By RANDY MELINE

Many years ago, an elderly, white‑haired, bearded gentleman named Joe Claus stumbled upon a brilliant idea.

While sitting leisurely in front of his fireplace with his wife, Sandy Claus, and a few of their elf friends, an unexpected visitor arrived.

From high atop the chimney, there came a bellowing roar followed by an earth‑shaking tremor and finally a deafening thud. Much to the surprise of Mr. Claus, a two‑ton, white polar bear had fallen down the chimney and was now frolicking in the ashes in the fireplace.

Believing this was a sign from his "good fairy," Mr. Claus remarked, "Oh, goody!" Mrs. Claus was also overwhelmed by their sudden good fortune. Together, they were determined to repay the "good fairy" for her kindness.

Since the fairy's name was Christina, Joe Claus dedicated a day, December 25, to her and called it Christmas. Because the fairy had blessed the family with such a wonderful polar bear, they decided to load a sleigh with thousands of polar bears and drop them down chimneys around the world on December 24, which they named Christmas Eve.

Thousands of polar bears are not easily moved from chimney to chimney so Mr. Claus had the problem of transporting his sleigh. He solved this difficulty by hiring eight deer and attaching reins to them; thus they were called reindeer. One of the reindeer was quite rude, so Mrs. Claus named him Rudolph, gave him the lead position, and painted his nose red for easy identification on stormy nights!

One Christmas Eve when the fog was very dense, Rudolph miscalculated and collided with a huge evergreen tree. The sleigh and all of the polar bears immediately decorated the enormous tree with their flying bodies. Mr. Claus, fascinated by the magnificent sight, pronounced it the first Christmas tree.