What do Santa’s Elves do on their day off? Kids were invited to let their imaginations go wild when writing about Santa’s elves, gingerbread cookies jumping off the cookie sheet, and Frosty the Snowman coming to life! The 2021 Creative Writing Contest concluded last week and Easton Schipper’s story about Jolly the Elf was chosen as this year’s winner! Easton is a 4th grade Auburn Hills resident. As the winner of the Creative Writing Contest, Easton will get to assist Mayor McDaniel and Santa light the Christmas Tree at the Tree Lighting Ceremony this Friday!
We received many excellent and creative entries, so it was a very hard decision to choose a winner and we hope that all of our participants will write again next year! Thank you to everyone who participated this year and please enjoy Easton’s story about Jolly the Elf below. We hope everyone will join us at the Tree Lighting Ceremony this Friday, December 3rd at 6:00 PM in downtown Auburn Hills. In addition to lighting the tree there will be many free activities for people of all ages. Check out the City website or social media for a schedule and more information.
Jolly’s Day Off
By: Easton Schipper
Grade 4
Once there was an elf named Jolly. Today was a very happy day for Jolly, because today was Jolly’s day off! All elves enjoyed days off, but Jolly liked them best. Jolly was one of Santa’s toy making elves, so he had to work all day for three hundred and sixty four (sometimes three hundred and sixty five) days a year. And only one day in the whole year do the elves get a day off, and for Jolly, today was that day!
Jolly thought and thought about what he would do today on his day off. Then he had an idea! He was going to secretly try all the other jobs! First, he would try candy making, then he would try making decorations, and lastly, he would try baking cookies.
Jolly quietly tiptoed into the candy making room, and crept over to the table. Jolly thought about what candy he was going to make. He decided he would make a Christmas classic, a candy cane. He opened a fridge and looked in. “What’s red and white?” thought Jolly. He reached in and grabbed a container of ketchup. “Here’s red,” said Jolly. “What’s white?” He looked around and spotted a container of mayo. “This will do.” He laid the ingredients on the table. Jolly looked for something to put them in, and spotted a candy cane mold. He poured the ingredients into the mold and put the mold in the freezer. Jolly waited and waited and finally, the candy cane was done. Jolly popped it out of the mold and dropped it in his mouth. It was disgusting! Jolly spit the candy cane into the trash. “Well, I know that I am not a candy maker!”
Jolly found his way to the decoration room, and looked around. There were wreaths and stockings everywhere! He walked over to a rocking chair and sat down. Jolly spotted a half finished stocking and decided to make one. He strode over to a cabinet and opened it up. Inside was a jumble of yarn and needles. Jolly reached in and grabbed a ball of red yarn and two needles. He sat back down and started knitting. After an hour, the stocking was done. Jolly examined the stocking, and in his opinion, it looked worse than it had before he had done anything! Even so, Jolly decided to try it out. He plucked a nutcracker off the shelf and dropped it in his stocking. It fell through the bottom of the stocking and it broke into two pieces. “So much for a stocking!” said Jolly.
Off he trudged over to the baking room and stepped inside. Jolly trotted over to the counter and plucked the ingredients from the shelves. The kitchen was out of baking soda, so he used baking powder instead thinking they were about the same. After mixing the ingredients, he remembered the chocolate chips and dumped the whole bag in. Jolly poured all of the dough in one cookie and popped it in the oven. Tired because of all the work he did, Jolly nodded off. He woke up to the sound of the smoke alarm and elves running around yelling. Jolly got up and started running around too. Then he remembered his cookie and relaxed. Jolly walked back over to the oven and turned it off. He reached in and took out the charred mess that was the cookie. It looked more like a chocolate cracker. Jolly looked nervously at the cookie but popped it in his mouth. “Yuck!” Jolly exclaimed. Santa would not want to eat that cookie!
After that very busy day, Jolly figured out that he should not try to be someone else. He should just be himself!
The End
Submitted by Sage Hegdal, Recreation Director
Inside Auburn Hills 