the world's a mess. The worst I've ever
seen it. I guess this explains why that dark cloud
won't go away…" Santa mumbled, scratching his
head. "Mama, I think we've got big troubles brewing…"
Now
the truth is, while Santa was checking his list,
I had my eye on the window because I knew that
Santa had more troubles coming than he knew. I
jumped up onto the windowsill and took a peek
outside. Sure enough, trouble was getting closer
and closer.
Meanwhile
Mrs. Kitty was watching me carefully and she hopped
up onto the sill next to me. "You didn't go and
get the elves all riled up this year like you
normally do … did you …?" she whispered.
Gulp.
"I'm afraid so. Except this year they actually
listened to me."
Mrs.
Kitty covered her eyes with her paws. "Kitty Christmas,
you didn't! Not this year, what with that dark
cloud practically ready to pounce on us."
Unfortunately,
I sure did.
What
the Mrs. was referring to of course, was my annual
Peace-In over at the Toy Factory.
Every year I'd get all decked out in my peace
beads and bellbottoms and sandals and go around
trying to get the elves to sign a petition to
cancel Christmas until the world agreed to put
some action behind the "peace on earth ... goodwill
to all" Christmas lyrics folks sing at Christmastime.
Then I'd march around outside the Factory singing,
"Let there Be Peace On Earth," while I carried
a picket sign, declaring "We Want Peace On Earth!"
But
usually no one ever pays much attention to me.
Normally every year the elves would roll their
eyes and wait for me to be filled with the Christmas
spirit, just like everyone else. And of course,
after hearing Santa's July 1st Pep Rally, every
year even I truly believe that the Christmas Spirit
would convince the world to try to get along better
in the coming year.
But
that year, because everyone was feeling so glum
anyway, the elves seemed to think my protests
made sense. Gulp.
Meanwhile,
back at Santa's place, Santa was sadly placing
the list on the coffee table. "Mama," Santa exclaimed,
"it's so bad out there that I don't know if there's
enough magic left in Christmas town to keep that
dark cloud from crashing down on us. We're going
to have to shut down the Toy Factory and everything
else in Christmas Town that's draining our magic
supplies. We're going to need all the magic we
can muster to build up defense against the storm
that cloud's threatening to bring. It could destroy
Christmas forever if it hits!"
"Oh,
my!" Mrs. Claus gasped. Mrs. Kitty gasped, too.
I would have, had I been paying attention. Instead
I was staring out the window watching the elves
getting closer.
"You'd
better get the elves," Santa was saying. "We'll
have to tell them the news."
As
if on cue, the elves knocked at that very instant.
"Come
in," the Claus' said at the same time.
A
hundred and one elves, all decked out in peace
beads and sandals, burst through the door.
"Santa,
we've decided that you should cancel Christmas,
unless there's peace on earth," the elves exclaimed,
certain that Santa would talk them out of their
decision and fill them with the Christmas Spirit.
Santa
looked at them all with teary eyes. "You're right.
We've got to shut down Christmas Town right away!"
The
elves' mouths fell open in disbelief.
Chapter 2. Storm in Christmas
Town
When
I heard Santa say that Christmas would be cancelled
and Christmas Town closed down, I felt awful.
I thought it was all my fault for talking the
elves into standing up to Santa.
I
snuck out the door in a hurry. My first thought
was to go and hide before Mrs. Kitty told Santa
that I was the one who'd put the elves up to this.
But instead I headed round the back and up the
fire-escape to Santa's study.
I
turned his computer on, and logged on to surf
the web. I figured if I could find lots of good
things that people were doing, then I could convince
Santa the world wasn't as bad as he thought. Then
he'd change his mind about canceling Christmas.
I
did find a lot of really wonderful things that
people were doing to try to make the world a better
place. Granted, there was an awful lot of bad
stuff, too, but I only printed out the good things.
I
was just about to take the stack of printouts
downstairs to show Santa, when my Google Search
turned up one more website I just had to check
out. "The BetterWorld Kids Club," I read in the description.
"Wow, looks like these kids are really doing a
lot to spread peace!"
I
clicked on the link to visit the website. Just
in the nick of time, I should point out. Because
at that very moment, the dark cloud broke through
the magic barrier and everything in Christmas
Town went black. Not only that, but everything
and everyone in Christmas Town was suddenly frozen
solid.
Fortunately,
I'd already clicked the link. And the most amazing
thing happened - I suddenly found myself pulled
into the computer screen!
Chapter 3. The BetterWorld Kids
Club meeting
Whoa! This was definitely the strangest thing
I'd ever experienced. For a second I was floating
in the misty nothingness of Cyberspace, staring
out from inside the computer screen. In horror
I saw that Christmas Town had become an icy wonderland
frozen in time. Before I could even call out to
frozen Santa and Mrs. C, Mrs. Kitty and the hundred
and one peace elves, I found myself hurtling through
Cyberspace and everything was a complete blur.
Next
thing I knew, I heard voices calling out, "Hey
look up in the sky. It's a bird, it's a plane
… it's … it's a cat!"
That's
when I crashed down, right into the center of
their circle, landing on my feet, of course.
"Oh,
how cute - he's wearing a Santa cap. Hi, kitty,"
the children in the circle called, making annoying
little, "here kitty, kitty…" motions.
"Hi
yourselves," I said, standing up and dusting off
my paws, quite put off by the way they were addressing
me.
"Oh
my gosh, you can talk!" they gasped.
"Of
course I can talk!" I laughed. "But where am I?"
I gasped as I looked around at the emptiness that
surrounded us.
"You're
in Cyberspace," one of the children said as he
looked up from his laptop. "Somehow you've logged
on to join our weekly BetterWorld Kids Club meeting.
Welcome."
The
BetterWorld Kids told me how they somehow magically appeared
together in Cyberspace each week for their meetings.
They never could figure out how or why, but they
didn't think about it anymore, they just did it.
Now
I've experienced lots of magic, of course, but
this was definitely one of the strangest magical
experiences!
The
children all introduced themselves and told me
where they were from. They were from all over
the planet! They waited for me to tell them who
I was.
"I'm
Kitty Christmas, of course," I declared. "Santa's
Numero Uno cat. Straight from Christmas Town,"
I added proudly. Then I remembered what had happened
to Christmas Town and I felt so sad I could cry.
"You
mean, Santa's real?" Maria gasped, and all the
others began talking at once.
"Of
course he's real, but, all of Christmas Town has
been frozen in time!" Then I told them about the
dark cloud that had covered Christmas Town. "Santa
says it's because of all the fighting that is
going on around the world."
"Yes,"
the children agreed. "The world does seem to be
worse than usual this year." Some of the kids
lived in countries that were at war. Living in
fear all the time seemed to cause people to treat
each other worse in their towns and communities.
"The
world will be even worse if Santa doesn't come
this year," the smallest boy named Johnny said.
"The
Christmas season is practically the only time
left that people even talk about goodwill and
peace on earth," Cheyenne sighed.
"My
family doesn't celebrate Christmas," Jamal said,
"but where would the world be without the hope
that Santa brings the kids who believe in him."
"What
can we do?" Ming asked.
"We
have to bring peace on earth, of course!" I said.
It seemed the obvious solution, considering that
the cloud was caused by all the fear and gloom.
"That's
not so easy to do," Solomon sighed. "Believe me,
lots of people have been wishing and working For
a Culture of Peace for, well… since time began."
I
sat down and rested my head on my paws. "It is
a terribly big thing to accomplish, isn't it,"
I sighed, completely depressed.
"Maybe
you can help us with our campaign to bring a day
of peace," Maria suggested. "Maybe this year the
world will see how much peace really is needed…"
"A
day of peace …" I muttered. It might be a much
easier goal to achieve. "But we don't just want
a day of peace, we need peace on earth…" I sighed.
"You
have to start somewhere," Amir declared. "If we
can convince the world to create peace for a day,
people will realize that we can work together
to make peace on earth last, one day at a time."
"Yes,"
the kids all agreed.
"Peace
isn't something that will come in a magical moment,"
Indira pointed out. "It's something we'll have
to work hard to keep, even if we can make it happen
for a day."
"That's
right," Juan exclaimed. "But it will be possible,
if the world agrees that it is a goal that we
should work together to achieve. The world doesn't
have a common goal right now. This is the perfect
one!"
I
was really psyched. This sounded like a great
plan to save Christmas Town, and to save the world
from itself in the process! But how could we ever
choose a day to try to make this happen. With
365 days in the year, surely we could find an
argument to aim for any one of them.
"Every
day is a good day for peace," Maya agreed, "but
actually, we're already working on a campaign
to help bring a day of peace on the International
Day of Peace - that's on September 21. The governments
of the world already agreed that we should honor
it as a global day of peace and ceasefire."
"They
did?!" I gasped unbelievingly.
"Yes!"
the kids all chimed at once.
"The
United Nations declared a resolution calling for
the observance of the International Day of Peace,
also known as Peace Day," Cheyenne told me.
"And
it was unanimously adopted by all of the more
than 190 nations that belong to the UN," Juan
added.
"We
just have to get them to honor their word," Jamal
sighed.
"And
let the people of the world know about it," Indira
pointed out. "After more than 20 years, most people
have still never even heard of Peace Day."
"There's
also another important peace day," Johnny added.
"Yes,"
Ming nodded, "One Day in Peace, January 1. After
we save Christmas, the world will be inspired
to create another day of peace on January 1 -
that way we can begin the new year on the right
foot…"
"For
peace!" everyone shouted.
"We've
got two months," I gasped. Not a moment to lose.
Let's do it!"
Chapter 4. We Want Peace
on Earth!
That
was the longest two months of my life, believe
me.
After
we had hugged, the weekly BetterWorld Kids Club meeting
was adjourned and everyone went back to their
own homes.
Everyone
except me.
I
tried to get through Santa's computer screen,
but it was frozen solid, like everything else
back in Christmas Town.
I
made the best of the situation and started surfing
the web, spreading the word about a day of peace
on the International Day of Peace.
I
never realized how big the world was. Santa definitely
used powerful magic to visit everyone in the world
on Christmas Eve. The little magic that I had
back in Christmas Town seemed to have been frozen
along with everything else there, because I had
to visit each website the old fashioned way -
one link at a time.
Fortunately
the Internet is so well connected that I had no
problem leaping from one website to the next.
I stayed on a promising site long enough to convince
the webmaster to spread the message of a worldwide
day of peace on September 21, then moved on to
the next website.
I
also had a ball zipping along the information
superhighway aboard emails that I sent out far
and wide. What a fun way to meet world leaders,
celebrities, great thinkers and all kinds of people
in every walk of life.
It
wasn't long before I realized there really are
a whole lot of wonderful people doing a whole
lot of wonderful things to make the world a better
place. I felt really hopeful that we might be
able to convince the world to join together for
a day of peace. And then, the world might really
join together to try to make peace on earth our
shared goal.
Time
seemed to pass both quickly and slowly at the
same time. Thank goodness we had the BetterWorld Kids
Club meetings each week to keep us motivated.
And we really were making great progress. The
world was in such a mess, that people seemed to
finally be ready to be serious about the wish
For a Culture of Peace.
Things
were looking so hopeful, in fact, that I guess
our efforts were starting to pay off enough to
make a real difference in the world. You'll see
what I mean.
As
you can imagine, I took a lot of sidetrips to
the frozen computer-screen that overlooked Christmas
Town to have a peek on my loved ones back home.
Well, that's what I was doing on the first Friday
in September, before I was about to hop on a hyperlink
towards our weekly BetterWorld Kids Club meeting. As
I peaked out on Christmas Town, who should be
staring back through the computer monitor, but
jolly old Saint Nick himself.
Chapter 5. Home Sweet
Home
Was I ever happy to see Santa. Especially since
he was smiling and completely defrosted!
I
told him all about the BetterWorld Kids and the global
campaign for a worldwide day of peace.
Santa
was excited to hear all about it, and he was really
proud of me. Boy did that make me purr like crazy.
That
dark cloud had lifted off of Christmas Town because
of all the hope and goodwill that was going on
in the world. But of course, it stayed hovering
at the edge of the mountains, because there was
still a lot of fear and gloom going on, too.
But
up in Christmas Town the Christmas Spirit couldn't
have been more alive. Santa didn't shut down the
Toy Factory or anything else in Christmas Town
cause with all that joy going around, there was
plenty of Christmas magic to keep everything running
smoothly. In fact, the elves were doing double-overtime,
and the elf employment agency was working overtime
too trying to find extra workers for the Christmas
season.
Yessiree-bob,
things were right on schedule for that to be the
best Christmas ever.
I
kept in close contact with the BetterWorld Kids over
the internet. Truth is, I wasn't ever able to
join the BetterWorld Kids IN cyberspace again for their
weekly meetings. Somehow I just couldn't find
the right magic again to enter in through the
computer screen. But it was nice to email back
and forth and to check their website for the latest
developments in the Peace Day campaign.
September
21 came and went, and celebrations and peace activities
took place all around the world. Celebrities and
world leaders appeared on television asking the
world to join in a day of peace. Millions and
millions of people joined together for peace in
communities all over the world.
To
tell you the truth, I was kind of disappointed.
I mean, it's true, a lot of people's lives were
touched, but there wasn't peace on earth. The
world didn't agree to try to make peace on earth
a priority, so after Peace Day, things pretty
much went on the way they had before.
I
told Santa about my feelings. He sighed and nodded
his head, then petted me under the chin, just
where I like it. "Come on, Kitty," he said softly,
"let's go for a walk."
As
we walked through the snow, Santa laughed in that
jolly way he always does and I started to feel
better.
We
walked to the edge of the North Pole and sat down
together on the Bench of Dreams. We sat there
in silence for a while, watching the beautiful
dancing colors in the Forever Sky. For a moment
I really forgot about the dark cloud off in the
distance.
"Kitty,
Kitty," Santa sighed after a while. "We're just
going to have to try harder. You know we're putting
an extra wish For a Culture of Peace in every
present we deliver at Christmastime. And more
and more people are joining in around the world
to work For a Culture of Peace."
I
nodded as I snuggled in his lap. I noticed my
purring motor was softly humming. Santa pointed
up in the Forever Sky. "Look, Kitty, over there.
See, someday peace on earth will come."
I
looked up into the sky. Santa was right. And gosh,
it was going to be beautiful.
Well,
that's the story of that special Christmas. I
guess it wasn't really me that saved Christmas.
It was because of the BetterWorld Kids and folks like
you who are doing little and big things to try
to make the world a better place. It really is
making a difference. If you look all around there's
lots of reasons to be hopeful every day.
But
if you really need proof that this story's real,
and that someday peace on earth will come, keep
your ear out for Santa before you drift off to
sleep on Christmas Eve. If you listen really hard
you'll hear his jolly song, "You better learn
to share… Just give it a try... Show the world
you care…I'm telling you why…Peace on earth is
coming Someday!" And then as his jolly laughter
fades off into silence you'll hear him whispering,
"May Peace Prevail On Earth…" and you'll know
for sure that someday peace on earth will come.
