It was Christmas Eve and all of the princesses were still rushing around in Cinderella's castle in an attempt to make sure that everything was ready for the next day. Earlier on in the year. they had agreed that since Cinderella's castle was the biggest, it should be the one that they would have their annual Christmas Ball in this year. Not to mention, Cinderella owed Snow White a favor for breaking her favorite snow globe at the last year's party. In reality, they all knew that they should have gathered to decorate and prepare all of these things weeks ago, but parties and appearances and fancy dinners had gotten in the way of all of it.
Elsa and Anna were in the kitchen, decorating cookies and cupcakes for tomorrow's Christmas party. Or rather, Elsa was decorating them and trying to keep Anna from eating them all. "Anna, stop eating all of the gingerbread men," screamed Elsa. Anna took her most recent cookie to the other side of the counter filled with desserts and nibbled off another limb from the cookie person. "If you eat too many today, I won't let you have any tomorrow," she threatened. Normally this would have struck fear in Anna's heart, or rather her stomach. However, she had already heard this several times today. It was nothing but words by now. "I'm just wondering how such a tiny girl can eat so many cookies and cupcakes!" Jasmine exclaimed from her chair in the corner. "You could help, you know..." Tiana said, wiping sweat from her brow. The kitchen was overwhelmingly hot with all of the burners on the stove going constantly and the oven with something new coming out or going in every few minutes. Tiana worked around Elsa and Anna, attempting to prepare all of the food that would be needed for the next day. Belle rushed around, trying to stay out of everyone's way but also fetching ingredients for the various dishes that Tiana was making. Jasmine sat in the corner the whole time. She didn't think that preparing food was a job for a princess, and refused to help out anywhere else.
Ariel and Merida had been put in charge of decorations inside of the house, which meant that there were lots of miscellaneous items in with the actual decorations: Silverware in the wreaths, Elsa's favorite hair comb on the Christmas tree, and LOTS of paper cutouts of snowflakes and fish and dresses and paper dolls strewn around the house, which they had just learned how to make. Then they went to each of the tables in the Castle and spread out tiny fake snowflakes and glitter, and hung mistletoe in every doorway. They ran wild through the castle, playing games and singing Christmas carols as they decorated. "OOH, LOOK AT THIS SHINY THINGAMABOB!" Ariel shrieked. "Aye, that's Jasmine's bracelets," Merida explained. With a giggle, she took them and hung them in the wreath on Jasmine's bedroom door. "She's gonna be sooooo mad," Merida said, "but its gonna be soooo funny!"
Snow White, Aurora, and Cinderella had enlisted the help of the animals in the forest behind the castle to help them put up the outdoor Christmas decorations. There were birds of every size and color going around, helping the princesses hang lights on the house. The teamwork was certainly making the job get done much faster. A fawn investigated a large lighted reindeer figure in the yard and squirrels scurried along the various levels of the castle roof, playing with one another. Mulan, Rapunzel, and Olaf ran around in the yard, making snow angels and snowmen with the little bit of snow that had fallen that morning, but was already starting to melt. Soon enough, a snowball fight broke out, and a few stray snowballs caused the decorating to be put on hold for a short while.
Soon enough, the sun had set and all of the princesses hurried back inside the house. Their work finally finished, they donned their pajamas sat around the huge fireplace and drank hot cocoa together while telling of their favorite Christmas memories. "This one time, when we were little kids," Anna said, "Elsa and I got dolls that looked like us for Christmas. Elsa absolutely loved hers, but I kept stealing it from her because I thought it was prettier. Finally, I decided to just steal it one night when she was sleeping. I took it and replaced it with mine. I kept it for almost three days before she saw me with it and demanded to have it back." She finished her story with a bunch of giggles, and Elsa started doing the same. "You always did like my toys more than yours," Elsa sighed. The girls quieted a bit and Tiana spoke up. "Well gals, I think we should probably all head to bed," She announced. "We've got a long day ahead of us, so we're gonna need the shuteye. Plus, we have to be asleep if we want Santa Claus to visit!" All of the girls jumped out of their seats, almost simultaneously, Ariel almost spilling her hot chocolate on Merida in the process.
One by one, they all entered their bedrooms and tucked themselves into bed. Soon, all of them were asleep, or at least close to it. Anna, however, was restless. She tossed and turned and attempted to fluff up her pillow. She just couldn't get comfortable. Not only that, she was too excited about tomorrow to focus on getting to sleep. There would be tons of presents underneath the giant Christmas tree in the living room of Cinderella's castle. They would probably take an hour to actually open them all. Of course, there would be some for each princess and some for the princes and friends like Olaf and Sven and Flounder and Mushu and everyone. And they would open them all at the Christmas party tomorrow. Well, she would probably convince Elsa to let her open one of her gifts in the morning. Just one wouldn't hurt. People from all over would come to the castle for the Christmas celebration: The family of all of the princesses, friends, neighbors, and even people who lived in Cinderella's kingdom. People from as far away as New Orleans, where Tiana was from, might even be there! It was an exciting thought, and it was keeping Anna awake.
Fed up with being unable to sleep, Anna finally got up and made her way to the kitchen, guided only by the smell of cookies and the lamp from her bedside table. When she reached her destination, she saw made her way to the cabinet to get a glass and have some milk. When she turned around, she found Merida standing beside her and Ariel standing in the doorway with a lamp in her hand and a chocolate chip cookie in her mouth. "You two can't sleep either?" Merida asked. Ariel's shoulders slumped and Anna nodded. "Well, I suppose we all had the same idea," Anna said, pulling three glasses from the cabinet and pouring milk into them. She pulled a tray of cookies closer and offered them to the other two girls. They sat there in silence, munching on cookies and drinking milk when they all heard an odd noise coming from the hallway. They all looked up, confused as to what might have happened. "Maybe a dinglehopper fell off of the tree," Ariel said. "Or maybe someone is trying to get into the castle!" Anna whispered loudly. "I'm thinkin' it'd be in our best interests to go investigate," Merida said. She picked up the nearest lantern and turned it up as bright as it would go, before stepping out of the kitchen. Anna and Ariel looked at each other for a moment. "Well are ya comin' or not?" Merida exclaimed, peeking back inside the room. The other two girls scurried to follow her, Anna taking a handful of cookies with her and Ariel arming herself with a fork that had been laying on the table.
All seemed to be normal as they made their way down the corridors, peeking inside of all of the rooms and finding nothing wrong. They stopped just outside of the living room. Merida pointed to the shadows on the wall. "We'll go in on the count of three," she whispered to the other two. Merida drew her bow and loaded it with an arrow, then whispered, "One, two... three!" Three princesses jumped out and into the doorway, Merida pointing her arrow into the center of the room, Ariel holding the fork in the air above her head, and Anna holding up a cookie, ready to throw it. At the noise, a man in a bright red suit looked up from setting gifts under the Christmas tree. Startled, Anna released the cookie from her hand, only to have it fly through the air and hit him on the head. He fell over with a loud THUD. "ANNA!" Merida and Ariel yelled in unison. Merida ran up to the huge man with the white beard and the red suit. His eyes were closed, but he seemed to be okay, aside from a bump on his head. "Sorry," Anna said. "Is he okay?" "Yes," Merida replied, "but jus' barely. Ya knocked him clean out with that cookie!" Ariel picked the cookie up from the floor and exclaimed, "Wow, this cookie is really burnt!"
The three princesses stood there, trying to figure out what to do about their current situation. "Who is going to deliver all of the gifts to people all over the world now," Ariel asked Anna. Merida paced back and forth for a few moments, thinking. Finally, she stopped and clapped her hands together. "WE WILL!" Ariel and Anna looked at each other and then back at Merida, both of them wondering if she had gone mad. "Wake up the other princesses," Merida told them. "We'll all have to deliver them. And tell Cindy to call the fairy godmother. Maybe she can help us out." Ariel and Anna disappeared in a flash to do as they were told.
Soon enough the living room was filled with tired princesses, rubbing their eyes and yawning and talking with each other. Merida climbed up on the huge mantle above the fireplace and yelled for all of them to be quiet. "Ladies! We have a problem," She explained. "Earlier tonight, there was a mishap involving a certain princess and Santa Claus. And because of this accident, Santa is now sleeping underneath the Christmas tree!" Everyone looked around and Elsa glared at Anna. Anna shrugged gave Elsa a look that said "it was an accident". Merida continued her speech. "Thanks to the fairy godmother and the mice that live in Cindy's castle, we now have six sleighs with flying reindeer and bags full of presents. We will split into teams of two, and each take a bag of gifts, a list of names, and a map. We have to be done by MIDNIGHT, ladies! That gives us THREE HOURS to finish St. Nick's job for him. At midnight, the sleighs will turn back into trees and the reindeer will turn back into mice. Am I clear?" All of the princesses nodded and some of them said yes. The next instant, they were all out the door and piling into the magical sleighs that the fairy godmother had whipped up in the front yard. With shots of magic dust from her magic wand, she guided each of them in the right direction and they were off!
As Elsa and Anna flew over Canada, Elsa lectured Anna about being more careful. "This whole thing could have been avoided if you wouldn't eat so many cookies," Elsa said. "Yeah, but you have to admit that it is a whole lot of fun!" Anna yelled over the sound of snow and wind rushing past them. Elsa laughed and shook her head. She loved her sister, but she could be absolutely crazy sometimes. Elsa took the reins from Anna and landed them on the next rooftop. Anna had a habit of crashing or landing a bit too hard. With a blast of her ice powers, Elsa whisked up the gifts and sent them down the chimney, where they landed safely underneath the Christmas tree in the house. Anna marked another name off of the list and they took off into the sky again.
A little south of them, Tiana and Aurora flew through the skies over Florida and Louisiana and finally Texas. Aurora spent most of the time admiring the scenery. "You mean to tell me that you've never been to the states before?" Tiana questioned. Aurora shook her head and grabbed the presents for the next house. Without even landing, they dropped the gifts off into the chimney of the next house and they flew into place under the tree, hovering for a few moments before settling down on the floor. "This pixie dust that Miss Godmother gave us sure is some fancy stuff," Tiana exclaimed as she marked another two names off of their list.
After flying over France and several other countries, Belle and Cinderella were the first to return to the castle. As they landed their reindeer turned back into mice and the sleigh returned to being a tree as soon as they got out of it. The fairy godmother was standing in the doorway of the castle and watching as names were ticked off of a long paper list. "Wonderful job," she told the two princesses, and returned to watching the list. "Wow, we're almost half way through with the names on the list," Belle exclaimed. "Yes, but we only have an hour left," Cinderella said, looking at the clock in the front hall of the castle.
A little while later, almost all of the princesses were back at the castle. Rapunzel and Snow White knew Europ and Russia like the back of their hands, so they arrived shortly after Belle and Cinderella. Even Mulan and Jasmine had finished their deliveries in Asia. There were now only a few minutes left before Merida and Ariel would be stuck in South America with nothing but a herd of mice and a tree to help them deliver the remaining gifts. Anna paced back and forth nervously and the rest of the princesses sat staring out the window in the living room that looked out at the huge yard. "Two minutes left," the fairy godmother announced. Anna felt so nervous that she was afraid that she might throw up. She would be biting her nails, but Elsa was likely to yell at her if she did so. By this time, Santa was finally awake and the princesses had explained the accident. He thanked them for his efforts and was packing up his sleigh to go find Merida and Ariel in case they didn't make it back in time.
Just as the clock in the front hall of the castle was chiming midnight, there was a noise that made all of the princesses turn and rush to the window. Flying through the sky, no, falling, were Merida and Ariel and a pack of tiny mice. They landed roughly on the snow and all of the princesses jumped up and ran outside to greet them. There was hugging and yelling and jumping and laughing. Santa Claus and the fairy godmother stood back and smiled. "Thanks for all the help," he finally told them all. There were shouts in response of "No problem!" and "It was fun!". "I hate to leave so soon," he said, heading toward his sleigh, "but Mrs. Claus is expecting me home soon!" They all looked up at the sky as he flew away, "Merry Christmas!". All of the princesses shouted back to him, "Merry Christmas, Santa!".
The next morning, happy princesses rushed down the stairs in their prettiest dresses to admire the beautiful Christmas tree and the mountain of gifts underneath it. Soon enough, the doorbell was ringing and tons of people were rushing about, piling more gifts under the tree and grabbing food from the kitchen. Prince Eric was led around the castle by Ariel, who wanted to show him all of the beautiful decorations that they had put up, even if most of them were cutlery. Merida was chasing her little brothers around and trying to keep them from eating ALL of the Christmas cookies. Sven and Olaf found a nice place to sit by the fireplace and talk to the other guests. Tiana and Naveen were singing Cajun Christmas songs and Snow White was taking turns dancing with the seven dwarves and the prince. Elsa created a skating rink in the ballroom for the little kids from the kingdom that had come to the Christmas party.
At the end of the night, Elsa looked at Anna and smiled. "I guess you didn't mess things up too bad, huh?" The sisters hugged and were soon joined by Merida, then all of the other princesses. It hadn't been a perfect Christmas, but it had certainly been the best one so far.
-Elizabeth Walker
