Christmas Tales: The Computer Glitch That Almost Stole Christmas

Santa Claus knew he had just experienced a failure in his new, computerized, children's gift programming project.

"You will have to help me," he said, sadly. "Please." He stared at his computer for a moment. He was never comfortable having to ask anyone for help.

"Help you?" replied a young, computer technician, named Tim. "Santa, how can I help you? You are always the one who helps everybody. "Do you need help with your computer?"

"Yes, I do, Tim," said Santa. "I don't know what to do. I am in big trouble this year. We gave all of our reindeer the year off because we were planning on doing an international, electronic gift project for the children, this year."

"An electronic gift project for children?" asked Tim quietly, realizing that Santa was very serious. In fact, he was much too serious for this time of the year. Generally, he was a jolly man, always joking with others and laughing. "Come to think of it," thought Tim, I have not heard one "Ho, ho, ho!" from Santa, for a long time. "Want to sit down and tell me all about it?" asked Tim, as he put his arm around Santa's shoulder to comfort him.

Moments later, Tim grabbed a chair and sat down in front of the computer, while Santa pulled up another beside him.

"This looks like the best computer system on the market," he said.

"It is," replied Santa proudly, but very sadly. "But I think that our computer program or the entire computer system has crashed."

"Oh, no!" replied Tim, horrified at the thought. He knew that Santa had been working on a secret project for some time. He did not know what it was, but he knew that it had something to do with Christmas. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

"Yes," Santa said, hanging his head low. He looked like he was ashamed. "I don't think that the problem is the computer. It is the computer program I have been working on with some of my older elves who are trained as computer programmers. I did not want to tell anyone about it because it was supposed to be a surprise."

"The computer program is creating a problem?" Tim asked. "I am a computer person, but I don't know anything at all about this program."

"The computer program has some kind of a glitch. It is simply not doing what it was supposed to do. That means that unless we can get this computer program up and running, the children all around the world won't get any Christmas toys or presents this year, at least not in time for Christmas." Santa looked like he was about to cry. He was wiping his eyes and sniffling.

"What do I do now?" Tim wondered. He knew that Santa would not have called him unless he really needed some computer advice. "How do I help Santa, God?" he prayed silently. "Please show me what to do. I am only an inexperienced amateur when it comes to computer programming, Santa. Remember that I am just a technician," said Timothy. "I don't know if I have either the expertise or the genius mind that it will take to re-program your computer program in time for Christmas, but how much time do we have?"

"Not much time at all," said Santa. He had the worst gloom and doom expression that Tim had ever seen on his face. "All of my children's Christmas toys and gifts are at stake, and so is my reputation as Santa Claus. How on earth did I ever get into this pickle?"

"How many children's gifts are there?" Tim asked quietly.

"Too many," said Santa. "I knew I should never have let myself get talked into doing this electronic gift project, but in reality, it might have worked. I wish I was doing my Christmas thing the normal way. Even though it was a lot of work, at least it worked."

"What other options are there?" Tim asked, realizing the seriousness of the situation. Not waiting for Santa to answer, he asked him, "What time do you normally start your work for Christmas Eve?"

"I have to fly out of the North Pole in the early part of the afternoon, at the very latest, when we make the reindeer deliveries." Santa shrugged his shoulders. "This year, we were going to deliver all of the toys and gifts electronically. I was going to have Christmas off in order to spend some time with my family. I knew that this was not a good plan, right from the start. Do you have any idea how old my reindeer are? They are almost obsolete now. So am I."

"So are some computers and computer programs." Tim responded. "Did you think of a Plan B, just in case Plan A did not work?" asked Tim, looking straight into Santa's eyes. He looked like he was going to cry again, as there were huge tears welling up in his eyes. "I can't bear to see Santa cry," he thought to himself.

"I figured that that we might be able to re-harness the reindeer, but I think they have already gone south for the holiday. They have never had a year off, in who knows how many years. They deserve a good rest. I knew that I never should have let them leave. Oh, how I wish Rudolph was here. I could always count on that red-nosed reindeer and the others, too."

"Is there any way that we can get hold of them, just in case?" Tim queried. "That would be the best solution to the problem. Did the elves make other gifts, by any chance?"

"I don't think we can reach the reindeer, but Mrs. Santa Claus is trying to contact them. Yes, we do have gifts to spare, after all the elves have made extra toys for years, just in case of an emergency. I have always had a back up plan that way."

"All right, don't panic, Santa. First, we'll take a look at your computer program and see if there is anything that can be done, but I think we might be running out of time. We'll figure something out."

"There just has to be something we can do. We cannot just cancel Christmas because a computer program has crashed. We cannot let a computer glitch spoil Christmas." Santa smiled faintly at Tim. "Maybe there is hope yet?"

"Santa, you are the one who taught me that there is always hope. Computers and computer systems crash all the time," replied Tim, wishing he had more time to try to resolve the programming issue. "Do you have any contact with the original programmers, or any way to reach them? If they told me what to do, I might be able to fix this program. I will work at it for as long as it takes to get it up and running."

"No, I think they all went south, too. They figured that their work was finished. They have been working so hard to get this program working. We thought it was perfect. At least, it seemed that way."

"Perfection is in heaven," Tim replied, smiling at Santa. "Even I know that."

"What am I going to do? Children will never believe in Santa Claus again." Santa thought about it for a moment and then said, "I wonder if we could get all of the children in the world to brain storm together and help us to find an answer for this problem."

"Brain storm with all the children in the world?" said Tim. "That might work."

"The power of love can resolve anything," Santa said, becoming very serious.

Just as Santa said the word love, there was a horrific noise on the rooftop. Santa stood there stunned, not knowing what the sound was, or where it was coming from. Of course, Santa, being Santa, had never heard reindeer hoofs landing on a rooftop before. He was always with the reindeer on the rooftops.

"What on earth?" Tim said. "I recognize that sound!" He breathed a sigh of relief.

"I knew you would need us," said Rudolph, a few moments later. In fact, I was sort of hoping that you would have to do your Christmas toy delivery the same way that you always do it."

"Thank you for coming back," said Santa, breathing a huge sigh of relief, when he realized his problem was over.

"We never left," replied Rudolph, smiling. "We guarantee that we will get the toy delivery job done and properly, too. We are not replaceable by a computer program or a computer system, at least not yet." Suddenly he realized that he was embarrassing Santa. "Ten years down the road, maybe computers will work perfectly."

"Maybe never," said Tim, smiling at the twinkle in Rudolph's eye.

"Rudolph, you are the best! Thank you ever so much!" said Santa. "Let's go and talk to Mrs. Claus, right now. Thanks Tim!"

"I am coming to help," said Tim. He knew that Santa would need all of the help that he could get to be out of the North Pole in time for Christmas all around the world. "I am so relieved that I did not have to do anything with this computer program. The programmers can fix it when they get back. Maybe it will work by next year. We will have a very Merry Christmas this year!" He chuckled to himself, "Imagine that, a computer glitch that almost stole Christmas."