Christmas Sabotage
The Reindeer were concerned that the new autopilot feature on Santa’s sleigh was going to be a disaster. Every test, every run-through, every dry run all ended in the exact same horrible way… Well, okay, they didn’t all end in the exact same way, but they all ended badly, that’s for sure.
If the Reindeer were really being honest though, they were mostly upset that once Santa’s fancy new sleigh was ready to go the big guy would no longer need them. Papa Noel would eventually forget about the old reindeer, children would stop singing songs about them, and then new songs about how efficient and effective autopilot it would take over the Christmas season.
“Well, there’s only one thing left for us to do,” Donner told all the reindeer as they were eating lunch.
“What’s that?” Blitzen replied.
“Sabotage.”
“Sabotage?” Comet chimed in, “Sabotage… Christmas?”
“Whoa whoa, when you put it like that it sounds really bad.” Donner recanted quickly, “No, I just mean we should like make sure the autopilot doesn’t work so that Santa has to keep using us.”
“Great, very helpful Donner… NOT!” Dancer, who was a bit of a sarcasm fanatic recently, shot back.
“I don’t see you offering any solutions!” Donner continued, “We’re about to be out of a job!”
“Not me,” Rudolph offered, “Autopilot still needs to light up the sky to work.”
“The new sleigh has halogen 360 LED bulbs, so this includes you Rudolph” Donner added.
“Son of a Blitzen!” Rudolph exclaimed, “If sabotage is still on the table I’m open to it.”
The Reindeer did not have anything remotely close to a plan on how to address their predicament. They had to simply keep praying that the autopilot mechanism would continue to fail.
“What if, instead of…” Donner tried to formulate another idea when…
“Hey fellas!” Cupid stood as he looked at his phone, “Word just came down from Santa, autopilot isn’t going to be ready this year! We’ll need to use you after all!”
That’s when it sunk in for the reindeer. There were no cheers, no signs of relief. They were off. Santa was always going to keep them around. In fact, the songs children would sing about them aren’t going anywhere either. Santa could have replaced Rudolph with halogen lamps years ago and the kids would have still sung songs about Rudolph.
Now, they had to get ready for work again, on Christmas.
“Good work Donner,” Dancer said, sarcastically of course.
“This is all your fault we have to work now,” Rudolph added.
“Yeah, you sabotaged us,” Comet concluded.
Donner knew even though he was specifically clear about regretting the instinct to sabotage the autopilot project that wouldn't be enough to convince his fellow reindeer that this whole situation wasn't his fault. There was no use fighting or even trying to defend himself. Public opinion was fickle as the wind and then set in stone.
