Buffy Bunny and the Big Christmas Mix-up

Buffy Bunny loved holidays. They were his favourite time of year. Being a bunny, you'd have thought that Easter was his favourite, but it wasn't. Even though he had once been the Easter Bunny for a day and helped deliver chocolate eggs and gifts, Easter was only in his top three favourites. He loved Halloween. Dressing up was one of his favourite things to do. He thought St Patrick’s Day was fun too, as green was one of his favourite colours, although the green carrots they had gotten this year had been a little strange. But his favourite holiday of all was Christmas. He loved planning presents for his friends and decorating his little house with a Christmas tree and sparkly decorations. 

As soon as Halloween was over each year, Buffy started to decorate his house for Christmas. He would cover the roof in lots of twinkling lights, and he hung big decorations all over the trees outside. All through November, he would search the woods nearby for the perfect Christmas tree. On the first of December, he would cut down the tree, take it home with him, and decorate it with as many sparkly baubles as possible. 

This year Buffy decided to make Christmas cookies for his friends. He found the perfect recipe, one that was very easy to follow, and on Christmas Eve, he spent the day listening to Christmas carols and baking cookies. He planned on delivering the cookies to his friends on Christmas Day. 

Buffy propped the cookbook up on his kitchen bench and started to read.

“Butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, flour, custard powder”. The butter and milk were in the fridge, and the rest of the ingredients were in his pantry. He had spent a lot of time in his pantry lately. He wanted to keep it neat and tidy, so he had put all of his ingredients into containers. However, he had gone a little overboard and had even started putting other things into the containers, like washing powder and pegs and his chalk. He was very proud of how organised his pantry looked. After pulling the butter and milk out of the fridge, he opened his pantry door to get the dry ingredients that he needed. 

“Hmmm…..flour, sugar….where is the sugar?” Buffy muttered to himself. He suddenly realised that he hadn't put any labels on any of his containers! “Well, flour and sugar are both white….these two containers both have white powders in them, this must be them”. Smiling from ear to ear, Buffy mixed all of his ingredients. Using his special star-shaped cookie cutter, he made twenty-four star cookies and placed them in the oven. While the cookies were cooking, Buffy cleaned up his kitchen and then the rest of his house. He shooed out all the spiders and bugs. He wanted the house to be clean and tidy when Santa arrived. By the time the house was clean, the oven alarm had gone off, and Buffy pulled out his cookies.

“These look delicious!” he thought to himself. He was tempted to try one now, but he wanted to wait until Christmas Day and share them with his friends.

 That night Buffy filled up a glass with milk and placed it on a little table next to the fireplace with two of his star-shaped cookies. He also left a carrot in case the reindeer were hungry. Buffy snuggled into his bed and closed his eyes, but he was so excited he didn’t think he would be able to sleep at all.

Eventually, he did get to sleep but was woken up several hours later by a noise. Buffy looked out the window and saw that it was still nighttime. He wondered what had woken him up. He lifted his big fluffy bunny ears and listened. He thought he heard the quiet jingling of bells and what sounded like hooves….on his roof! Buffy bounced out of bed. It had to be Santa Claus! Buffy quickly pulled on a sweater and crept out to the living room. He snuck a peek under the Christmas tree. No presents yet. That must mean that Santa had only just arrived. Buffy stood, watching the fireplace. He heard some muffled footsteps on the roof and expected to see Santa appear in the fireplace. Instead, he heard a sudden shout, a strange tinkling noise, and then heard a giant crash come from his front yard. Buffy stood looking confused for a moment, and then he suddenly realised what had happened. Santa had fallen off his roof!

Buffy ran to the door and flung it open. There, laying in the snow in front of his house, was a man in a red suit. He had a long white beard and big black boots. He was surrounded by boxes wrapped in red, gold, and silver glittering wrapping paper. 

“Santa!” Buffy exclaimed and quickly bounced out to the man’s side. He helped Santa up, but as the big man put his left boot on the ground, he grunted.

“Buffy, I think I might have twisted my ankle. Can you please help me walk into your house?” Santa asked. Buffy let Santa lean on his shoulder and helped him inside. He sat Santa down in the comfiest chair by the fireplace.

“Oh, Santa, what happened? How did you fall off the roof?” Buffy asked. Santa blushed slightly under his white beard.

“Well, I wasn’t exactly paying attention to where I was walking. You did an outstanding job of decorating your house Buffy, and there are lots of lights up there. I, ahem, didn’t see a strand of lights and may have...ah….tripped over it and fallen off the roof,” Santa looked down, embarrassed. Buffy couldn’t believe it. His lights had caused Santa to fall off the roof!

“Can you walk, Santa? There are lots of presents out there; you must still have lots of work to do,” Buffy asked. Santa shook his head sadly.

“No, I don't think I can, Buffy. I had almost finished my deliveries. I only needed to deliver the presents to your friends and neighbours in the woods and on the farm. Then I would have been finished. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” 

Buffy thought about this. He did already have experience delivering holiday gifts. How much harder could Christmas presents be?

“It’s ok, Santa. I delivered the Easter chocolate and gifts for my cousin Buster Bunny because he got sick. I am sure that I could deliver the Christmas presents,” he said. Santa explained to Buffy that the presents had all fallen off the roof with him when he had tripped. Buffy would need to collect the sack and put all of the presents into it. 

“Hopefully, the name tags are all still attached,” Santa said. They both agreed that it would be much safer for Buffy to walk to deliver the presents rather than take Santa’s sleigh whilst it would probably take longer. So Buffy gave Santa a glass of milk and some cookies, then he slipped into his coat and bounced outside. There he found the big red sack lying in the snow, cleaned it off, and started picking up the presents. He noticed that the name tags had, in fact, come off, but decided that they probably hadn’t fallen far from the present that they belonged to, so he just put the name tags onto the closest present and then put them in the sack. Feeling pleased with himself and happy to be helping Santa after his lights had made him fall off his roof, Buffy bounced off into the early morning snowfall to deliver the last of Santa’s presents to his friends.

It took him a while, but soon, Buffy delivered each present to his friends and neighbours. He was feeling very sleepy by this time. As he slowly bounced along, his feet dragging along the ground and his eyelids struggling to stay up, he decided he might just lay down for a quick nap. He could snuggle down inside the sack to sleep. Buffy yawned, then lay down on the side of the path, snuggled into the sack, and promptly fell asleep.

When he woke up, the sun was shining brightly in the sky. It took him a moment, but then suddenly, Buffy remembered it was Christmas Day! He had helped Santa, and he had saved Christmas for his friends, really. And Santa was back at his house relaxing. He would probably even get to spend Christmas Day with Santa! Buffy jumped up, gathered up the sack, and bounced as quickly as he could in the direction of his house.

As he got closer, he could hear what sounded like a large group of people. They didn’t sound happy, though. When he rounded the corner, he saw all of his friends and neighbours standing in the snow around his house, looking upset. Buffy hurried over.

“What….what’s going on? Why is everyone here? Why does everyone look so upset?” he asked when he reached the crowd. Samson Squirrel turned around.

“Buffy! Everyone is upset because when we woke up this morning and opened our presents, nobody got what they asked for! We all got strange presents that half of us can’t even use or don’t want.” he frowned.

“Yes, and when I was on my way to visit Samson to ask him if he got what he had asked for, I saw Santa’s sleigh sitting on top of your house. We all talked and decided we would come here and ask Santa why he delivered us all the wrong presents and make him fix his mistake,” Barry, the dog, said gruffly.

“Where is Santa?” Buffy asked quietly. Samson pointed to the house.

“He’s inside the house with Rella. Apparently, he is sick because he ate some bad cookies. I think it’s just an excuse to get out of fixing his mix-up,” Samson said, and several others chimed in to say that they agreed that Santa should be out here fixing his mistake, not hiding inside Buffy’s house, which he was obviously doing.

Buffy’s heart sank. This was the worst Christmas ever! Not only had he caused Santa to fall off his roof and hurt himself, but he had also delivered all of the presents wrong and ruined everyone’s Christmas. Plus, it looked like he had made Santa sick with his cookies! Buffy thought his cooking had been getting better, but obviously, he really couldn’t cook! Buffy stood looking at all of his friends and their angry faces, and he suddenly burst into tears and raced inside his house. Samson, Barry, the chickens, and everyone else thought that was a little strange, but then Barry remarked that Buffy probably didn’t get the right present either, and he must have just been upset.

Buffy saw Santa lying on the couch and saw Rella beside him with a glass of water.

“Santa!” Buffy blurted out before either of them could say anything, “I am sorry. I have ruined everything! I am just a silly bunny who mixes everything up. I have ruined Christmas for everyone!” he cried and bounced into his bedroom before Santa or Rella could reply. Buffy locked his door and threw himself on his bed, crying. He was still exhausted from his busy night, and eventually, he cried himself to sleep.

Meanwhile, Santa and Rella were left out in the living room, staring after Buffy and his tears.

“Oh dear,” said Santa, “poor Buffy. Things seem to have gotten worse and worse.” Santa explained to Rella what had happened with the lights on the roof and how Buffy had volunteered to deliver the presents for him.

“I think the name tags all got confused, so Buffy delivered the wrong presents to people. And it looks like his cookies have made me sick too. Poor Buffy, I don’t know if even my magic can fix this mix-up for him.” Santa sighed. Rella stamped her foot. She refused to believe that she couldn’t fix this situation. 

First, she went into the kitchen. Looking in the pantry, she realised right away what must have happened. Buffy must have used the wrong ingredients in his cookies because none of the containers had labels on them. Rella then hurried to the front door and went outside to find everyone still milling around complaining about their presents.

“Shame on you all!” Rella exclaimed. Everyone suddenly stopped and looked at her. “Yes, shame on you. How dare you come here and complain and make a big hubbub. And why are you all complaining anyway? Because you don’t like your presents? Well, you should all be grateful that you got a gift at all! Santa is in here, hurt and sick. He wasn’t even the one who delivered the presents to you. It was Buffy! Santa hurt himself last night, so Buffy offered to deliver the presents. And he didn’t take the sleigh. He walked! He walked all night, in the dark and the snow, delivering your presents so that you would all have a good Christmas. And how do you thank him? You complain about the presents you got. You should all be ashamed of yourselves!” 

Rella stepped back inside the house and shut the door a little harder than she expected. She was feeling very angry with her friends for making Buffy feel so bad when he was only trying to help. She went to check on Buffy and Santa but found both of them fast asleep. Rella decided that while Buffy slept, she would fix his pantry and put labels on all of his containers. She had just finished organising the pantry when she heard a soft knock at the door. Opening the door, Rella found Samson standing on the doorstep.

“Rella, could you please ask Santa and Buffy to come outside?” he asked. Rella told Samson that they were both sleeping but that she would check on them. Closing the door, Rella turned to find Santa and Buffy looking around the living room corner.

“Who is it?” Buffy sniffed. Rella told Buffy that Samson and the rest of their friends had asked Buffy and Santa to come outside. Buffy wasn’t sure, but eventually, Santa and Rella convinced him to go. When they stepped outside the house, they saw an amazing sight. Buffy’s front yard was filled with tables and chairs from people's houses. There was also a huge Christmas tree in the corner of his yard.

“Buffy, Santa, we are very sorry for the way we behaved about our presents,” Samson said.

“Yes, we were very rude and should have been more grateful for all the hard work you had put in to help Santa deliver our gifts,” Barry agreed. There was a chorus of “thank you” and “I’m sorry” from the crowd in the yard. Buffy started to smile. 

“We know that we ruined Christmas Day for you, Buffy, but we hoped that you would let us make it up to you. We all want to spend the rest of the day together,” Samson smiled. Buffy nodded his head and went to hug his friends. Santa, looking much more jolly by now, let out a big “Ho, ho, ho!” and suddenly, all of the tables in the yard were covered in a delicious looking Christmas feast. The friends all sat down and ate Christmas dinner together, laughing and enjoying each other's company.

Buffy noticed that there were gifts under the Christmas tree and asked Samson why they were there. Samson explained that they had decided to give away the presents they had received to the person they thought would most appreciate it. Whilst they still didn't all get what they had actually asked for, they were grateful, and everyone loved their presents just as much. The gifts that were still under the tree were for Buffy, to thank him for everything he had done for them. Buffy hugged his friend again and thanked everyone for helping to fix his mix-up. They all said goodbye to Santa and the reindeer (who had been thoroughly enjoying their time off) and waved goodbye until they couldn’t see the sleigh in the sky anymore. Then everyone slowly left in twos and threes, carrying their tables and chairs until only Buffy, Samson, and Rella left in the house. The three friends flopped down in front of the fire and sighed. It had been a long and eventful day, but everything had worked out in the end. Buffy gave a little giggle and then said, “cookies, anyone?” The friends all laughed. “Maybe next year,” Rella said with a smile on her face. “Merry Christmas, Buffy Bunny.”