NCE upon a time the fairies planned a Christmas surprise for Santa Claus.
“I wonder what we can do to make him happy?� asked the Fairy Queen; “he always makes other people happy.�
“I know,� answered the Fairy King, “let us give him a Christmas party and after he returns from his long journey of love all around the world, let us lead him to the Christmas-tree forest and there we will have a tree all trimmed and ready for him.�
“Hurrah! hurrah!� shouted all the little brownies, elves, fairies and nymphs. “Hurrah! hurrah! what fun we shall have; a Christmas tree for dear old Father Santa Claus. We will ask Mother Santa Claus to help us plan it and she will tell us just what he needs and would most enjoy,� said the Fairy King.
Now, you must know, children, that all the brownies, elves, fairies and nymphs always call Santa Claus and Mrs. Santa Claus, “Father� and “Mother� because they seem like a Father and Mother to all these little people, and they always help Santa Claus and his good wife make the Christmas gifts; for how would Santa Claus and Mrs. Santa Claus ever get all their work done in time for Christmas without all these good, little fairies to help them?
So, of course, when they planned for a Christmas tree, they asked Mother Santa Claus to help them. “Have everything ready,� said Mother Santa Claus, “and, after Father has gone on his long journey, we will go out to the forest and trim the tree, and have everything in place before he comes home again. We will keep it as a great secret, for if he hears of it all our fun and surprise will be gone.�
“We will never let him hear a whisper from us,� said the fairies. “We will work and will wait patiently until Christmas Eve.�
Then the fairies, true to their promise, worked and worked helping Father and Mother Santa Claus to make the Christmas gifts, and they were all very busy. Some of these dear little fairies helped Mother Santa Claus to make doll clothes and to furnish dolls’ houses, hemming tiny table-cloths, fringing little napkins, making sheets and blankets and pillows and pillow-cases for the dollies’ beds. They were such happy little fairies that they sang as they worked:
“The Christmas fairies find pleasure,
As they work for the good girls and boys,
For they know that the children will treasure
And value these new Christmas toys.�