“No, not to-night, Father Santa Claus. We are so happy we will dance until morning. Come with us to the Christmas-tree forest,� and with all the fairy helpers pushing and pulling him, and Mother Santa Claus holding him tightly by the hand, Santa Claus was brought out to his own Christmas tree.
“Merry Christmas! Surprise! Surprise! Merry Christmas!� shouted all the fairies, and poor Santa Claus was certainly so surprised that he did not know what to say nor which way to turn. “A Christmas tree! And for me!� gasped Santa Claus in his bewilderment.
“Yes, yes, for you, for you!� they all shouted. “You are always making other people have a merry Christmas, and now we want you to have a merry Christmas. It is your very own Christmas tree, Father Santa Claus.� And then they brought out his presents and gave them to him.
When they had dressed him in his new suit, his eyes twinkled with pleasure as he said, “Why, I don’t know myself now; my old clothes were quite shabby and were tarnished with ashes and soot, and Dancer and Prancer and Dunder and Blitzen and all the reindeer will hardly know what to make of this beautiful new magic sleigh. And just listen to the merry music of our new sleigh-bells! How good this warm fur robe will feel over me! Sometimes it is pretty cold and my old one is getting thin and worn. A new pipe! Oh, that is fine! My old one is just a stump of a pipe which I had to hold tightly between my teeth, and now, with this new one, the smoke will encircle my head like a wreath. How good you are to me!� said Father Santa Claus, “and how did you ever plan it?�
“Oh, good Mother Santa Claus helped us; without her help we could not have had any Christmas tree surprise party at all.�
“Yes,� said Father Santa Claus, “it always takes the good Mother to plan and make a real Christmas party.�
Then the fairy helpers surprised Mother Santa Claus by bringing out a new dress which they had made for her, with a soft, lacy collar and a white cap, and the mountain dwarfs gave her a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles to help her as she did her sewing, and a new, gold pin set with corals was brought to her by the sea nymphs.
And then Father and Mother Santa Claus, dressed in their new Christmas clothes, stood under the sparkling tree trimmed by the frost fairies. Overhead the rainbow fairies came out and flashed their bright lights high in the northern sky, while all the Christmas fairy helpers, the brownies, elves, fairies, mountain dwarfs and nymphs, danced around and around them in a fairy ring, calling gaily:
“Merry Christmas, Father Santa Claus!
Merry Christmas, Mother Santa Claus!
Merry, Merry Christmas to all the World!�