The Last Sleigh Ride

Margaret runs Santa’s house, tends the Christmas roses in the winter garden and cooks salves and drops for people and animals in her herb room. In the village everyone calls her Mother Claus. Tonight she is hosting the Christmas Eve feast.

Brunhild has reshod Santa’s sleigh three times already and riveted every harness in the stable with her own hands. Tonight she is helping with the loading in the workshop.

Ambrosius keeps the Great Book, which records who was nice and who was not, and makes the fair copy in stardust ink. Together with the reindeer master he carries one of the two keys to the Star Room.

Tannwig runs the workshop and knows when every single toy was built and for whom. Tonight the sleigh gets loaded, and Tannwig counts every parcel twice.

Jule rings the village bells and every year seals the finished List with green fir wax. No sleigh takes off without Jule’s midnight bells, and wherever Jule goes, the brass bells on the jacket hem jingle along.

Sigrun grew up in the reindeer stable and knows every animal by name, above all the old lead stag Northstar. Tonight she harnesses the reindeer to the sleigh, and whoever gets in her way hears about it.

Ruprecht came to the village from the south twenty years ago and rides with Santa every year, carrying the sack and the switch. He speaks little and chops wood when something is weighing on him.

Flocke fetches the world’s wish letters from the Northern Lights Post Office and sorts them for the archive. Letters arrive until the last minute, and Flocke carries each one into the house.

Ilvi reads from the stars and the northern lights which way the sleigh must go, and gives every course exact to the quarter point. Tonight Ilvi is watching the sky through the glass roof of the winter garden.

Krümel bakes the village’s gingerbread and every year cooks the cocoa the Old Man drinks before the flight. Without Krümel’s kitchen there would be no feast, and Krümel likes hearing that.