Sheila O’Flanagan’s story starter “A Very Busy Christmas” is read by Úna Kavanagh.

Sheila O’Flanagan is an author of fiction and a journalist. With over 25 books published both in Ireland and internationally, she was also awarded the Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year award in 2011. She has also published two books for children.

Sheila’s story starter is read by actress Úna Kavanagh who was the winner of Best Actress Award for her role in ‘The Good Word’[ at the ‘Underground Cinema Awards, 2015. She was most recently seen as the recurring character, Heather, in RTE’s Fair City.

A Very Busy Christmas

Santa Claus put on his favourite mask. It was a red mask, with gold and silver stars. It had to be big to cover Santa’s enormous white beard. Santa looked at himself in the mirror.

‘Different,’ he said out loud. ‘But still good.’

He picked up his red and white candy stick and walked across the snowy garden to the workshop. He knocked on the door with the stick.

His Chief Elf opened it. He was dressed in a green suit and a green pointed hat. His mask was green too.

‘Hello, Chief Elf,’ said Santa.

‘Hello, Santa,’ said the Chief Elf.

Santa walked into the workshop. It was a busy as ever. All of the elves were standing at their workbenches. Last year they had one long bench that took up the whole workshop. This year, every elf had his or her own bench.

‘Are we on schedule?’ asked Santa.

‘We’re a little bit late,’ confessed the Chief Elf.

‘What!’ Santa’s face went red. It was nearly the same red as his suit.

‘It’s just that the list of good children is so long this year,’ said the Chief Elf. ‘And the naughty list is very short.’

‘What about the Terrible Twins?’ asked Santa. ‘Which list are they on?’