Billy and Emil were busy with the computer, when Pippa came in to see what they were doing. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"We're getting ready to track Santa," Billy said.
"It's Christmas Eve," Emil added. "We do this every year.
Pippa thought she remembered something about tracking Santa from last year, but everything was so new then, she had forgotten what it was all about.
"Santa allows you to track him?" she asked. "How do you do that?"
Emil thought he knew what Pippa was thinking. "Santa doesn't usually let anyone see him deliver the presents," he agreed, "at least not children and child dolls, but it's OK to track him as he goes from one town to the next. It's all so fast, though, you don't get to see into other doll's houses."
"I think," Billy said, "he does it with something like time compression. He uses magic or something to squish time together, so the time he spends in one town could be hours or days, even, but for us only a few minutes go by."
Pippa had to think about that. She decided she would need something like brain compression to understand it, so she gave up. Maybe when she gets older she can make sense of it.
"So how do you track Santa?" she asked.
Emil pointed to the computer screen. "NORAD does it," he explained. "They let us watch on the computer."
"Who is Norad?" Pippa wanted to know.
"It's actually the North American Aerospace Defense Command," Billy said. "It's a government agency. They just took the letters out of the name and came up with NORAD." He knew Pippa was thinking it was just a regular name, like Billy or Pippa. He had thought so, too, at first. "It's a big organization with lots of equipment for tracking, and planes and things. Lots of human people work there."
"You can call in, too," Emil explained "You can talk to a real human person on Christmas Eve who will tell you where Santa is, or if they're really busy, a recording will tell you."
"But you can actually see where Santa is on the website," Emil continued. "That's easier."
"Where is Santa now?" Pippa asked, climbing over to the boys' chair.
"He's here," Billy said, pointing at the screen, "somewhere in Australia. The website has been showing things since early this morning, but it got really busy after Santa took off. That was before we got up, though. He goes up and down each time zone, from as far north as there are children and child dolls to as far south as anyone lives."
Pippa looked at the screen. The wheels were turning in her tiny brain. (Well, there aren't really any wheels in there, but she was thinking very hard.) "So our government pays for all these people and equipment just to watch where Santa goes one day out of the year?" she asked doubtfully. No wonder everyone complains about the taxes!
"Not really," Billy replied with a smile. It did sound pretty far-fetched. "The rest of the year, and even today, while they're tracking Santa, NORAD watches everything that flies around the earth. They make sure there's nothing that could put us in danger."
"I guess that's worth my tax money," Pippa decided.
"Tracking Santa," Emil added, "is just something they do as a public service once a year, and it isn't just the government of the United States. Canada is an equal partner in NORAD."
"Why doesn't Santa start his trip right here?" Pippa asked.
Both boys tried not to laugh. "Santa has to deliver presents when we're asleep," Billy explained. "It's part of his contract that no presents are delivered when we're awake. If he comes to a house and the dolls are still awake, he goes to the next house and then comes back when they're asleep."
"He starts at the International Date Line," Emil said. "That's a line from the North Pole to the South Pole that tells us where the day starts. That's where it became Christmas Eve when it was still December twenty-third here. Here, I'll show you." Emil opened another window on the laptop. It showed a big map of all the countries in the world.
Pippa tried very hard to make her eyes big and round, but she couldn't really change the shape of her face, so she had to just pretend.
"This sort of uneven line from north to south in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is the International Date Line," Billy explained as Pippa stared at the map.
Pippa looked. Then she looked at Billy and then at Emil. "Where are we on this map?" she asked.
"About here," Billy said, pointing to a place on the screen that was about where the US state of Oregon was located.
"So Santa started here," Pippa said, pointing at the uneven line, "and is going that way, right?" She pointed to the left on the screen, because she had learned at school that the earth turns so sun comes up on the right side of a map.
Both boys nodded. Pippa imagined Santa moving off the screen, around the earth and then coming in again on the other side. That was a long way. She remembered her own trip around the world to get here. It was a long way! Then she looked at the map again.
"Yikes!" Pippa exclaimed. "We're almost the last ones to get presents! We have to wait longer than anyone almost, and what if Santa runs out of presents?"
"It doesn't matter when we get the presents," Billy explained. "Santa has already decided who gets what, and he doesn't get mixed up, ever!"
"We might not get everything we want," Emil said, "but we will get some nice things. You don't need to worry about that."
"What about the supply chain issues?" Pippa asked.
"Where did you hear about that, Pippa?" Billy asked.
"It was on the news," Pippa replied. "I heard that lots of things are not getting where they need to be, so some human people are having to do without things they want or need."
"Don't worry," Billy told her. "They will work that out, and besides, Santa doesn't have to depend on anyone else for anything he uses to make his toys. He's totally self-contained. He makes everything from materials he produces himself, and he delivers the presents himself. Children and child dolls all over the world will get something nice for Christmas."
"As long as we're on the Nice List," Emil pointed out.
"I'll go right to sleep at bedtime!" Pippa exclaimed. "I sure don't want to waste Santa's time! If he has to go to another house and then come back, he might put me on the Naughty List!"
The three dolls kept checking from time to time for the rest of the day, and into the evening, between playing games, reading to each other, singing carols and watching TV. Occasionally one of the other dolls would come and look at the screen to see where Santa was. They had to plug the laptop in to charge three times during the day, because they were alway watching.
At bedtime they all pretended to brush their teeth. (It's OK to pretend to brush your teeth when you don't actually have teeth.) They put on their pajamas and all climbed into one bed, under the covers or sitting around on the bed where they could listen, for the traditional reading of "The Night Before Christmas." Mandy turned the book around after reading each page, so the dolls at the foot of the bed could see the pictures.
Then they went to their own beds, wishing each other, "Good night," and "Merry Christmas!"
As they fell asleep, they thought about all the fun they would have the next day. Pippa didn't have to worry about being awake when Santa came. When Veronika tucked her in, she was already asleep.
Somewhere, up in the air, Santa was humming Jingle Bells and thinking of each present he and Mrs. Santa and the elves had wrapped for each child. Among the presents Santa thought about was something special just for Pippa, who had made the Nice List. Santa remembered wrapping Pippa's own tiny copy of Alice in Wonderland, just her size, and he smiled to himself.
It's good to be Santa, now that the work is almost done and he can make children happy, but, as much as he loves his job, Santa is really looking forward to his vacation!
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
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Copyright © 2021 by Peggy Stuart
