A young impoverished girl meets the famous red-nosed reindeer and the two of them set off to find the giver of a special gift she just received.
Christina sat on the porch of her ramshackle house staring at the falling snow. It was five days ‘til Christmas and still, no one had sent her or her family anything. It was just her, her mom and her two younger brothers in the house in the tiny Saskatoon suburb and they didn’t have very much money. They’d never even been able to taste a turkey on Christmas Day. It was always either that or what small presents their mother could scrounge up for them with the small amount of money she earned from doing whatever meager job she could find.
Year after year Christina hoped desperately that there’d be more than one present under her tree and that the extra one would have a tag that said “from Santa.” But year after year, she’d been disappointed: There’d never been anything but that same small gift from her mother.
Her brothers, Tom and James, were always happy to open whatever they got, but they were six and four respectively and were unaware of the trials that the world was putting the family through. Christina, however, was ten and she was well aware that she and her brothers were not having a normal childhood. And it was around the holidays that it became most clear to her.
Looking for anything to distract her from another impending dismal Christmas, Christina decided to go for a walk. Her mother knew she often took walks to clear her head when she was feeling down. She got up and walked down her front steps and headed toward the path though the woods just behind her house.
The woods were quiet under the falling snow, and Christina knew she wouldn’t be long. The path she was on ran in a circle and led out of the woods about a block from her home. She was in the middle of thinking how much longer she could go on living like this when she thought she heard something.
Wolves! she thought as a spasm of panic shot through her. But then she realised that that was ridiculous. She’d never encountered anything dangerous in here before. But then she heard it again. It was the sound of footsteps crunching the snow. There was someone, or something, nearby.
Trying not to freak out, she looked wildly around her, hoping to see something that would point her in the right direction to escape. And as she did, she saw something fluttering down from the sky towards her. Whatever it was, it was way too big to be a snowflake. And it wasn’t even the right colour.
The thing fluttered slowly down to the ground and landed and Christina’s feet. It was a maple leaf. What a strange find, Christina thought. She bent down to pick up the leaf and nearly fell over. “My, this is heavy!” she exclaimed, dropping the leaf back to the ground. It felt like it was made of metal, which was impossible of course. Christina stood there, staring at the leaf that had fluttered out of the sky like a normal leaf but was somehow heavy as lead, and then she heard the footsteps again. And something else happened. A soft, red glow lit up the trees around Christina, and it slowly got brighter.
Right before Christina’s eyes, a caribou stepped out of the trees and onto the path in front of her. She squinted against the strange red light so she couldn’t see properly, but after a moment the light dimmed and a voice said “Hello there. I didn’t startle you, did I?”
“No,” said Christina. She sighed with relief. A caribou was nothing to worry about. She looked up, expecting to see a person standing in front of her directing the caribou, but there was no one there. Then Christina saw something that may her heart skip. The strange red light was coming from the caribous’ big red nose, and he was wearing a harness with silver bells. This wasn’t a caribou; it was a reindeer. It was . . .
“Rudolph?!” gasped Christina.
“The red-nosed Reindeer. In the flesh,” the famous deer said.
Christina couldn’t believe her eyes. After years of being disappointed that Santa hadn’t left anything for her, suddenly his lead reindeer was standing right in front of her. Even talking to her. And if he was real, then surely . . .
“Yes,” said Rudolph, reading the expression on Christina’s face. “Santa’s real. So are the elves, the North Pole, my fellow reindeer. All of it is real.” Then he asked “What’s your name, girl?”
“I – I’m Christina,” Christina said, still in complete shock that she was really face-to-face with Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer. “What are you doing here? Where’s the rest of your team?”
“Still at the north pole, said Rudolph. “Santa sent me down south to search for – oh, something like this.” He nodded toward the strange leaf that had fallen out of the sky.
Christina reached down and picked it up again, prepared this time for its heavy weight. “Is this yours?” she asked.
“Oh, no. It’s yours,” said Rudolph. “It’s a gift from the Argen-Aurum tree.”
“The what?” said Christina.
“Those words mean silver and gold in Latin,” said Rudolph.
“Silver and –“ Christina’s jaw dropped. She held the leaf up to her face for a closer look. In the light of Rudolph’s nose, she cold just make out that it was yellow. And it gleamed brightly. “Is this, solid gold?” she whispered.
Rudolph nodded.
“This, this could fix all our problems!” breathed Christina. But before she could say anything else, Rudolph asked her “What are you doing out here on your own? It’s probably not safe for a kid like you in these trees. Come on,” he said, crouching down. “I’m getting you out of here.”
“Well, why not?” said Christina. She climbed onto Rudolph’s back and he started trotting down the path.
“Wait a minute,” said Christina. “If your one of Santa’s reindeer, can’t you fly?”
“I would,” said Rudolph. “But since you’re riding me, you have to say the magic words.”
“Abra Cadabra!” blurted Christina. Nothing happened. “Alacazam!” Nothing. “Wingardium Leviosa!” Still nothing. Christina looked at Rudolph, not sure what to do.
“The words Santa says after calling his team by name,” said Rudolph.
“Oh, right!” Christina wracked her brain for a moment, then cried out “To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all-oh!” As she finished saying the incantation, Rudolph’s feet lifted off the ground.
They were flying! She was flying through the air on the back of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer! In all her life Christina had never experienced something like this. The ground fell away as Rudolph rose to the level of the tree-tops, and beyond the woods Christina saw the lights of the city in the distance. Then, as Rudolph rose higher still and charged forward, she saw the whole city of Saskatoon spread out below them. It felt like she was on top of the world.
“So,” she said after they’d flown for a little while, “what is the Argen-Aurum tree anyway?”
“It’s a very special tree that grows leaves of gold and silver,” said Rudolph. “When it hears the cries of some poor family, it lets a leaf go, and that leaf finds its way to whoever needs it.”
Christina felt the inside of her coat for the leaf that had found its way to her. She remembered how it had fluttered through the air like a normal leaf. Maybe it was part of the magic. Meeting Rudolph was one thing, but to have a gift like that right before Christmas? It was almost too good to be true . “Why are you looking for it?” she asked.
Rudolph’s face fell. “Well, let’s just say I’m not the only one after it,” he said.
Christina gasped. “Greedy men are after it!” she said.
“Yes,” said Rudolph. “There’s a lot of guys after that tree, all with the intention of cutting it down and taking all the leaves for themselves. What they don’t know of course is that, according to the legend, the only way the Argen-Aurum tree can be taken somewhere else is if it’s pulled up out of the ground, roots and all. If it’s cut down, it’ll lose its power and crumble to dust! That’s why Santa sent me to find it first; he knows where it’ll be safe from the claws of greed and he trusts me most above all his reindeer.”
“Can I come with you?” Christina asked hopefully.
Rudolph hesitated a moment. Then he said “Well, I just told you about my secret mission, so I don’t think I have much choice. Hang on!” He rose higher into the clouds and as he did, the falling snow began to swirl around them, forming what appeared to be a tunnel of snowflakes and blotting out everything they could see.
In the red light of Rudolph’s nose Christina could just make out the sides of the swirling snow cloud around them. Then, just as suddenly as it had formed, the strange cloud dispersed and they were in open air again.
They were also somewhere else. The lights below them definitely looked different and it wasn’t as cold as it had been before.
“Oh, that’s how you get everywhere in one night,” Christina said.
“Yep, that’s how,” said Rudolph.
“But, what about places where it doesn’t snow?”
“Doesn’t matter. Any kind of clouds will do,” said Rudolph. “Now I believe we will find our first clue to the location of the tree down there.”
He swooped down out of the sky and landed on top of a grassy hill. Christina climbed off his back and looked around. They were now in a totally different place. There wasn’t even that much snow. “Rudolph, where are we?” she asked.
“Somewhere in Minnesota I think,” Rudolph replied.
Off to their left, another forest loomed in the distance. “What makes you think we’ll find a clue to where the tree is here?” Christina asked.
“I don’t know,” said Rudolph. “Santa just said that we will find the tree if we search among it’s kin.”
“What’s kin?”
“It means others like it,” said Rudolph. “In this case, maple trees.”
“So, it is a maple tree?” asked Christina.
“You do recognise the shape of that leaf, don’t you?”
Christina opened her coat and pulled out the leaf she had found. Yes, it was a maple leaf. And as Christina felt it, she noticed that the leaf did bend a bit like a normal leaf. But it still felt as heavy as lead in her hands. Christina stood there caressing her gift for a long moment. It still felt too good to be true . Not only was Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer standing right in front of her, but she’d received a leaf of gold right before Christmas, that might enable her and her family to have a real Christmas for once.
“Hey, kid. Are you coming or what?” came Rudolph’s voice. Christina looked up and saw that her new friend was already at the forest’s edge. She stuffed the leaf back in her coat and hurried to catch up to him.
* * *
Christina and Rudolph walked through the woods, searching for . . . well honestly, neither of them were sure what they were looking for. So after a little while Christina decided to ask something personal of her new friend. “Rudolph, since you are real, how true is the song about you?”
“You mean, did the other reindeer always laugh at me until Santa picked me to lead his team one foggy Christmas Eve?” Rudolph asked. He sighed. “Well, not all of them. But most reindeer my age did laugh at me for a while when I was small. My parents and most of the adults did their best to shield me from that. But the last bit of that song is true to the letter. One particularly stormy Christmas, it really looked like Santa and his sleigh might be grounded. Then he saw how bright my nose shined and asked if I would lead his team.
“If you want the truth, I was nervous as heck. I’d never even flown before, let alone led the sleigh team. But I said yes, and my red nose led Santa right through that blizzard like a piece of cake. And all the other reindeer have looked at me with great respect ever since.”
“And you forgave them for all the teasing?”
“Of course I did. Hmm, what’s this?”
He had spotted something on the ground that looked slightly out of place. It looked like some kind of marking that was trying to say something, but neither of them could tell what it said. “Try shining your light on it,” said Christina. Rudolph bent his nose to the ground and as if that marking had been designed just for this, under the red light of Rudolph’s nose words began to appear.
The riches stand among its own kind. Follow the compass of four-to-one, it said.
“Among its own kind,” Rudolph said softly.
“You said this tree was a maple tree, right?” asked Christina.
Rudolph nodded. “You think this means it’s hidden in a grove of maple trees?” he asked.
“What else can it mean?” said Christina. Then her heart sank. The writing didn’t say anything more. “But that grove could be anywhere, couldn’t it? Where are we supposed to look? And what on Earth is the compass of four-to-one?”
“I don’t know. Let’s get going again,” said Rudolph.
Christina climbed onto his back. “To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all!” she cried, and once more, Rudolph took to the skies. As the forest they’d just visited fell away below them Christina looked back. “Rudolph, who do you think left that message there?”
“I don’t know for sure, but it probably was the same wizard who made the Argen-Aurum tree.”
“Wizard?” asked Christina.
“Yes, wizard,” said Rudolph. “Legend has it that one Christmas Eve long ago, a wise and gentle man who knew some magic planted gold and silver rings in the ground somewhere and cast a spell from which the Argne-Aurum tree sprang forth. He could have kept the secret to himself and lived like a king, but he made the tree so that it would shed its special leaves on cold winter’s winds and that those winds would take them to whoever needed them.
“But of course, he knew that there were lots of people who would take the tree for themselves if they could find it, so he left certain clues that only the worthy would be able to see so that one day, someone with a good heart would be able to find the tree and guard it well.”
“Wow, that’s quite a story,” said Christina. Then she said “You said if the tree was cut down it would crumble to dust. Did the wizard tell it to do that?”
“I assume so,” said Rudolph. “I don’t know about you, but if I’d made something like that, I’d rather see it destroy itself than end up profiting someone’s greed.” Christina silently agreed with him.
Then Rudolph rose back into the clouds which swirled around them again and they went back through the tunnel of snow. When they emerged on the other end of it, they now found themselves somewhere in the mountains and cold blowing snow was all they could see. Christina thought she had seen blizzards before but she’d never seen or felt anything like this. The snow was driving at them almost on the horizontal and all she could see around her was whiteness. And it was so cold! Christina’s mother did make enough to give her a good enough coat but even with it on she was badly shivering.
Then the red light from Rudolph’s nose pierced the whiteness and Christina saw the huge peeks rising up in front of them. “Wow,” she whispered in awe. “I’ve never seen mountains before.”
“They are quite a sight,” said Rudolph. “Especially when you’re flying over them.”
“How will we find the Argen-Aurum tree here?” asked Christina. “Maple trees don’t grow on mountains, do they?”
“Not that I know of,” said Rudolph. “But the snow led us here, so there must be something here that can tell us where it is.”
“How do you know that? Did you tell those clouds where you want to go?”
“Well, sort of,” said Rudolph. “Normally when me and my fellow reindeer are in that tunnel, we just think of where we want to go and it takes us there. Now, I’m just thinking about where to find clues to the location of the tree. It might not be very accurate but the snow tunnel has never led any reindeer astray before, so I trust that spell.”
Christina wasn’t sure if she was willing to trust strange magic that she knew nothing about but it was Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer so she wanted to try. “Look, there’s something!” she said, pointing to one of the nearest mountains.”
Rudolph swooped down and landed on the edge of a small cliff. Right in front of them was what looked like a compass, but instead of pointing in the four directions, its four points were all pointing slightly east at different angles. “What does this mean?” Christina asked.
“I think, this thing is pointing to where the tree might be,” said Rudolph. “This must be the compass of four-to-one. Four points, all pointing in almost the same direction.”
“Where it might be?” said Christina. Then it hit her. “You think it’s pointing to different places to fool thieves?”
“Yes, I do,” said Rudolph. “And I’m also sure that one of these points is leading to where the tree actually is. The question is, which one is it?”
For a long time, they sat and stared at the strange, compass-like image on the ground, which somehow, seemed to be repelling the snow. Then Rudolph said. “Well we won’t find anything if we just stand here looking at this. Come on, we’ll have to try them all.” With that, Christina climbed back onto Rudolph’s back.
“Wait!” she said. “Shouldn’t we, um, measure the angle of each point to see where it leads so we don’t have to come back here again?”
“That’s a good idea,” said Rudolph. “Although I’m pretty sure the snow will be able to take us to wherever this thing is pointing to.”
Hmm, thought Christina. He seems convinced that his snow tunnel will take us to the right place. Maybe I should try to be a little more trusting of him. So she said the magic words again, and Rudolph took off following the first point on the compass.
When they emerged from the snow tunnel, they found themselves flying over a maple grove. “Just like we thought it would be,” said Rudolph. The mountains they had just left were nowhere in sight, so they’d obviously come a long way.
That makes sense, thought Christina. The maker of the tree they were looking for wouldn’t want to make its location so obvious.
Rudolph landed just at the edge of the grove and the two of them walked in. On the ground, Christina preferred to walk alongside Rudolph so she could stretch her legs. Who knew flying could be so tiring?
The grove they were in was as quiet as a snow-covered forest could be. The moon shown overhead, casting long shadows all around them. More than once, Christina thought she saw something that looked like a silver leaf hanging on a tree branch, but it turned out that they were just covered in snow.
They wandered around for hours and eventually Christina sat down on the frozen ground.
“Getting tired?” Rudolph asked.
“Yeah. And I’m hungry to,” said Christina. Then she put her head on her knees. Truth was, she was always hungry, one way or another. Not that she was starving or anything, she always had something to eat. But it was just never enough to completely fill her tummy.
Rudolph seemed to sense what she was thinking. He stuck his head into a saddle bag hanging around his neck. Christina hadn’t noticed it before. “I thought I should bring some of this,” he said, pulling out a smaller steaming bag.
Christina took the bag and opened it. Inside was a small handful of cooked corn. “It’s a favourite food of ours,” said Rudolph. “Sometimes it’s better cooked.”
Christina began stuffing handfuls of corn into her mouth. “Take it easy there honey,” said Rudolph. “I don’t want you to choke or anything.” After Christina had finished eating, Rudolph invited her to climb back up again. “I think we’ve been walking in circles,” he said. “The tree’s not here.”
“To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all!” cried Christina. And once more, Rudolph took to the skies in search of the Argen-Aurum tree.
When they emerged from the snow tunnel, they were flying over another grove of maple trees. “I think we’re somewhere in Norway,” said Rudolph.
“How do you know that?” asked Christina.
“I’ve pulled Santa’s sleigh enough times to know where a certain place is,” said Rudolph. “Now, let’s see if we can find what we’re looking for.”
He landed at the edge of the grove and the two of them walked in. At first there seemed to be nothing here, but after they’d been walking for a few minutes, Christina spotted a tree that looked like it had silver leaves.
Probably just snow-covered again, she thought. Then she walked past it, and as she did, she saw that the silver leaves were only on one side of the tree. The other side was completely bare, except for one single leaf clinging to the top. Christina stopped, pulled the leaf that had fallen at her feet a few hours before out of her coat, and looked up. It took a moment or two, but it eventually became clear: The leaf she held in her hand and the leaf hanging on the top of this tree were exactly the same!
“Rudolph!” Christina shouted. “This is it! We found it!”
Rudolph turned and hurried back to her. “Are you sure about this?” he asked.
“Look at that leaf. It’s the same as this one!” cried Christina.
Rudolph looked up at the leaf on top of the tree. Then his face lit up. “By the Child born in Bethlehem, you’re right! It is the Argen-Aurum tree. It’s here in Norway!” He looked around. “I don’t think anyone who’s after this tree are from here. Let’s get home and say where we found it.”
Still staring up at the tree that had gifted her a golden leaf, Christina climbed onto Rudolph’s back, and they took off into the night sky. As they flew away, Christina looked back at the tree. Even from a distance, she could see that one golden leaf and all the silver ones shining brightly in the moonlight. And as she looked at the Argen-Aurum tree, she felt her heart rise up as if it were catching a warm updraft.
Ring-a-ling. Ring-a-ling.
Christina gasped. She hadn’t realised this, but Rudolph’s silver bells hadn’t been making a sound. Until now. Rudolph heard the gasp and smiled up at her. “You can hear them now,” he said. “Do you know what that means?”
Christina shook her head.
“It means that you’re a true believer now,” said Rudolph, as the swirling snow surrounded them.
“But, you’re right here. I’ve been flying on you; you’ve taken me places I’ve never seen before. How come I’m only just believing in you now?”
“Christina, believing in something doesn’t happen because you can see it with your eyes,” said Rudolph. “It happens because you know it exists in your heart.”
Christina knew that Rudolph was right. She hadn’t really been letting the spirit of Christmas into her heart these last few years. Maybe that’s why I’ve never gotten anything from Santa, she thought. I haven’t been letting the Christmas spirit into my home. Right there, she decided that she would do better at that from now on. And she thought she heard the bells ring louder.
When the snow tunnel dispersed, Christina saw the lights of her home below them. Standing outside was the figure of her mother. Rudolph quickly swooped down and landed in front of the house.
“Mom! Mom!” cried Christina, rushing up to her.
“Christina, where have you been?!” cried her mother. Then she saw the deer standing behind her daughter. “Is that . . .?”
“Yes it is,” said Christina. “Mom, you won’t believe what just happened to me. I flew across the world on Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer! And we found a magic tree that gives to the poor. Like us!”
She pulled the golden leaf out of her coat. Her mom gasped. “It’s real gold?”
“Yes, and it’s all yours,” said Rudolph. Then he looked up at the sky. “I hate to run off, but I should be getting home too. Santa will want to know that we found the tree. I’ll tell him you helped me, Christina. I promise you; you will get something from Santa this year.”
Christina ran back to Rudolph and hugged him. “Thank you for everything Rudolph. Will I see you again?”
“Of course you will,” said Rudolph. “Just look inside your heart.” Then he turned, ran down the street, and rose into the sky. Christina kept her eyes on him until he was out of sight. Then she and her mother walked back into the house, talking of ways that they would use the gold leaf.
“I was thinking,” Christina said softly, “that we could buy a turkey this year?”
Her mother smiled at her. “That sounds like a great idea.”
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