The Ivy Midnight Express

A Christmas Eve to Remember

Arthur couldn’t sleep. Although he was still only young, he was at that age where he’d heard people in his class asking questions about Santa. You know the ones. How does he do it? How does he get to all those countries in just one night? How does he get all those presents on his sleigh? Arthur had even heard a couple of suggestions that he didn’t really want to acknowledge.

So, being an inquisitive sort of child, Arthur has stayed up well past his bedtime and snuck back downstairs so he can finally work it out for himself. With his Mum and Dad soundly snoring upstairs, Arthur sat quietly by the fireplace playing with his train set, hoping and praying that sometime in the next few hours all his questions would be answered. Last year, he tried but fell asleep, but he tells himself he’s a year older and won’t make that mistake again.

Arthur’s a nice kid. He’s not like most children who want to be a famous footballer or a rock singer, not even a big movie star or dare we say it, an influencer. Arthur loves trains and wants to drive a big locomotive when he’s older. That’s so much cooler. So, as the clock slowly ticks by in the early hours, suddenly out of nowhere, he hears a knocking sound at the back door. Slightly nervously he moves towards the kitchen and starts to explore. Well, actually he’s going to hide behind one of the curtains and peek out until he’s sure it’s safe.

Mischief Knocks at the Door

What Arthur isn’t expecting to see standing outside his kitchen is two elves, one with a walkie-talkie and the other with what looks like some sort of map. Startled, he catches the eye of one of the elves who has now jumped up and is sticking to Arthur’s kitchen window.

“Hi, I’m Ivy, and this here’s Tom. Hope you don’t mind, but can we come in please? We’ve had a bit of a problem.” he asks as the elf called Paul stands there and waves.

Now Arthur had never seen an elf before, let alone one who’s asking whether or not he can come into his kitchen. With slight trepidation, he unlocks the door and opens it as slowly as he can without appearing rude.

“Thanks Arthur,” said the other elf.

“How on earth do you know my name?” asked Arthur, quite reasonably really when you come to think of it.

“We haven’t really got time for answers I’m afraid” replied Ivy. With that she pointed her arm towards the top of the garden where what looked like a huge sleigh had been parked rather poorly by somebody over most of Arthur’s garden.

“You’ve parked on my dad’s vegetable patch. And that reindeer is eating his carrots. He’s going to go mad” murmured Arthur. But, just as he was waiting for one of the elves to give him an explanation, there was a loud noise from the rooftop.

“What was that?” asked Arthur

“That’s Santa Claus, Arthur. He’s got himself stuck in your chimney. Does it all the time. He shouldn’t be too long now,” said Ivy.

An Unexpected Visitor

Rushing back inside the house, all of a sudden, there was a large puff of black soot and lo and behold, standing in front of Arthur was a chubby man in a red suit, red boots with a rather large white beard.

“Arthur, please let me apologise. My name is Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, and a few others for that matter, but that’s not important now. There’s been a bit of a hiccup with my sleigh. Lost power about ten minutes ago. Had to make an emergency landing and your garden just happened to be the place where we came down. Don’t worry about the carrots, we’ll sort those out.”

“How?” replied Arthur

“Magic. It’s all about the magic Arthur. Now, we haven’t got any time to lose. Have you got anything, big or small in your house that could help us transport all these presents to the children who are still waiting?”

Sadly, Arthur was so confused he couldn’t think of anything. He just looked blankly ahead. Just as Santa was perusing the room for inspiration, Arthur reached down and picked up his favourite and most treasured train.

“What a fabulous idea. You couldn’t have picked anything better Arthur. This’ll do the trick.”

“Really? But it’s so small compared to your sleigh. How could that possibly work?

“Let’s take it outside and we’ll see what we can do” replied Santa

The Train That Saved Christmas

With that, Santa and Arthur picked up his engines and all the carriages that came with it and walked back through the kitchen and out into the garden. Carefully, he placed Arthur’s favourite toy on the grass and put his hand into one of the pockets of his red jacket.

“This is always the best bit. Watch carefully Arthur.” said one of the elves.

With a shake of Santa’s fist, he sprinkled some gold glitter over Arthur’s train set and then slowly walked backwards, taking Arthur by the hand. Within seconds the ground started to rumble as clouds of smoke descended all over his back garden. Before he knew it, Arthur stood in stunned amazement as a huge steam train and its carriages, full to the brim with presents were floating in the sky above his house.

“Bet you’ve never seen that before have you, young Arthur?” asked Santa

Arthur just looked in awe as Santa, Ivy, and Tom started climbing the rope ladder that would take him into the cockpit.

“Well, are you coming or not Arthur? barked Santa. Shame to miss out on a trip in your own steam engine, don’t you think?”

“But I can’t go without asking. I just can’t” replied Arthur, suddenly looking downcast.

“Well, that’s the special thing about Christmas Arthur. It is magic. It’s always been about the magic. With a shake of what’s in my other pocket, we’ll get all this done and you home and in bed before your parents even start thinking about getting up. I promise Arthur. Look, there’s even a train driver’s hat with your name on it”

Arthur had never smiled as much in his entire life. Without a second glance, he was climbing up the ladder and before too long standing there with his new hat ready to drive the train in whichever Santa and his two friends were going to take. Ready for the greatest adventure of his life. Just in time to save Christmas

Santa this time threw an enormous handful of glitter up in the air and before you knew it the train had started to gather speed high up above the town where Arthur lives.

The Magic of Christmas

As they soared over rooftops, Santa turned to Arthur: “We couldn’t have saved Christmas without you Arthur. What an absolute superstar you are. We knew you’d be able to come through just in the nick of time. Oh, and don’t worry, we’ll fix your Dad’s vegetable patch when we drop you home!”

Arthur had never smiled as much in his entire life.
Christmas wasn’t just about receiving presents — it was about wonder, adventure, and believing in magic.