Gordon’s Christmas Plan

Once there was a boy named Gordon. He was sick of never getting a present from Santa. He wasn’t the nicest boy he knew but he wasn’t the naughtiest boy he knew either. Even so every year he failed to get a present from Santa. He got presents from his parents. He got presents from his grandparents. He got presents from his aunties and uncles and cousins. He got presents from his friends. However, try as he might he never got a present from Santa. He wanted to be on the nice list very badly.

He tried to do nice things for his parents. He tried to do nice things for his grandparents. He tried to do nice things for his friends. He tried to do nice things in general. It didn’t seem to do any good. Then he had an idea. What if Santa counted all the nice things you did and all the naughty things you did? What if he then took all the nice things you did and subtracted all the naughty things and if you got a negative number you didn’t get a present?

He developed a plan. Instead of doing lots of nice things to make up for all the naughty things he did, he would do the opposite. He decided to stop doing naughty things. He thought it would be easy to not do bad things. Then all the nice things he did would add up and not be subtracted from by naughty things he did because he wouldn’t do naughty things anymore.

From now on when someone tried to entice him to do something naughty he would refuse. If someone tried to entice him to steal cookies from the large teddy bear cookie jar in the kitchen he would refuse. If someone tried to entice him to steal his sister’s doll and hold it for the generous ransom of $15.00 and a large bag of lollies he would refuse. Sigh. If someone enticed him to play violent computer games he would refuse.

He would stop hiding chocolate bars under his mattress to snack on between meals. He would stop listening to the voice in his head that told him not to clean his room. He would stop pushing his vegetables around his plate at dinnertime and actually eat them without complaining.

He did all these things until Christmas Eve and went to sleep knowing he did the best he could. He slept peacefully all night. Meanwhile Santa heard about the valiant effort this little boy had made. He was impressed by his creativity and diligence. He was so impressed that on Christmas Eve he put a very special Christmas present for Gordon under the Christmas tree Gordon’s family decorated the day before.

Do you want to know what present Gordon received? Well you’ll have to ask Gordon that.
Merry Christmas to one and all.