Dyeing for Christmas

One frosty Christmas Eve morning, Santa was getting ready for a day in the workshop as Christmas drew near.

He had finished his ice-cold shower and dressed in his Christmas plaid shirt and red overalls for the day. When he wanted to comb out his white beard, he discovered his once snowy white beard had turned green!

"What in the world has happened to my beard!" hollers Santa.

Mrs. Claus dashed into the bathroom with her gingerbread perfume drifting into the room.

"Santa, what is wrong? Your scream almost caused a Christmas toy avalanche!" Mrs Claus said breathlessly.

Santa Claus turned around in a flash to show Mrs. Claus that his trademark snowy white beard had turned the color of a neon green Christmas light bulb.

"Look what happened to my beard," cried Santa Claus.

"Now, don't get your candy cane boxers into a twist," Mrs. Claus said very calmly. "Let me see if I can figure out what happened to your snowy white beard." Mrs Claus, with a pensive look on her face, did a lot. "hmmmmm,ohhhhh, ahhhh."

Finally, at his wit's end, Santa said, "Well, what do you think?"

Mrs. Claus stood back and said, "Don't worry. I am sure this will be easy to fix."

Santa Claus wasn't going to wait. He ran past Mrs. Claus and grabbed his red jacket with this oversized candy candy pattern scarf. He wrapped it around his beard and face.

"Where are you going?" Mrs. Claus hurried after him.

"To Rudolph, he will know what to do. I can't have a neon green ELF beard on my face." Santa yelled as he ran out of their Christmas log cabin.

Santa was sure the wrapped candy cane scarf would help hide this green beard. He couldn't take the chance of upsetting everyone in the North Pole.

Santa slipped and slid on the icy ground to Rudolph's and the Reindeers farm stalls. As he glided past his busy elves, he waved his greetings so no one would think anything was amiss.

When Santa arrived, he found Rudolph and his team of reindeers doing their morning Tai Chi with soft holiday music playing in the background.

"Rudolph!" Santa bellowed.

All the reindeers froze in various positions.

Dasher was trying to keep his jingle bell balance, but one look at Santa, and he began to look like a Christmas tree slowly falling down.

Dasher, performing his stocking stuff for a stretch pose, looked more like a kid who got caught sneaking a peek from under the Christmas tree.

Vixen had just finished her Candy Cane Twist and was still twisting out of position.

Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen were sitting with one eye open and their arms stretched high in a circular shape reminiscent of a mistletoe for their mistletoe meditation.

Santa continued to hurry past his team until he found Rudolph. Rudolph was in the middle of his sled warrior ride pose. Santa finally stopped and unwrapped his scarf like a dramatic gift unwrapping; his neon green beard was exposed. Rudolph's big eyes and glowing red nose got more significant.

"What the eggnog snafu has happened to your snowy white beard!" Rudolph squealed.

All the other concerned reindeers pranced out of their positions and circled around Santa.

It was a yuletide chaotic scene as everyone began to talk simultaneously. Finally, Rudolph snapped out of his North Pole shock and quickly quieted everyone down.

"Santa, what did you do yesterday?" Rudolph questioned.

Santa thought momentarily and said," I went to the toy shop and worked there for a few hours. I went to check on my sled at the Starlight Mechanic Shop and went to Sprinkle Shears Elf Barbershop for my Christmas Eve Spa day."

Rudolph decided that was the place they were going to go to first. Santa, Rudolph, and his reindeer team went to the barbershop only to find Sprinkle Elf, the head barber, was out for the day.

Rudolph and the other reindeers looked around the barbershop to see if they could figure out a way to dye Santa's beard back to snowy white. Santa sat his jolly self into the red velvety barber chair. At the same time, the reindeers and Rudolph looked around and mixed up a bottle of dye that read Frosty "frosted frosty locks" and a bottle called "silver bells".

Better to be safe than sorry; Rudolph mixed them both together, leaned Santa back in the chair, and started to wash his beard with the new formula. Vixen thought they should keep the formula in for 30 minutes to be sure the dye did the trick.

Dancer washed the bleach from Santa's beard, and Comet toweled Santa off. After a few minutes, they watched Santa's beard turn from neon green to pink with white stripes.

"Oh no! What is the Abominable Snowman have you done!" cried Santa Claus

"We made it worse!" yellowed Comet.

With Rudolph in the lead, Santa's reindeer team ran around mixing hair dyes to see if they could fix this problem. Bottle after bottle, Santa's beard turns into various colors, going from purple with polka dots to zebra stripes to neon orange and eventually black. The sun was setting, and Santa, Rudolph, and his team were getting tuckered.

Finally, with a delightful surprise, Sprinkle Sheers Elf showed up to discover a mistletoe mess!

"What are you doing!" Sprinkle Sheers Elf bellowed.

Santa explained what happened, and Sprinkle Shears' elf turned to little Jingle Jamboree's elf to find out why his snowy white guy had done this. Jingle Jamboree elf wanted everyone to look like a Saint Patrick's Day down. He had no idea Santa would be the first to be tricked.

Sprinkle Shears elf quickly corrected the problem and returned Santa's beard to his snowy white condition. Santa and the reindeer were thrilled because they were ready to go on an eggnog bender if this took longer.

Santa raced back home to change it and was greeted by Mrs. Claus at the door.

"You fixed it! I told you not to worry!" she said as she broke off a Ginger Snap and shared it with him.

Santa, with a twinkling his eyes, replied

"You were right as always; it was as easy as teaching a snowman how to make a snow angel in a blizzard! Merry Christmas!"

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Thank you for reading.