The Little Fairy

December 2009, some of you may have guessed that is almost that time of year again, Christmas, less than two weeks away. A time for all to be jolly, the season of goodwill to all men.

Santa has already began to get ready for his annual trip, but has encountered a few problems. Four of his elves have reported in sick and the trainee elves have not produced enough toys to date for the little boys and girls. Mrs Clause informed him that his mother in law was coming to visit which stressed him a little more.

The pile of 30,000 stamps from children's letters he had soaked and meticulously sorted fell from the shelf and had become a muddled mess in the middle of the floor. So frustrated Santa took time off for a festive drink, and a slice of yuletide chocolate log.

When he went to the drinks cupboard he found the sick elves had consumed all his Christmas spirits so there was nothing to drink. The larder was also empty as the reindeer had ate all the festive goodies.


In his frustration he knocked over from the table his prized collection of Machin cylinder blocks, which in turn became creased and dirty, many were soiled. He went for his stamp tweezers to salvage what he could and discovered the tweezers were missing, Mrs Clause had used them to pluck her eyebrows.

Santa was not to pleased with her.


Just then the doorbell rang, Santa cussed all the way across the room to open the door. On the front step was the little fairy from Royal Mail with a very big Christmas tree and a products list for stamps to be released in 2010. The fairy said very cheerfully "Merry Christmas Santa, a lovely day isn't it. I have this beautiful tree for you and all these goodies ( including no less than six prestige booklets ) to be released next year, where would you like me too stick it".

Thus began a new tradition of more and more cancelled philatelic orders from Royal Mail, not to mention a return of the fairy on top of the Christmas tree.

HO! HO! HO! Merry Christmas everyone