Why did the snowman spend Christmas eve on Winterton beach? Because he wanted to meet Sandy Claus!
Yes, it’s that time of the month and that time of the year combined, and I’m back for the final time in 2025. It may also be my last Mark My Words for a while as I’m taking a well-earned (well, earned anyway) break from writing this column. But I wanted to leave it on a high, so, I’m bringing you another Christmas story. So, last year saw the return of a character called Nestori, one of Santa’s elves, who I first mentioned way back in 2019 on an article about green ideas for Christmas stockings.
I enjoyed bringing Nestori back last year, so I’ve decided to bring you a follow up story. As with last year, this story hasn’t gone through the writer’s process of re-writing, trimming, editing, polishing, etcetera, but hopefully even in its raw form it’s an enjoyable read. I do hope to find the time to refine Nestori’s stories soon, and, who knows, I may write some more. There’s always next Christmas, right?
Oh, one more thing before we move on to the story. I decided to mock up an image of what I think Nestori looks like. Like the story, it’s a bit rough around the edges. the eagle-eyed amongst you might spot the sleigh and reindeer silhouette borrowed from my first book, The Christmas Starfish. Perhaps I’ll leave a print of this picture next to the mince pies and sherry with a note for Father Christmas to ask him if he thinks it’s a good likeness of Nestori.
Ok, enough waffle from me. Enjoy the festive season, folks. Have a cool Yule!
One of our reindeer is missing!
Sun glistened on freshly fallen snow. The peaceful scene disturbed only by the sound of snow crunching underfoot as Jingleri and Polka, the chief reindeer keeper and his assistant, made their way to the stables.
The door creaked open, and Jingleri stepped inside. Outside, Polka could hear Jingleri muttering numbers over and over, and over and over again.
The muttering stopped, and Jingleri burst out of the stable and yelled, “Help! One of our reindeer is missing!”
Polka raced to the stable’s siren and turned the handle, and the air filled with a high-pitched whirr. As the siren began to echo through the village, Polka hurried away.
WHEEE-OWWW-OWWWAH! WHEEE-OWWW-OWWWAH!
Nestori leapt out of bed and threw open his curtains to see what was the matter. Red lights flashed all the way down the street, leading to the stables.
“Oh dear,” Nestori said. “That can’t be good.”
Within minutes, half of the inhabitants of the North Pole were gathered outside the stables.
When Nestori arrived Father Christmas was there, surveying the scene in his candy cane patterned pyjamas. Seeing ‘Big Red,’ as some of the elves called him, in his pyjamas was not normal, but then Nestori remembered he was in his PJs too.
“Nestori. One of our young reindeers is missing!” said Father Christmas.
“Which reindeer?” asked Nestori.
“Throttle! I’ve checked the whole stable, but he isn’t here!” added Jingleri.
Throttle’s twin brother, Throstle, nudged Nestori’s hand. The twins were a mischievous pair, and amongst Nestori’s favourite reindeers. He reached in his pocket and handed Throstle a small striped candy cane.
“Nestori. You know candy canes make reindeers burp,” warned Father Christmas.
“Don’t worry! We’ll find him!” said Polka as she returned. Polka was dressed in a reindeer costume, complete with harness and antlers.
“Hmmmm,” she chanted, eyes closed. “Think like a reindeer! Think like a reindeer!”
“Ho ho ho my. That’s one option,” said Father Christmas. “Does anyone else have any other ideas?”
Polka sniffed the ground next to Goober, who, even by elf terms, was very short. In one hand Goober clutched a handful of crayons, and in the other he had blank paper.
“I’ll make some posters!” he announced. “LOST REINDEER. ANSWERS TO ‘THROTTLE’. REWARD 500 CANDY CANES!”
Just as Nestori was about to comment on Goober’s plan, his nose started twitching and it wouldn’t stop. His nose followed a warm, spicy, yummy smell, which wafted out of a window of the North Pole’s kitchen, where Mrs Christmas busily stirred ingredients in a big bowl.
“If I know Throttle,” she said, tapping her nose and accidentally wiping flour on her face, “he’ll come when he gets a whiff of my gingerbread biscuits!”
She has a point, Nestori admitted. Mrs Christmas bakes the best gingerbread biscuits in the whole of the North Pole! He licked his lips, anticipating the biscuits as a reward for finding Throttle.
The distant sound of a bird chirping brought him back from his cookie dreams, and gave him a brilliant idea too. Nestori raced to his workstation, found the Christmas present he was looking for and quickly unwrapped it.
“Yes! This’ll do the trick!” said Nestori, and he rushed outside.
He placed a drone on the ground, popped some batteries in the controller, and with a soft whir the drone lifted into the air.
Nestori guided the drone over the rooftops of the kitchen, the workshop, the garage and towards the stables, where several of the older reindeer had come out to help the search. Nestori zoomed the drone down towards the reindeer, and it hovered just above Throstle.
Nestor held the controller steady. “Let’s check the village,” he said. “Throttle could be anywhere.”
The drone zoomed up and through the drone’s little camera Nestori saw the North Pole in miniature. There was many elves searching, so it made it tricky to spot anything unusual, but Nestori spotted Throstle heading away from the stable towards…the sweetshop!
“No! This isn’t time for a snack, Throstle!” yelled Nestori.
Nestori raced the drone to catch-up with Throstle, who nudged open the sweetshop door, and the drone flew in to the shop.
“Wait… what’s that on the sweet shop floor?” asked Nestori, spotting something as the drone zoomed by.
Nestori zoomed the drone’s camera closer, and there, lying right in front of the giant tubs of candy canes was Throttle. Throttle was fast asleep, belly up, surrounded by candy cane crumbs!
Nestori picked got out his walky-talky and called Jingleri.
“I’ve found him. He’s at Honeydew’s Sweet Emporium!”
Everyone hurried to the sweet shop. The reindeer lead the way, followed by Jingleri and Father Christmas, with Polka and Goober trailing behind. Polka, still in reindeer mode, tried to walk on all fours, while Goober had gone back to swap his crayons for a handful of Mrs Christmas’s biscuits “just in case” there was a gingerbread emergency.
Nestori, with drone controller in hand, arrived first, followed by the candymaker, Honeydew.
Throstle gently nudged his brother. Throttle’s legs twitched, and then he blinked before sitting up and letting out a HUGE candy cane scented burp!
“Oh, Throttle,” Father Christmas sighed, ruffling the fur of the reindeer yearling. “You are trouble on four legs!”
“Imagine what he’ll be like when he can fly!” said Jingleri.
Goober muffled his agreement with a mouthful of biscuits.
“I guess thinking like a reindeer isn’t as helpful as seeing like a bird,” Polka admitted.
Nestori just shrugged and knelt to help Honeydew sweep up the sweet mess.
“Er, Nestori,” said Father Christmas. “I may need your assistance again!”
Nestori looked up to see Father Christmas hopping around as Throttle and Thostle tried to nibble the candy canes off his Pyjamas bottoms!
Nestori chuckled and said, “At least those candy canes won’t make reindeers burp!”
“Ho ho ho!” laughed Father Christmas as he swept up the reindeer siblings for a big, furry, festive hug!
There you go. I hope you enjoyed the story. As I mentioned earlier, this is at an early stage of the story-writing process and it is a rough first cut. A brain-dump of a story, that will be the basis for honing a more polished version. And through the editing process I’d probably need to trim about 2-300 words too. So often the editing process can alter the story completely, so if/when I get round to doing so with the Nestori stories, you’ll recognise this original cut in the final version but it may be like reading a very different story too.
Anyway, that’s me done for the time being. Thanks to NorfolkPlaces for the opportunity to share my thoughts. Apparently this is a “reveal” on the advent calendar (day 23 in 2025), so I’d like to wish anyone reading “happy holidays”, and “attaboy, Clarence! Zsu-Zsu’s petals,” etcetera etcetera. 🎄
The following books by Mark J. Towers are available on Amazon.
The Christmas Starfish ⭐🎅
Mr. Starfish and the Mystery Skull ⭐💀
Strawberry Scoreberries 🍓⚽
I Wish It Were Raining ☔☔
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