Not long ago and not far away, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip…but there were problems every where. It was Christmas Eve and NOTHING was going right.

The Elves were complaining about not getting paid for the overtime they had put in while making toys and were threatening to go on strike. Four of the elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones so Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule.

Mrs. Claus had burned all the Christmas cookies. Then she told Santa that her mother was coming to visit….

When he went to harness the reindeer he found that two of them were about to give birth and the rest had been drinking all afternoon and were dead drunk. They had taken the sleigh out for a spin earlier in the day, and it crashed into a tree, breaking off one of the runners, which Santa had to repiar.

Then, when he began to load the sleigh, the damaged runner collapsed again and the toy bag fell to the ground, scattering toys all over the place.

Frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of coffee and a shot of whiskey, but he found that the elves (and the reindeer) had hit the liquor cupboard and there was nothing there to drink. In his frustration, he dropped the coffee pot and it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had gnawed the bristles down to a nub.

Santa was beside himself with anger. “I CAN’T believe it! I’ve got to deliver millions of presents all over the world in just a few hours, and all my reindeer are drunk and my elves are on strike. I don’t even have a Christmas tree! I sent that stupid little angel out HOURS ago to find a tree and he isn’t even back yet! What am I going to do?”

Just then the little angel opened the front door and stepped in from the snowy night, dragging a large Christmas Tree. He said: “So, Santa, where do you want me to stick the Christmas tree this year?”

And that, my friend, is how the little angel came to be on top of the Christmas tree….