Originally, Santa’s sleigh had eight reindeer – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen. This was according to the 1823 poem by Clement C. Moore, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” or “The Night Before Christmas.” Then Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was added. Rudolph comes from a story originally written by Robert L. May about a foggy Christmas Eve, when Santa lost his way and Rudolph helped find the way with his glowing red nose.

Here is our own version of a modern Santa, sleigh, and reindeer story:

There are so many good children around the world today that there is no way Santa and his nine reindeer can reach them all on Christmas Eve. So Santa Claus sent the elves to university to learn how to build aircraft. When the elves returned to the North Pole, the first thing they did was build an amazing aircraft factory beside the toy factory. Here they developed a huge hypersonic jet, which they called the Santajet X-12-25, which flies faster than the speed of sound. This jet can hold 500 reindeer, 55 sleighs, and 55 Santas. And there’s room for an extra deck in case there are more good children in future years who will want Santa to deliver them gifts on Christmas Eve.

While the elves were building the Santajet X-12-25, Santa traveled around the world interviewing candidates to become junior Santas. He recruited 60 junior Santas. They spent several years training with Santa, and now 55 of them are ready to become full-fledged Santas.

Santa also started a reindeer breeding program. And now there is Dasher 1, Dasher 2, Dancer 1, Dancer 2, Dancer 3, and so on – 500 reindeer in all to pull 55 sleighs next Christmas. And all of this was happening while a team of elves built 55 new sleighs.

Next Christmas there will be 55 Santa sleigh teams traveling in the Santajet X-12-25. Each Santa, sleigh, and reindeer team will disembark the Santajet in a different part of the world and deliver gifts to all of the children who have been good in that region on Christmas Eve.

So be prepared, children, for a modern Santa delivery process. You will have to send your Christmas toy list to a special email address at the North Pole. All children who are good this year will receive the email address. If you’ve been a naughty kid, it may not be too late to be good – but you’ll have to work very hard at it.

Note: This is fiction. Everything in this story is from the imagination of our writers and not to be taken literally. It is not meant to change anything about all the Santa, sleigh, and reindeer stories that came before ours.