Home | The Elf Door

THE ELF DOOR

Chris Massey

BACK FOR CHRISTMAS 2025!

A FREE TO READ CHRISTMAS STORY ABOUT A BOY CALLED TED, A BUNCH OF ELVES AND A WHOLE HEAP OF CHRISTMAS CHAOS.

ENJOY IT, TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND TELL THEM TO TELL THEIR FRIENDS.

***************HAPPY CHRISTMAS***************

For more information about The Elf Door leave a note with your elf and ask if they can drop it off at my house this Christmas or alternatively (and slightly less fun) you can email: dadofsid@gmail.com

OK, LET'S GET ON WITH THE STORY SHALL WE?

THE ELF DOOR

It was nearly Christmas, and Ted was excited.

REALLY! excited.

If he was a packet of crisps, he’d be cheese and OH MY GOSH I’M SO EXCITED! flavour.

If he were a pizza, he’d be spicy peppero - YEAH IT’S CHRISTMAS!

Because Christmas meant piles and piles of presents, all wrapped up in lovely, rippy, wrapping paper and all with his name on the tags.

Ted loved getting presents, he almost didn't even care what was inside, he just loved getting more things, more bit's 'n bobs more knick-knacks, more...stuff.

He already had enough stuff for twenty children. He had blocks and bricks and beanbags and consoles and crayons and slime and bikes and kites and bears and superheroes and cars and trucks and science kits and football kits and pogo sticks and go-karts and games and robots and a hundred tiny soldiers and one GIANT rabbit.

And most of it he'd forgotten all about.

Most of it lived unused and un-played with in toy boxes and cupboards and under beds and in the shed or in the loft or in the playhouse in the garden.

But still, he wanted more.

And this Christmas there was one thing he wanted more than anything, something no one else had, something really cool.

Ted wanted an elf.

Not a toy elf. A real elf.

A real elf from the North Pole.

Ted had thought about asking for an elf in his letter to Santa, but Santa probably wouldn't give his elves away just like that would he?

No, he wouldn’t.

Ted needed another way of getting an elf.

And just as he was thinking about how, he heard a familiar noise and looked round to see his cat nudging her way through the cat-ﬂap into the kitchen.

OF COURSE!

He rushed upstairs to his bedroom and found his big pack of colouring pencils and some paper. He then drew a small rectangle and wrote the words "Elf Door" inside it. Then he stuck this Elf Door against the bottom of his bedroom wall, and because it was late, he jumped into bed and quickly fell asleep, dreaming of his new elf.

The next morning Ted woke up early and there was an elf sitting at the end of his bed. Wow, that was easy he thought. "Hi Elf." said Ted.

"Hi Ted." said the elf.

"Welcome to my room." said Ted.

"Thank-you." said the elf. "We are all very glad to be here".

"We?" said Ted.

"Yes, we.” said the elf pointing.

Ted peered over the edge of his bunkbed. The whole ﬂoor was covered with elves, all staring up at him with big smiles on their faces. "Yikes! That's a lot of elves" he said.

"Yes" smiled the elf. "We're all here"

Ted furrowed his brow "All?" he said.

"Yes, all the North Pole elves" said the elf.

"Erm, I was kind of expecting just one elf." said Ted.

"One? Oh no.” said the elf shaking its head. "We all needed a holiday; we work very hard you know, and when we found your Elf Door we thought we'd all have a holiday together."

"OK, well I'm not sure what my mum is going to say." said Ted. Then as if on cue a loud voice came from the other side of the door.

"Ted! Are you up yet?" A moment later the door burst open, and Ted's mum walked in. "Ted, why are you still in bed? It's time to get up, you've got school." Ted tensed, what would she say about all these elves?

Mum marched across the room and ﬂung open the curtains. "Ted, are you listening to me?" Ted closed his eyes as the daylight streamed in, any second he thought...

Suddenly the duvet was pulled off him and Mum’s face appeared over the edge of the bunkbed. "Hey mister! Time to get up." Then she turned and marched out of the room.

Why hadn’t she noticed the elves? Ted looked down at his bedroom ﬂoor; the elves were gone. What the heck? he thought.

"Was that your mum?" The voice made him jump. He looked round and saw that the elf was back at the end of his bed. "She's a bit moody." said the elf.

"Yes, she can be." agreed Ted "Er, where are the rest of the elves?" he asked feeling slightly confused.

"Oh, they're hiding. We're really good at hiding." the elf said matter-of-factly. "Also, we can move really fast."

"Oh, ok." said Ted. "Well, I need to get ready for school so I'm going to go and get some breakfast."

"Great" grinned the elf. "We love breakfast."

"Great..." said Ted uncertainly as he climbed down from his bed and put on his dressing gown.

A few minutes later Ted walked into the kitchen and froze. It was total chaos. There were elves EVERYWHERE- on the worktop, on the ﬂoor, in the sink, in the fridge, in the cupboards, on the table, even swinging from the lights. They'd emptied every cupboard, opened every packet, smoke was billowing from the toaster and rivers of milk ran across the worktops and dripped on to the ﬂoor.

A group of excited elves were taking it in turns to high dive from the cupboards into huge mixing bowls full of cereal. "Cannonball!" yelled an elf as it plummeted into a bowl and sent a fountain of chocolatey milk and hoops into the air; much to the delight of the others.

"Can someone help us please?" said a worried sounding elf from the worktop nearby. Ted looked over and saw a bunch of elves stuck together with a giant blob of honey. As other elves came to help pull them free they also got stuck and the blob of sticky, gooey, honey covered elves grew even larger.

Ted headed towards them to help but stopped abruptly as a piece of buttered toast ﬂew up past his face and stuck to the ceiling above him to the sound of more cheering from the elves. Ted looked up and saw the kitchen ceiling was covered in greasy, buttery marks. The elves were using a wooden spoon and a rolling pin like a seesaw and were launching toast with it.

"That's the ﬁrst one that's actually stuck." said a very happy looking elf. Ted surveyed the chaos grimly.

"What are you doing?" he asked, horriﬁed.

"Breakfast." said an elf.

"But you've trashed the kitchen. Mum's going to go nuts."

"Why is Mum going to go nuts?" asked Mum, appearing behind Ted, who looked nervously over his shoulder at her. She stepped past him and into the kitchen, again the elves had vanished. "What on earth have you been doing in here?" She asked furiously.

"I was just making my breakfast." Ted mumbled.

"Seriously?" she said looking around at the chaos. "Well, I haven’t got time to deal with this, I've got to get to work, so you’d better get this tidied up and then get yourself to school, we'll talk about this later."

"Yes Mum." said Ted sadly.

By the time Ted had tidied up the kitchen and got washed and dressed he was running late for school. As he was hurriedly tying his shoelaces, the elves watched him from the stairs. "I have to go to school now, so please don't make any more mess." He said imploringly to them.

"Can't we come with you?" asked the elf.

"No way, I'm in enough trouble already." said Ted. The elves looked sad, but Ted had no time to think about that as he grabbed his bag and hurried out the door. "Just stay here and be good." he said over his shoulder as he rushed out.

Ted made it to school on time, but only just. Mr Jhay the teacher on the gate shook his head and made a tutting sound as Ted hurried past him.

All morning as he sat in class Ted was thinking about the elves. There were so many of them, why did they all have to come? If he'd got just one elf he could've brought it to school with him. He could've shown some of his friends; they would be so jealous. But hundreds of elves was way too many, no, he'd made the right decision. He just hoped they were behaving themselves at home.

Ted's last lesson before lunch was Art, and it was one of his favourite subjects. Today it was his turn to tidy up the storeroom, so after collecting all the used paint pallets and brushes he took them to the big sink to wash. He was about to turn on the tap when a voice behind him made him jump.

"Wow, what's this place? It's cool." Ted jumped round and to his horror he saw all the elves clambering on the storeroom shelves like ants.

"What are you doing here?" Ted hissed, as he quickly closed the door so the teacher couldn't see. "How did you even get here?"

"We hid in your bag." said the elf simply.

"What, all of you?" Ted replied, astonished. The elf nodded. Ted didn’t even have time to think about how impossible that would be as at that moment two jets of paint squirted up and sploshed him in the face followed by a loud cheer from the elves. "That's not very funny." Ted said in his loudest most cross-sounding whisper. The elves looked guilty, but only for a moment before they all looked up above his head and cheered again. Ted followed their gaze and to his horror saw a bunch of elves holding bags of glitter and confetti swinging on the light fitting. "Be careful, those bags might..." Ted started to say but the elves didn't give him the chance to finish. The bags burst open, and the room was instantly filled with a snowstorm of shimmering particles.

Ted stood there, covered in a glittery, painty mess as the elves danced and cheered. "What have you done?" muttered Ted as he vainly tried to wipe paint off his face.

"A question I was just about to ask you myself." said a voice from the doorway. Ted looked up and Mr Lucas the Art teacher was standing at the door looking unimpressed. "I thought you were on tidy up duty today Ted. It seems you've done the opposite." he said flatly. Ted looked around him, the glitter was still falling, and paint was slowly dripping from the shelves and of course, the elves had vanished.

"I'm sorry, Mr Lucas." Ted muttered.

"Yes, I'm sure you are." said Mr Lucas "Maybe spending your lunch break cleaning this mess up will help you feel better."

"Yes Mr Lucas." said Ted.

"And maybe start with yourself." Mr Lucas said raising an eyebrow "You look like a Christmas decoration."

As Mr Lucas walked away shaking his head, Ted surveyed the chaos and thought that having elves around maybe wasn't quite as fun as he thought it would be.

It took Ted his whole lunch hour to tidy up the art storeroom and he'd run out of time to clean himself up properly before the bell went and he had to run to get to his science lesson.

The science teacher Mrs Scales was already standing at the front of the class as Ted hurried in. She told him to get to his seat quickly, glancing curiously at the odd lumps of glitter stuck in his hair as she continued telling the class that today’s lesson involved heading outside and collecting different types of leaves to study back in the classroom.

A few minutes later as Ted was walking past the outside of the science building with the rest of his class, he was spending more time thinking about where the elves could be now rather than what leaves to pick up. He hadn’t seen them since the art room disaster, and he hoped that wherever they were they weren't causing trouble.

It was at that moment that he heard a small tapping noise from behind him. He turned quickly and his heart skipped a beat. An elf was standing in the window of the science lab, tapping on the glass with one hand and waving at Ted with the other. More elves appeared beside it and also began waving at him. Ted looked back, the rest of his class had spread out looking for leaves, Mrs Scales was talking to a small group; no one else had noticed the elves. Ted frantically waved at the elves to go away, but that just made them wave back at him even more excitedly. Behind the elves standing at the window Ted could see the rest of them swarming over the desks, clambering on the whiteboard and emptying the cupboards of all the stuff used for science experiments.

Quickly grabbing a handful of leaves from the nearest bush, Ted ran over to the teacher. "Mrs Scales, I've got my leaves, can I go back inside now please?" he said quickly. Mrs Scales looked at Ted.

"I really wanted you to think hard about the type of leaves you collect Ted."

"I really have, Mrs Scales" Ted tried to assure her. She looked unconvinced. "And I really need to go to the toilet as well." he quickly added. Mrs Scales rolled her eyes.

"Oh, for goodness’ sake, you should have gone during lunch."

"I know. I'm sorry." Ted said, hopping from side to side (just like someone who really does need to go to the toilet would do). He looked at her pleadingly, and then glanced over her shoulder, saw the elves through the window and looked even more desperate. After what felt like an age Mrs Scales relented.

"OK then." she sighed "Off you go." Ted was already running back across the grass before she'd finished speaking. He tore around the corner of the building, through the main door, dashed along the corridor and burst through the classroom door into a scene of total chaos...again.

Thick, bubbly, multi-coloured foam was gushing out of the sinks like a slow-motion waterfall. It oozed over the work benches and flowed onto the floor like someone had spilt a giant, rainbow coloured milkshake. "What are you doing?" Ted hissed at the elves, who were hopping about in delight. He watched as they squirted green goo from a bottle into one of the sinks that had the taps running at full blast. "What is that stuff?" asked Ted who now had to jump up on a stool to avoid the oncoming wave of foam on the floor. The elf nearest him turned.

"We found it in your kitchen, it's amazing."

"It's washing up liquid!" Ted said incredulously. As he watched, another elf poured bright yellow liquid from a pot into the sink, making all the foam change colour. "And that's paint!" Ted cried as the foam splooshed out like custard.

"We got it from the art room." yelled the elf happily. Ted looked on as the elves poured red paint, blue paint, pink paint, orange paint and every other colour paint you could imagine into the over-flowing sinks. "Isn't it beautiful?" said the elf proudly. Ted jumped down into the foam and waded towards the nearest sink. "No! It's a disaster." he said as he went to turn off the gushing tap.

"I would definitely agree with that description." came Mrs Scales' voice from behind him. Ted spun around quickly, and his heart sank. Mrs Scales stood in the doorway of the science room, ankle deep in the bubbles. She looked down at her feet. "I should've worn my welly boots." She said looking up at Ted grimly.

"Mrs Scales, I'm so sorry, I...." Teds voice trailed off as Mrs Scales raised her hand.

"First things first, let's turn off all this water shall we?" She said calmly. "Then perhaps you'd better find a mop and bucket." Ted nodded, then rushed to each of the sinks, slipping and sliding in the foam as he went. The elves of course had vanished like they were never there, leaving Ted to take the blame for the third time that day.

Much, much later, after all the other children had already left school for the day and Ted had finally finished mopping up the mess, he was slowly walking home. His sodden feet squelching in his wet shoes with each step.

He saw the mini supermarket at the end of his road up ahead and thought that today of all days he deserved a little treat. He pushed open the door of the shop and the bell tinkled above him as he stepped inside. Normally crammed with other school children on their way home, today the shop was empty; all the other children had been and gone whilst he’d been mopping the floor of the science lab. The Shop Keeper looked up sharply from behind the counter, he glared at Ted like he glared at all the school children who came in. Ted smiled weakly and gave a little wave, the Shop Keeper huffed and then turned and carried on stacking the shelves behind the counter.

"Is this a Christmas shop?" said a voice from one of the shelves. Ted turned quickly and saw an elf sitting on a can of baked beans just in front of him.

"What? No, it's a normal shop." Ted whispered, aware of the Shop Keeper nearby. "And you shouldn’t be in here."

"But we heard sleigh bells." said the elf. Ted was confused for a moment.

"Sleigh bells? No, that was the bell above the door, it's so the shop keeper knows when someone comes in." Ted pointed towards it and to his horror saw another elf sitting above the door next to the bell. The elf reached down and shook the bell vigorously. The Shop Keeper spun round and seeing that the door was closed turned his attention to Ted who was still standing next to it, obviously the elves had quickly hidden themselves. "Erm, I think it was the wind." Ted tried to explain as the Shop Keeper stared at him. The man grumbled something under his breath and then slowly turned back to his stacking.

Ted quickly moved amongst the shelves, searching the cans and packets for the elves. "Elves where are you?" he whispered. He reached the end of the row and looked along the back of the shop. "Oh no!" he gasped as he saw that the freezer that held all the ice lollies was covered with elves. They'd opened the sliding doors on top and were diving into the freezing contents. As more and more elves jumped in, the ice lollies started being thrown out of the opening to make more room. Ted rushed over to the freezer "Stop!" he cried as he vainly tried to catch the flying lollies.

"Ahhh" sighed the elves from inside "Lovely and cold, just like the North Pole." A frantic beeping sound made Ted turn.

"Don't you dare!" he warned, as yet more elves had swarmed around the self-service coffee machine in the corner and were frantically tapping the screen. The machine was beeping and vibrating in a most unusual way.

"What's Ca-Poo-Chee-No?" asked an elf.

"Cat-Poo-Chee-No?" said another, making a face. "Urgh, sounds disgusting."

"Oh, look it's got hot chocolate, press that one, press that one." squealed a group of elves as they saw it appear on the screen and tapped repeatedly.

"Frothy milk!" called out another bunch as they bashed the screen.

"You'll break it." Ted hissed as he stuffed an armful of lollies back in the freezer and slid the top closed. He rushed over to the coffee machine and stared at the screen which was by now flashing and flickering madly. "You've made it go bananas." he said despairingly. Then, abruptly the screen froze, and the machine went silent. The words "Drink on the way." flashed up and a rumble arose from deep in the belly of it. "We need a cup, quickly." said Ted grabbing one from the dispenser.

"Hey!" said a little voice, as an elf that had been hiding inside the cup jumped out.

"Sorry elf." said Ted "It's an emergency". He quickly slid the cup into the tray where the drinks come out from just as the machine made a sort of burping sound and the rumbling increased.

Ted cautiously leaned back a little. The elves did the same as they all stared expectantly at the cup.

Suddenly, with a loud hissing noise like air rushing out of a leaky tyre, a plume of frothy milk jetted out from the top of the machine and up towards the ceiling before falling like snow. The elves cheered with joy and began dancing around as the milky snow fell around them. Ted just stood there, lost for words. He didn't even turn around when he heard the bell above the door ringing loudly, he knew it was the elves without even looking.

At the freezer a bunch of elves sat on the edge of the lid, frost clinging to their bodies and cold air billowing out from below them. They swayed in time to the bell ringing and held out their hands to catch the falling snow. "Now this, is like the North Pole." they said to each other happily.

"What is happening!" cried the Shop Keeper as he burst out from the back room and onto the shop floor. He looked up at the doorbell, the elves were gone, and the bell was left swinging gently. He saw Ted standing by the coffee machine and the foamy spray squirting out of the top. "My new coffee machine!" he cried as he hurried towards it. "What have you dooooooone....!" his voice became a yell as he rushed past the freezer, slipped on one of the lollies the elves had thrown and skidded headlong into a shelf of fizzy drinks, sending them flying. As the Shop Keeper desperately clawed at the shelves to keep himself upright, the fallen drinks hit the ground, burst open and jetted themselves along like pop-powered torpedoes, spraying fountains of fizz out the back as they careened around the shop floor.

Ted ducked to avoid a jet of cola and then had to quickly jump out of the way as a bottle of cherryade rocketed past him. "I...I think there's a little problem with the machine." he said innocently as he watched the Shop Keeper trying to regain his balance before slipping in a puddle of tropical crush and disappearing from view behind the shelves. "I'll come back another time, maybe." Ted said, feeling terribly guilty as he warily skidded his way across the slick and slidey floor on his way to the door, leaving the poor Shop Keeper to deal with the all the mess.

Ten minutes later, after a sticky, soggy, squelchy, melchy walk, Ted reached his house. Closing the door behind him he dropped his bag on the mat and signed heavily. "That you Ted?" his Mum called out.

"Yep, hi mum." Ted replied as she appeared in the hallway.

"Oh my goodness!" she said as she got near him. "Is this..." she reached up to his hair. "...glitter...and paint?"

"Yep. Both." Ted said glumly as his mum looked at the rest of him, she leaned towards him.

"You smell like..." she sniffed the collar of his coat. "Cherryade?" she said, feeling his soaking jacket. "You're drenched in it." Ted looked down at his shoes.

"It was kind of a crazy day." he said slowly.

"Hmmm, was it?" Mum said as she took his coat off him. "Well, you can tell me all about it after you've gone and got yourself cleaned up."

"Yes Mum." said Ted and he trudged slowly up the stairs to his room.

As he opened his bedroom door, Ted stopped and stared. "Oh no..." he groaned. His room looked like it had been turned upside down and shaken vigorously. There were toys and games covering every surface and every elf was playing with something, so the room was filled with flashing lights and beeps and roars and music and crashing and bashing and talking and laughing and more chaos.

With difficulty, Ted stepped inside and closed the door behind him. As he looked around, he thought about how these elves had caused him nothing but trouble all day and now they'd made a mess of his room; he'd had enough. "Elves!" he said loudly, and they all stopped and looked up, a sea of big eyes staring expectantly. "I've had enough." he said sternly. The elves looked at each other sadly. Ted immediately felt bad. "What I mean is, there's so many of you and you keep making so much mess." The elves blinked their big, sad, eyes. Now Ted felt really bad. "Oh, don't look at me like that." he said. "You've got me in real trouble today."

"We're sorry." said an elf. "We've just never been to a school before."

"Or in a kitchen" said another.

"Or a shop." said a third.

"We've never left the North Pole before." A sad looking elf said from on top of the wardrobe. Ted smiled at them all.

"Ok, I suppose I can let you off, just for today though." The elves grinned. "But only if you help me tidy up this mess in here." Ted added, looking around his room. As his eyes fell upon all of the many toys and games lying around he suddenly realised something; he had a lot of really cool stuff. "I'd forgotten about all this." he said amazed. The elves looked at each other, then one turned back to him.

"Don't you play with any of this then?" said the elf astounded. Ted thought about it for a minute.

"No, I don't suppose I do." Ted said slowly, and as he said it he wondered why he didn't.

"That's a shame." said the elf. "We love playing with toys, it's our favourite thing." the other elves nodded in agreement.

"Well, apart from thinking about toys." said another elf. The elves nodded and muttered in agreement again.

"And talking about toys." a voice in the crowd of elves said, which was followed by yet more nodding and loud agreement.

"My favourite is making toys." said an elf sat on the bookshelf. At this, all the other elves looked at each other nodding furiously in agreement and gave the elf on the shelf a round of applause. As Ted smiled down at the elves, all talking excitedly at the same time about how they loved making toys, a thought crossed his mind.

"Excuse me, elves." he said. The elves looked up at him. "I'm sorry to interrupt but I just had a question. As the last few excited elves finished talking Ted carried on. "It was just that, well, you make all the toys at the North Pole right?"

"Yes, it's a full-time job." An elf said proudly. "We're the fastest and the best."

"No one can do it but us." Said another elf puffing out it's chest.

"Well, that's what I was going to ask you." said Ted. "If you're all here, in my room, then who's at the North Pole making all the toys?" The elves fell silent. They looked at each other nervously as the consequences of what Ted had just said sunk in. Immediately a hundred frantic conversations started at once, and Ted couldn't hear anything over all the over-lapping voices until suddenly one elf spoke above the rest and they all listened. In a wavering voice, the sad looking elf looked glumly at all the others. “Elves, we must face it. There’ll be no toys!”

The words silenced the room, the elves looked distraught, and no one noticed the smell of freshly baked mince pies wafting in.

"Well, we can't have that can we?" said a deep voice from the doorway. Every elf gasped as they looked up. Ted spun around and his mouth fell open in astonishment as he saw who the voice was coming from.

Santa Claus, the real Santa Claus. He was standing looking down at him, smiling through his fluffy white beard.

For a few seconds no one said a word. Ted stared in astonishment; not quite sure what to say. "Well, you've all gone very quiet suddenly." said Santa with a chuckle. He leaned forward and offered his hand to Ted who shook it awkwardly. "Hi Ted, I'm Santa Claus, pleased to meet you."

"Pleased to meet you too." Ted mumbled. "Welcome to my room." he said, gesturing around awkwardly.

"Bit of a mess isn't it?" said Santa.

"Well, errr..." Ted tried to say. Santa patted him on the shoulder and smiled. "I'm joking Ted." Ted looked at the huge, gloved hand resting on him.

"Oh..." he muttered

"Now." said Santa addressing the elves. "What am I going to do with you lot?" The elves looked shamefaced. "I've missed you guys." Santa carried on. "I was so worried about you all."

"Aren't you very cross with us?" said an elf shyly. Santa shook his head.

"Cross? No. I could never be cross with you." The elves started to look a bit more cheerful and little smiles started appearing on their faces.

"We didn't mean to worry you." said an elf.

"Yes, we're really sorry." said another.

"Very, sorry." other elves said together.

"We were tired and just wanted a holiday." said an elf before quickly putting its hands over its mouth and looking ashamed. The other elves all nervously looked up at Santa who smiled down at them.

"My dear elves." he said. "I'm the one who is sorry. You work so hard every year, and you do deserve a holiday."

"We do?" asked an elf.

"Of course." said Santa. "But maybe not all at the same time." The elves nodded in agreement "And maybe not all in the same place, eh Ted?" Santa looked down and winked at Ted. Ted shrugged in agreement.

"Well, it has been a tiny bit hectic." He admitted. The elves looked up at Ted.

"Sorry Ted." said one of them.

"Yeah sorry." chorused the others. "We didn't mean to get you in trouble." Ted smiled at them.

"That's Ok, it was kind of fun having you all here. It's a shame everyone can't have elves come to stay." Ted suddenly looked up at Santa, a tremendous thought had popped into his head. "But why can't they!" Ted exclaimed. Santa looked down at him, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Why can't everyone have elves come to stay?" Ted asked again. Santa thought carefully.

"Erm...well there's only one elf door." said Santa.

"At the moment there is." said Ted excitedly. "But what if I tell my friends to make their own elf doors?" Santa thought about that for moment.

"Ok...." he said uncertainly.

"And then they tell their friends, and those friends tell their friends and so on." gushed Ted. "Soon there'll be oodles and oodles of elf doors all over the world." Santa nodded slowly then raised a gloved finger.

"But you know how much mischief all these elves can cause. Do you really want the same to happen to everyone else?"

"It won't." Said Ted confidently. "Because only one elf goes through each door." Santa looked at the elves. The elves looked at Santa. Ted looked at them all and explained. "The elves take it in turns to go through the elf doors. They all get a little holiday, everyone gets to have an elf stay with them and no one has to deal with all the elves at the same time." Ted grinned, feeling pretty chuffed with himself. Santa nodded his head softly as he went over Ted’s plan in his mind.

"I think." Santa announced. "That, that is a CHRISTMAS CRACKER OF AN IDEA!!" his booming voice reverberated around the room, and he laughed an enormous belly laugh. The elves jumped and flipped in delight. Ted joined in and was high fiving the elves on top of his bookcase when he suddenly froze.

"TED? Are you OK?" came Mum’s voice from downstairs. The bedroom went quiet. Santa, elves and Ted all stood still as statues.

"Err, Yeah I'm fine Mum." Ted called out nervously. Santa looked down at the elves and said in a whisper

"Elves, I think it's time we went home." The elves nodded.

"Bye, guys." said Ted waving down at them. "And happy Christmas."

"Bye Ted." they took turns in saying as one by one they disappeared back through the elf door. Ted turned to Santa when he'd waved off the last elf.

"Santa, I wrote you a letter this year…" Ted began, as Santa reached into his coat pocket, rummaged around and pulled out a piece of paper. Ted's eyes widened in wonder.

"You mean this one?"

"Whoa..." said Ted. Santa unfolded the letter and looked at it.

"Pretty long..." he said.

"Can I see it?" asked Ted. Santa handed the letter to him, and Ted looked around his room at all the toys the elves had been playing with. Then he looked at his letter to Santa and read through the long list of things he'd written down a few days earlier. He then reached down and picked up a colouring pencil from the floor and carefully crossed out most of what he'd written. Ted then re-folded the letter and handed it back to Santa who was looking down at him proudly. "I've got lots of great stuff already." Ted told him. Santa nodded approvingly, carefully put the letter back in his pocket and then removed one of his gloves and reached out to shake hands with Ted.

"Ted, I want to thank you for taking care of my elves." Ted blushed. "And if I ever need elf advice in the future, I know where to come to." Ted smiled up at Santa, then a thought crossed his mind.

"Santa?, are you going through the elf door?"

"Yep." said Santa. Ted looked at the tiny door then back up at Santa.

"But aren't you a bit too b…"

"Nope." said Santa interrupting him and with a parting wink Santa vanished, leaving behind a cloud of shimmering, sparkling dust.

Ted stared in wonder as the cloud of sparkles formed into a long streak and began flying around the room like a magical firework. Round and round it went, showering its dust over all the mess in Ted's room and as the dust settled, everything began tidying itself away. Books flew back onto shelves, toys leapt into the toybox, pencils and pens skipped back to their tins and even the blankets on the bed folded themselves up neatly. Ted stood in the middle of the room watching in amazement as the sparkles and the toys whirled around him. Then as the last book slid itself onto the shelf, the magic dust circled the room one final time before shooting through the elf door and disappearing. Ted reached out his hand as the last remnants of dust fell past him, he felt a tiny, prickly tingle as it landed on his skin and vanished. "Wow." He whispered.

"WOW!" said Mum in a loud voice behind him. Ted jumped round in surprise. "I have never seen it so tidy in here." she said incredulously. "Ever." Ted stood there awkwardly; grateful she hadn't turned up a minute earlier. "Sounded like you were having a party up here." she said. "Who's were all those voices?"

"Oh, it was just me...playing." Ted explained with a shrug, Mum looked at him carefully for a moment.

"Well, I'm glad you cleaned yourself up and washed all that mess out of your hair as well." she said, before heading back out of the door. "Dinner in an hour." She called over her shoulder as she went. "And maybe squeeze in a bit of homework..."

"Oh yeah, sure Mum..." Ted stood dumbfounded, he reached up and felt his hair, the glitter was gone, and it was clean and dry. He looked down at his school uniform, the paint splodges had vanished, his hands were clean and as he wriggled his toes he realised his socks were dry. The magic dust had cleaned him as well as his bedroom. "Awesome..." he said with a smile.

The next morning Ted woke up early and there was an elf sitting at the end of his bed. "Hi Ted" said the elf.

"Oh no. Not again." groaned Ted, quickly looking over the edge of his bed expecting to see the floor covered in elves.

"Don't worry, it's just me." said the elf. Ted signed in relief.

"Ah yes, of course. One elf per elf door." He remembered, as the elf nodded.

"Is it time for breakfast yet?" said the elf eagerly.

"Yes." said Ted jumping down from his bed and putting on his dressing gown. "But no catapulting toast across the kitchen today."

"OK, I promise." said the elf.

"And don't go anywhere near the honey." Ted warned.

"No honey, got it." replied the elf.

"Oh, and you can't come to school with me either." Ted told the elf. It looked up, blinking its big eyes at Ted.

"But I'm all on my own today." it said sadly. Ted looked carefully at the elf.

"Well...maybe." he said cautiously.

"Great." said the elf with a cheeky grin. "After-all, how much trouble can just one elf get into..."

THE END*

*For now at least. But the elves will return...

don't

forget

to make

your very own

ELF DOOR at home so

that an elf can visit you this

Christmas. But keep an eye on them

they can be very, very

naughty.

Bye Bye