Santa's Puppy Read online

  Contents

  * * *

  Title Page

  Contents

  Copyright

  Christmas Is Coming . . . No, It’s Here!

  Up on the Wooftop

  Do You Hear What I Hear?

  A Christmas Tail

  Who’ll Be Home for Christmas?

  No Time Like the Present

  North Pole AWOL

  There Goes Santa Claus

  Good Tidyings for Christmas

  Postmark: Christmas

  A Happy Holiday

  Holly Jolly Christmas

  Jingle All the Way

  Merry Christmas Baby

  Santa Station Altercation

  Dash Away, Dash Away, Dash Away All . . .

  Over the Chainlink and Through the Woods

  Festival Time

  I Ruff a Parade

  Fa-La-La Hee Haw

  O Christmas Tree

  Portal Panic

  The North Pole

  Ho Ho Ho Uh-Oh . . .

  Merry and Bright

  About the Author

  Connect with HMH on Social Media

  Copyright © 2019 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

  All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

  hmhbooks.com

  Special thanks to Carrie Garcia, Lauren Litton, and Samoa.

  Interior illustrations designed by Ilaria Campana

  Designed by Sarah Boecher

  Cover illustration © 2019 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  Cover illustration by Mike Heath

  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file.

  ISBN: 978-0-358-05184-8 paper over board

  eISBN 978-0-358-16426-5

  v1.0919

  1

  Christmas Is Coming . . . No, It’s Here!

  “Hurry, hurry! It’s time to go!” the furry white dog barked. He raced across the tundra toward the grazing reindeer. Snow was falling softly and, as usual, the air smelled of gingerbread and pinecones.

  One of the reindeer, Vixen, lifted her head. “Keep it down, youngster,” she said, peering at the dog. “We’re trying to eat, here.”

  “Right,” added her friend Cupid. “We’ve got a big night coming up, you know.”

  From the direction of the snow castle on the horizon came the call: “Ahoy, reindeer!” Santa Claus’s jolly voice boomed over the North Pole. “Shake a hoof—it’s almost Christmas! Bring ’em in, Peppermint Bark!”

  “See?” The dog, Peppermint Bark, let his tongue loll out in a grin. “Told ya so!”

  “Fine, fine,” the lead reindeer, Dasher, grumbled. “Let’s go, gang.”

  “This way—follow me!” Peppermint Bark cried, turning and racing toward Santa with his tail wagging. Behind him came the thundering sound of hooves, but a second later there was silence as the reindeer took flight, soaring over Peppermint Bark’s head.

  “Go, go!” the young dog barked. “Hurry! It’s almost Christmas!”

  * * *

  An hour later, all eight reindeer were hitched to the enormous red-and-gold sleigh parked in front of the North Pole’s towering peppermint-striped gates. Brightly wrapped packages of all shapes and sizes piled higher and higher in the back as dozens of elves bustled to and fro, between the sleigh and their workshop. The elves were dressed in their usual uniform of spruce-green tunics and red tights, their tiny boots trampling a path through the snow.

  “Watch it, short stuff,” an elf said, dodging around Peppermint Bark.

  “Who you calling short stuff, short stuff?” Peppermint Bark said with a laugh.

  Two more elves hurried into view, teetering under the weight of a shiny red bicycle with a bow on the handlebars. “Faster!” the taller elf exclaimed, tugging on her end of the bike. “We have to stay on schedule if Santa is going to leave on time!”

  The second elf huffed and puffed. “Sorry, Juniper,” he said. “I’ll try to do better.”

  “Can I help?” Peppermint Bark asked Juniper. She had been elected Head Elf this year, and she was taking her job of running and organizing the workshop very seriously.

  Juniper rolled her eyes. “Can you help? What do you think?” she said, peering down her long, pointy nose at Peppermint Bark. “It’s Christmas! That means all hands on deck.”

  “All paws on deck too,” the second elf, whose name was Happy, added with a chuckle. He blushed. “Er, that was a joke.”

  Peppermint Bark laughed. “It was funny,” he assured his friend. Happy was cheerful and helpful and kind, but he could be a little shy.

  Just then several elves rushed over to help wrestle the red bike onto the sleigh, so Peppermint Bark bounded off toward the workshop to look for other ways to help. A package wrapped with a shiny silver ribbon sat just inside. The little white dog carefully grabbed the ribbon in his mouth and carried the gift out to the sleigh.

  Santa was there, tying down some packages so they wouldn’t fall out when he soared through the sky. “Thanks, buddy,” he said, taking the silver-ribboned gift and adding it to the pile. Then the man in red stooped to give Peppermint Bark a rub behind his ears.

  “You’re welcome.” Peppermint Bark swelled with pride knowing that he was Santa’s helper, his faithful canine companion, and his best friend. He was the only dog in the world who could say that!

  * * *

  A few minutes later, Peppermint Bark glanced at the clocks built into the front of Santa’s snow castle. There were lots of them—one for each time zone on Earth. The first showed the time on Kiritimati, also known as Christmas Island, and some other islands in the Pacific Ocean. They were in the first time zone to welcome Christmas every year. Right now, that clock stood at five minutes to midnight.

  “Ready to go, everyone?” Santa called out.

  Juniper stepped forward, her face red with exertion and her striped cap slightly askew. But she looked proud as she saluted.

  “The sleigh is loaded and ready to go, Santa,” she said. “Right on time!”

  “Good job.” Santa saluted her back. Then he glanced at the reindeer. “Everyone ready up front?”

  “We’re ready, Santa,” Dasher replied.

  The other reindeer nodded. Peppermint Bark leaped forward, wagging his tail.

  “I’m ready too, Santa!” he barked. “I want to go with you this year!”

  Juniper snorted. “No way. Nobody rides with Santa,” she said. “It’s just him and the reindeer. Always been that way.”

  “But why?” Peppermint Bark exclaimed. “I could help, I know I could!”

  Santa kneeled down. “Oh, Peppermint Bark,” he said gently. “You’re always so helpful around the North Pole—I don’t know what I’d do without you to fetch my slippers and keep an eye on the workshop to make sure the elves don’t get too distracted playing with the toys they’re making . . .” He winked at the elves, who giggled.

  “Thanks, Santa.” Peppermint Bark felt his heart leap, and he shot Juniper a smug look.

  But Santa’s next words made the little white pup’s whole furry body droop. “However, I’m afraid you’ll have to stay home as usual.”

  “What? Why?” Peppermint Bark cried. “I want to be a real Christmas puppy! I want to come with you and see all the children of the world! I know I was still too young last Christmas, but this year . . .”

  “I’m sorry, little buddy.” Santa patted him. “It’s just too risky. If you got out of the sleigh and were left behind—if I couldn’t find you before the last time zone strikes midnight . . .”

  He glanced toward t
he huge scrolled gates. Peppermint Bark looked that way too. The gates were tightly shut, just as they remained for 364 days of the year. Only on Christmas did they magically open, allowing Santa to make his special rounds. Every year he and the reindeer flew through the magical portal just outside the gates, which led to other portals all over the globe. The portals allowed Santa to visit every child in the world in a single night. But he had to be very careful to return through the North Pole portal in time, for when the final time zone clicked to one second past midnight on December 26, the gates clanged shut. And nobody—not even Santa—could open them again for the rest of the year.

  “But, Santa, I won’t leave the sleigh!” Peppermint Bark cried. “I won’t! I just want to come with you—I want to help!”

  “Thanks, little buddy, but I’m afraid it’s not a good idea. Stay here and keep Mrs. Claus company for me, all right?” Santa sounded distracted. He patted his pockets. “Now, where did I put my list?” he muttered.

  “Don’t forget to check it twice,” Peppermint Bark said dejectedly. It was his job to help Santa remember to check his list. And to herd the reindeer. And to make sure the elves kept working, instead of stopping to play with the toys they were making. And even to fetch Santa’s slippers when he misplaced them.

  The faithful puppy helped with everything else. Why couldn’t he help with Santa’s Christmas Day deliveries, too? It wasn’t fair!

  He watched Santa stride off to retrieve his long, long, long list of every boy and girl in the world. All the boys and girls Peppermint Bark would never get to see . . . Or would he?

  The elves were gathered around Santa as he gave the list one last look. The reindeer were facing the gates, waiting for them to open, already stomping their hooves impatiently. Mrs. Claus was inside the castle. Nobody was looking . . .

  This was his chance! Peppermint Bark bounded toward the sleigh. Quick as a wink, he jumped aboard. It felt great to be up there atop the huge pile of gifts!

  But he couldn’t stay there. If Santa saw him, the man in red would make him stay behind. So Peppermint Bark did what dogs do—he started to dig. He burrowed into the pile, past packages containing trumpets and trampolines and dolls and video games. He dug until only his wagging tail showed, and then he dug down even more . . .

  He’d just wriggled into a soft spot between a wrapped cowboy hat and a large teddy bear when he felt the great sleigh start to move. Next came the sound of the enormous gates creaking open. And then Santa’s voice rang out: “Ho ho ho—merry Christmas! Let’s do this!”

  2

  Up on the Wooftop

  In a red-shuttered house on a tree-lined block in a pretty little town called Poinsettia, Chris Kerstman peered out the window into the star-spattered midnight sky. “I thought I heard something on the roof,” he said.

  His sister, Holly, looked up from her book. “Don’t be such a baby,” she chided. “Santa Claus never comes when kids might actually see him, you know. Ivy says it’s been that way since, like, the time of ancient Norse folklore or something.”

  “Ivy says lots of dumb stuff,” Chris muttered. Holly was eleven, just three years older than him, but she acted as if she knew everything and he knew nothing. Especially since this past summer when Ivy Tanaka moved to town. Now that the two girls were best friends, Chris hardly ever saw one without the other.

  Having Ivy around ruins everything, Chris thought with a frown. She’d better not ruin Christmas, too. She might know all about ancient Norse folklore or whatever, but she’s got no clue about Christmas in Poinsettia.

  He glanced out the window at the houses across the street. Every last one of them was decorated for the big day. The Garcias had strung blinking red and green lights to make it look as if their house were wrapped in a massive light-up holiday bow. The Fraziers had set up so many inflatable Christmas decorations—a pile of wrapped gifts, a giant Santa-suited penguin, a snow globe with a gingerbread castle inside—that it was hard to see their house at all. And as usual, the Oumas had the biggest, brightest display of all, with the house and shrubs and railings and lampposts twinkling with lights, huge hanging baskets of holly and pine lining the front porch, festive ribbons and balloons like those Mr. Ouma had grown up with in Kenya, and even a life-size light-up Santa, sleigh, and reindeer prancing across the roof.

  That was typical for Poinsettia. It was known far and wide as the Most Christmasy Town in the U.S. of A. The whole place was crazy for Christmas, putting on a month-long holiday market, a huge festival in the town square, a parade with floats and marching bands and live animals, and a contest to choose the year’s most festively decorated home and business.

  Chris’s gaze wandered back inside and over to his sister, who was focused on her book again. If Holly didn’t care about trying to catch a glimpse of Santa, why was she staying up until midnight on Christmas Eve, anyway? She even let Chris keep watch from her room, which was the only place in the whole house where you could see the chimney, at least if you leaned out the window and twisted your head around to look straight up . . .

  Suddenly Chris sat bolt upright, forgetting his annoyance. Was that the sound of hoofbeats up above? He opened the window and leaned out.

  “Hey!” Holly dropped her book and stomped over. “Are you crazy? It’s freezing out there! Ivy says she heard it might snow tonight.” She slammed the window shut, barely giving her brother a chance to pull his head back in. “You can watch from my window, but you have to keep it closed.”

  “But I won’t be able to see anything that way!” Chris scowled, fed up with his sister’s superior attitude. “What’s the point?”

  Holly put her hands on her hips and glared right back at him. “I don’t know,” she snapped. “What is the point of little brothers? Because I sure can’t think of one!”

  “Oh yeah?” Chris retorted. “Well, older sisters are the worst idea anyone ever had!” He smirked. “I think Ivy told me that, and she knows everything, right?”

  * * *

  The Kerstman kids’ angry voices floated faintly up through the roof into the chilly night air. Santa climbed out of the sleigh, paused, and tilted his head to listen.

  “Oh dear,” he said. “I thought two good children lived here, but those two don’t sound very happy right now.”

  “Did you double-check your list?” Blitzen the reindeer suggested.

  Santa sighed. “No need,” he said. “Even good children argue sometimes. Especially brothers and sisters. And especially when they stay up way too late on Christmas Eve trying to catch a glimpse of you-know-who . . .” With a soft ho ho ho, he grabbed two gifts from the sleigh and then disappeared down the chimney.

  Deep inside the sleigh, Peppermint Bark stirred in his hiding place. For a while he’d been so excited to be riding in Santa’s sleigh that he couldn’t think about anything else. But now he realized he couldn’t see a thing.

  “I’ll only stick my head out for a second,” he whispered to himself, squeezing past the pointy corners of a board game. “Just long enough to take a quick look around . . .”

  Finally he made it to the top of the sleigh. The reindeer were resting and didn’t notice him. Santa hadn’t yet returned from the chimney.

  “Don’t be such a dweeb!” a voice rang out from somewhere below.

  Peppermint Bark’s furry white ears pricked up. What was that? Could it be—a human child? He had never seen one of those before. He’d been born at the North Pole, and he had never set a paw outside the peppermint-striped gates until now.

  I have to see one for myself, he thought eagerly. I have to see one of the creatures that Santa and I and all the others work so hard for all year long! It’ll only take a second . . .

  Peppermint Bark jumped down, landing with a soft thump on the shingles. At the front of the sleigh, Comet lifted his head.

  “Did you hear that?” he asked.

  “I didn’t hear anything,” his partner, Cupid, replied. “Now, get some rest so I’m not pulling your share by t
he time we get to Hawaii!”

  Ignoring the reindeer’s friendly squabbling, Peppermint Bark scurried to the edge of the roof on the far side of the chimney. The voice had come from somewhere down there . . .

  He leaned over the edge, peering at the glowing window just below. There! Not one human child, but two! Standing right inside, facing each other. But why did they look so unhappy?

  Don’t they know it’s Christmas? Peppermint Bark thought, leaning even farther down . . .

  “Ho ho ho!” a familiar voice rang out from the other side of the chimney. “Shake a hoof, gang! We’ve got miles to fly before we sleep . . . Merry Christmas, everyone!”

  Peppermint Bark spun around at the sound of clattering hooves—followed by silence as the sleigh went airborne. “Wait!” he barked. “I’m still here!”

  But it was too late. The reindeer were flying fast, already soaring up, up, up into the night sky . . .

  “No!” Santa’s puppy yelped, leaping up as if trying to catch them. He was so distracted that he crashed into something solid. “Oof!”

  It was the chimney. He grabbed the edge with his front paws and hauled himself up, hoping Santa might glance down and see him there. But Peppermint Bark forgot about the opening.

  “Oops!” he cried as he felt himself falling . . .

  3

  Do You Hear What I Hear?

  Ruff! Arf, arf, woof, woof!

  Chris giggled and pulled the lid off the gift box. A cute puppy leaped out and barked again. Ruff! Ruff! There was a bright red bow tied around the puppy’s neck, and he ran right over and leaped into Chris’s arms, somehow knowing that he belonged to him . . .

  Woof!

  Chris jerked awake, opening his eyes to the thin rays of early morning sunlight pouring in through his bedroom windows. He sighed. It had been a dream. And not one that was ever going to come true, no matter how hard he wished for it. There wasn’t a puppy waiting for him in the pile of gifts under the tree downstairs this Christmas morning. No way. His dad got the nonstop sniffles whenever he was around animals for too long, and that meant none were allowed in the house. Chris had to be satisfied by playing with his friends’ pets and walking the Garcias’ golden retriever when they went out of town.