Santa's miscalculation - a slightly different Christmas story
12/24/2014
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Christmas was just around the corner once again. The united Santas sat around a large round table to get ready for the coming days. Modern as they were, they called the meeting a "kick-off".
A big argument soon broke out. "We can't possibly fly to the children with reindeer in front of the sleigh! Imagine the press when we come along with these CO2 ejectors," said one of them. Another countered: "But our reindeer sleighs are a tradition, with modern alternatives we are no longer real Santas". A third interjected: "Hybrid is the magic word, we should couple a reindeer with modern electric engines, then tradition and innovation would be served". "The reindeer has to go", said a fourth Santa Claus, "otherwise we won't even be able to get into the city centers because we won't have the green sticker". And a fifth interjected: "We have to have faster sleighs anyway, and license plates to boot, because otherwise we won't be able to drive on the German autobahns when the car toll comes in".
And so it went on until, by consensus, a modern sled finally took shape, with a modern fuel cell drive and computer control. It met all road safety standards, was able to avert collisions independently and turned night into day with its intelligent laser light system. And when parking, a "Ho ho ho" sounded when the sensors sounded the alarm. The Santas were happy, at least most of them.
When it came to delivering the presents, they proudly sat in their sleighs and drove and flew in all directions from Finland, where the "Hädquorter" of the white-bearded men is known to lie.
When the first people saw the modern sledges, they were very disappointed. Nobody liked the new-fangled sledges, nobody enjoyed the innovative drive concepts. There was a huge outcry among the people and the tenor was clear - the traditional sledges should come back, the few tons of CO2 were bearable, people thought. Better no Christmas presents than presents delivered by these modern things.
The Santas quickly realized their mistake and made the new sleighs disappear. The used, time-honored sleighs and reindeer were still available and in terms of maintenance complexity, they were superior to the new ones anyway. We quickly changed over and Christmas was saved.
Merry Christmas!
Illustration by Stefan Rogger
