Normally, Santa would depend on Rudolph to deal with the storm, but the famous reindeer had a sinus infection to beat the band.  His nose glow wouldn’t cut through a light frost for at least another month.  It didn’t stand a chance against the Godzilla of blizzards that was on the way.

 
Mrs. Claus had taken a spill and broken her ankle.  She wasn’t able to run the kitchen like she usually did.  The cookies and pies and candy canes that she always made weren’t available this year.  And without his wife’s treats, Santa wasn’t as jolly as usual.

And it wasn’t only the baked goods that lagged in production.  The toy output was also down.  “These numbers are sad,” Santa thought as he read over the latest reports.  “I may have to reduce every child’s gifts by one present.  Such a shame when so many worked so hard at being good all year long.”

The reason Santa’s toy numbers were down was because his top two toy engineers, Benedict and Arnold, had been lured away by a new competitor named Free-For All.  Free-For-All wanted to take over Christmas from Santa.  “You’ve done good work here, Benedict and Arnold,” Free- For-All told his new employees.  “Keep up the good work through Christmas and I’ll give the two of you an all-expenses paid vacation to wherever you want to go.” 

“Thank you, sir” chimed Benedict and Arnold in unison. 

“And let me guess,” said Free-For-All.  “It won’t be anywhere with an arctic climate!”