[OUR LADY OF LOURDES NATIONAL SCHOOL] "Mol an oige is tiocfaidh si"



Home Parents News Pupils' Work MA&T Programme

You are here Our Work Christmas Stories Competition 2011

By Adam Dunne (Junior Infants)

(Click on Adam's picture to see a bigger view)

Snowy Christmas Eve
by Érin O'Leary
(First Class)

It was Christmas Eve. It had been snowing for days. I was worried that Santa would not make it to our house. Mammy said that I had been a good girl all year and that Santa was magical and he would always find a way to get to the girls and boys on his good list. I was worried that

Rudolph and his reindeers would not be able to see the way to our house with the snow. All day long I looked out the window but it kept snowing and snowing. It was getting near bed time and I had a lovely bath, brushed my teeth and sat in front of the cosy fire with daddy. Daddy read me a Christmas story and then it was time for bed. I left a glass of milk and cookies for Santa and

carrots for Rudolph and the reindeers. Mammy and daddy tucked me into bed and told me not to worry that Santa would always come to good boys and girls. I knew it was going to be very difficult to sleep because I was still worried that Santa would not come. I tried to stay awake as long as I could but it was getting harder and harder to keep my eyes open. Then, suddenly I woke up. It was Christmas morning. I looked out my window and

it was still snowing. I ran into mammy and daddy's room and woke them up. We all went downstairs. I could not believe my eyes when I looked under the Christmas tree. Santa had come. He left me lots of wonderful presents. I was so happy. My mammy and daddy were right. Santa is magical and always comes to good boys and girls no matter what. It was the best Christmas ever.

A Christmas Sneezing
by Mollie Kinsella
(Second Class)

It was coming up to Christmas. All the elves were working very hard making the toys, so hard that their tiny little faces were glowing bright red and their pointy ears were amber. The workshop was full of bikes, trikes, dolls, flickers, x boxes and cuddly toys. Snowflake, the Chief Elf was shouting orders to other elves.

Santa was in a fluster so Mrs. Clause sent him out to check the reindeer. He put on his coat, hat, gloves and boots as it was snowing outside and very cold. The snow was heavy so he hopped on his sleigh and was down the stables in a few seconds. When he pulled open the stable doors, he got an awful shock. Rudolph wasn't the only reindeer with a red nose. Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen were also aglow. They were so alike Santa was having problems figuring out which was which.

He took a closer look at them and saw that not only had they red noses but red sore eyes with tears dropping out of them. Ac-choo, ac-choo!!! They were coughing, hissing and spluttering. The reindeer all had the flu, "This is not good, not good at all" muttered Santa. He would have to call the vet.

He had to walk back up the hill as the battery in his sleigh was flat. His legs were sore from trying to wade through the thick white snow. He eventually got back to the kitchen where Mrs. Clause was busy making Christmas pudding. The smell coming from the kitchen was so nice that Santa nearly forgot to tell her about the reindeer. Mrs Clause rang Vincent the vet. He said that he was very busy with the buffalo calving and would get there in the morning, until he heard that all the reindeer were sick. This could be the most important job of the year.
Vincent the vet arrived shortly afterwards.

He drove like a mad thing on his new shiny, bright red, snow quad. He pulled the brake as he got close to the stable and stopped just inches from the door. As he did a huge drift of snow landed on top of Santa who was making his way to the stable. Poor Santa's day was getting worse. Vincent checked all the reindeer temperatures with a very strange looking object and declared that they all had the Deer Flu, the reindeer version of Swine Flu. He would have to vaccinate all of them. He took out a big long needle and asked Santa to hold it. Santa fainted because he thought Vincent was going to stick the needle in him. Mrs. Clause had to come to the rescue. She helped Vincent inject all the reindeer with magic medicine. They also put some magic powder in their feed to make sure they would be better for their special journey on Christmas Eve and turned on a heater to keep them warm. Mrs. Clause put rugs on all of them too. Vincent had to put some smelling salts under Santa's nose to wake him.

Then they all went to the kitchen for nice hot tea and a slice of Mrs.

Clause's warm Christmas cake.

Two days later and all the reindeer were trotting around the stable. Their noses brown and their eyes had stopped watering. Rudolph was the only one with a red nose. Snowflake the chief elf shouted that all the presents were wrapped and ready to go. Mrs. Clause helped Santa into his special thermal Santa suit and gave him his final instructions. The elves had the reindeer ready and tied to the sleigh. They were off. Santa couldn't believe how fast the reindeer were flying. They flew so fast they nearly forgot to stop at some houses but Santa made them turn around. Hours later they had delivered all the presents and were on the way back to the North Pole when Santa started sneezing. Ac-choo, ac-choo, ac-choo could be heard all over the sky in the North Pole.

Santa's Robin
by Robyn Markey
(Third Class)

Once upon a time there was a little robin that lived in the forest with all the other animals. Everyday the robin went to look for food in the forest but it was getting closer to winter so food was getting harder to find. One particularly cold morning the robin decided to look for food in a house near the forest. It was a nice white house with a black roof and a red door.

Beside the house was a small garden where the robin decided to look for worms. She saw some crumbs on the window sill so she flew over. When she peeped in the window she saw two boys fighting over a wooden train. These children certainly don't deserve toys from Santa thought the little robin. The robin flew all the way to the North Pole to see Santa. She told him all about the children fighting.

Santa said to the robin “but I don't have time

to see if the children are being good or bad and neither do the elves”. And Santa asked the robin a question, “would you do it for me?” and the robin cried yes, yes, yes I will. The robin worked for Santa she flew all over the world. Most of the children were good but the odd time she would see a child being naughty and she would report back to Santa. “Oh how will I ever repay you little robin?” asked Santa. I know cried Santa I will grant you a wish. “What would you like?

“Well I am awful jealous of

Rudolph's red nose”. “I could give you a red breast “said Santa. “Oh yes please” said the robin. So the robin got a red breast, the robin was then known as the little red breast. So there are two types of robins. The normal type of robin that fly around the forest and the magic ones that work for Santa. They come into your garden sit on the fence and watch to see if your being good or bad. So watch out!

A Trip to the North Pole
by Savannah Byrne
(Fourth Class)

One Saturday morning a week before Christmas me, my brother and mam and dad decided to take a trip to the North Pole. We were never there before we were very excited. After a while we started to pack and we will leave tomorrow morning Dad announced.

The next day we went to the airport and got on the plane. We sat down on the seat and put on our safety belts and off we went. Five hours later we arrived at the North Pole. It was freezing cold because it was snowing.

Me and my brother Tyler started to make a snowman well it looked like three balls of snow stacked on top of each other because we had no carrot for the nose, sticks for the arms or no coal for the eyes. When we went inside the workshop all the elves were working making the toys. There were hundreds of elves and all of them were working very hard. After we saw the elves we looked at all the machines that made the toys. All of a sudden the machines went out of control the toys were coming out really fast and completely wrong. Everyone was trying to fix it but nothing would work. “What could be happening?”

Tom whispered. Dad looked at the back of the machine he might be able to fix it because he was a mechanic. He looked at it and he suddenly noticed what was wrong, a spanner was caught in it. So dad took out the spanner and everything was back to normal. All the toys were coming out in the correct speed and they were coming out the right way. All the elves couldn't thank him enough. They asked him what we can do to thank you. Dad couldn't think of anything so he asked the kids. It took us a while to think of something but when we did it was for us to go with Santa when he was delivering presents.

The elves had to go and ask Santa before they said anything. When they came back they told us;

Santa would love to bring you along. We were so happy. “When will we be leaving?” Tyler asked. The elf said in two hours. “So soon “mam said “You better start getting ready”. After a while we were all set and ready to go. I'm so excited Tyler shrieked. We got on the sleigh with Santa and one of the elves came as well. Off we went, we soon arrived at the first house and Santa went down the chimney and left the presents under the tree. That's what he did in every house and on the way home Rudolph shone his red nose to guide us home and that's what happened that Christmas and it was the very best Christmas I ever had.

A Christmas Story
by Kayleigh Murphy
(Fifth Class)

It was exactly seven o' clock when the first snowflake began to fall. Stephanie had been counting down the seconds till it snowed. Christmas was her absolute favourite time of year. She loved the presents, the fun and most of all the snow. The snow was falling heavily, covering the frosty ground outside. She pulled on her coat and hat and called up to her mam to tell her where she was going. When she got out on to the streets there were already some children having snowball fights. She walked down the street to her friend's house avoiding snowballs flying from every direction. When she arrived her friend and her brother had already began to make a snowman. “Hey, thought you would never arrive”, teased Rebecca. “How did you know I was coming”. “Don't I always”. She ran over to them “Nice work”. “Thank you now we can get it done quicker”. Soon after their snowman was finished. They had searched from some coal and found an old bag. They took 12 pieces, two for the eyes, three for the buttons and seven for the mouth. They stole a carrot form the kitchen for the nose. They found two sticks for the arms. Rebecca's brother wound his scarf around the neck and placed his hat on top of the head.

Rebecca's mother called out to them to come in for some hot chocolate. The girls went in and shook the snow off, put their coats on the hook and walked in to the kitchen. Her mother poured them each a mug of hot chocolate. She gave them permission to go to Rebecca's bedroom but on one condition, that they would be careful not to spill anything on the floor. The girls promised. Rebecca got out a tray and placed the two mugs in the middle of the tray. She than got a small tub of marshmallows and placed them on top,” come on”. They walked up the stairs quietly so as not to wake her little brother. When they got through the door they went back to normal mode. She slipped a cd into her stereo and plonked down onto her bed. “I have something to show you”, Rebecca said. “Really what” the girls said. “I'll show you “she rummaged through her drawers until she produced a small glittering snow globe. “Where did you get it? “. “I found it in the garden”. “Does it do anything?” “Don't know yet wanna try”. Rebecca shook the snow globe then suddenly out of nowhere a thump came from outside. The two girls ran to the window and there right in front of their eyes was a fully sized living reindeer. The two girls took a glance at each other then rushed down the stairs.

When they got outside

they stopped for a moment but then they gradually started moving towards him. When they were about a metre away the reindeer took a step forward and bowed down. The girls were shocked and even more when he began to speak. “You are now my master until Christmas Eve” he said. Now the girls shocked faces turned to awe.They only notice how cute he was with his antlers curved perfectly, his face was kin and soft, his eyes seemed to have a twinkle in them and he had a red collar with small tiny bells all around it. “What do you mean” asked Rebecca. “Every year the snow globe lands in a different place and who ever finds it and shakes it gets to keep a reindeer till Christmas Eve”. “So what can you do?” they asked. “I can fly, do magic and be a nice house pet”. “Do you have any carrots?” he asked. Rebecca ran into the kitchen and emerged again with a handful of carrots, the girls were thinking of what they could wish for. “Would you be able to fly us over the city to see it from overhead?” Rebecca asked. “Your wish is my command”, he said. He knelt down and the girls climbed on his back. Glittering dust formed up around them. With the sound of the hooves they were off, flying over the rooftops. “This is so much fun” Rebecca shouted over the wind. “Hold on tight” he said as he swerved around the corner of the Nolan mansion. They flew over their school, now looking a lot different with no body in it, all having a great time. “Can we go ice skating while we are here” they asked.

“I will have to make myself invisible” he said. “Ok” the girls said in unison. They landed in an alleyway first so that no one would see them. “I shall make myself invisible and then only you can see me” he said “you know I think this is the best Christmas ever” they said. They paid for their ice skates and then started skating around the rink in a circle. They weren't surprised that he could skate because he was from the North Pole but he did look a bit funny. Then the bells on his collar began to ring “I have to go” he said and he flew away. The girls were shocked and disappointed. They didn't know what to do so they went home. They were sad for a few days but then it was Christmas. On Christmas Eve they were just leaving Rebecca's house when the same loud thump came from outside. They ran to the back yard and there was a reindeer standing in front of them. “I am sorry I left so early but there was an emergency, I brought you a gift”. He made a small present from dust “you can't open it till Christmas and I must say goodbye now”. “Goodbye” they said and gave him a hug. When they woke up they opened the present which was a small bell with a note saying, this is a bell that if you shake you can bring me to you. Throughout the year they went on adventures with the reindeer and every Christmas.

The Miracle of Christmas
by Kate Markey (Sixth Class)

High on the hills above Bethlehem lay a lonely shepherd boy tending his flock. He was not aware that far below the Son of God had just been born. Nor could he see the night sky full of stars. One star in particular shone brighter than all the others and far to the east three Magi following its course made their way towards Bethlehem.

The shepherd boy, Samuel spent long days and cold lonely nights with only his sheep for company. Samuel knew each of his sheep by the texture of their fleece and the sound of their bleat. With eyes that could not see, he guarded his flock from the wolves and jackals helped by his sheep dog, Mika.

Samuels's brothers all worked as carpenters and fishermen, but his unseeing eyes meant he was not suited to this work. Tending the sheep was the only work he could do to help his family. As he lay there shivering against the cold, Mika began to growl softly. He heard foreign voices and the crunching of footsteps slowly approaching the fire where he lay. A strange voice called “Do not be afraid we seek the new king that has just been born”. We are Casper, Melchior and Balthazar, travelled far from the east following the star to lay our gifts before the new king. “Have you not seen the brightest star that shines brighter than all the others, announcing the birth of God's Son? “No replied Samuel sadly, I have never seen the stars, for I am blind since birth”.

“Come with us” the third voice said, “Come and see the son of God who has been born in Bethlehem”. Samuel did not want to leave his flock, nor did he want this opportunity to slip by. Turning to Mika, he ordered him to stay and guard the sheep. “Keep them all safe until I return” he said patting the dogs head. Samuel heard a strange animal noise, “Don't be afraid “said Melchior. “Hold onto the harness and it will lead you. Mika whined softly as the four left the hillside, but would not disobey his master's orders. It was almost morning when they reached the town. The magi followed the star to where it shone the brightest, on one of the backstreets of Bethlehem. “This can not be the place” said Casper, “there is only a stable here”. But voices from within drew them closer. Inside they found a man, woman and a baby lying in a manger. Samuel could hear and smell the animals and recognised a donkey, a cow and some sheep.

He could hear a man and a woman talking to the magi as they received their gifts for the baby. “Would you like to see the baby”, the woman asked gently. Samuel shook his head sadly and explained that he could not see. The woman took his hand and led him carefully over to the manger where the baby slept. Samuels's fingers brushed off the child's cheek, and leaning over, he kissed him very gently. A feeling of pure joy and love filled him, and he stayed at the manger until he remembered poor Mika and the sheep.

He thanked the man and woman and hurried out of the stable, but as he left the stable's shelter a blinding light stopped him in his tracks. For several minutes he shielded his eyes with his hands before looking up and gazing at the stars for the first time.