A Christmas story: Papa Noel and the rebellious dwarfs

Hi Ho Hi Ho
It’s off to work we go
We work all day
We get no pay
Hi Ho Hi Ho Hi Ho

Papa Noel smiled pleased to see the ‘dwarfs’ go straight to their workbenches and begin the production of toys for Christmas delivery.

‘We will have to produce dolls with faces and hands of different colors,’ Noel told the dwarfs, ‘because Christmas celebrations are taking place in new countries, like Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti where the Bells of Liberty are tolling for Christ, the Savior.’

Dwarf Maria scowled, ‘Multi-cultural, multi-money;
More work but who gets the honey’?

Papa Noel looked over the busy hands sewing dolls and welding wires to electronic keyboards. Satisfied, he once again guffawed ‘Ho, ho, ho!’ stifled a yawn and waddled off to his lodge to enjoy his breakfast by the enormous fireplace.

Just as he finished his third serving of sausages and was preparing to take his mid-morning nap, there was a sharp knock. Papa Noel called his dwarf-servant to answer the door. ‘Who’s there’? Papa Noel asked in a cross voice.

‘Its me, Papa Noel, Peter the working dwarf.’

‘Ho Ho Ho. Peter we are all working - ah, workers in our own special way. What brings you to abandon your work just a week before Christmas’?

‘Joseph has burned his hand welding the video game, Bozo the Terminator.’

‘Just say ‘Bozo’ - it saves time - Only one hand burned’ Well then, he still has the other hand and tell the nurse not to be extravagant with the bandages, we have to keep costs low to be competitive with the Chinese.’

Peter was startled by Papa Noel’s lack of concern. His jolly laugh and merry eyes were belied by his harsh unconcern for Brother Joseph. But he hurried back to the workbench.

Maria, without missing a stitch whispered, ‘What did Papa say’?

‘Keep singing and keep working. Joseph has another hand.’

Maria began singing:

Hi Ho Hi Ho
We work all day
We get no say
Hi Ho Hi Ho Hi Ho

Automatically the other dwarfs joined in.

Just before going to lunch and after finishing his nap, Papa Noel came out to greet his dwarfs. ‘Ho Ho Ho! This is going to be a very Merry Christmas for all the children of the world!’ he bellowed and he began to sing the work song to speed up the production. Then Papa Noel went off to have his six-course, two-hour lunch with soup, lobster and steak, cheese, strawberries and cream, washed down by a fine red wine.

The dwarfs gulped their sandwiches of cheese and ham before the Christmas bell chimed reminding them their twenty-minute lunch break was over.

Maria looked over at the pained, pale face of Joseph as he slowly walked back to his bench. ‘Peter, tonight we have to talk,’ she said.

As darkness fell and the 12-hour workday came to a close, Papa Noel led the chorus with his robust voice:

Hi Ho Hi Ho
Its off to bed we go
We worked all day
We got no pay
Hi Ho Hi Ho Hi Ho

The dwarfs were very tired but they tried their best to sing as lustily as Papa Noel - except Maria, who was silent and thinking.

After a supper with the usually watery one-potato soup and stale cookie for dessert, the tired dwarfs headed for their bunk beds, stopping first to talk to the injured Joseph. Maria was the first to speak, but not to Joseph - but about Joseph - and Papa Noel.

‘Brothers and Sisters. Workers all. We do not begrudge Papa Noel his big meals and frequent naps, his roaring fireplace and the big ring on his forefinger, but his lack of concern for Joseph is not acceptable!’ Maria stopped

The dwarfs were at first shocked. They never heard an ill word of jolly Papa Noel. They were taught and always told what a kind, considerate and merry gentleman he has. There was a silence for five whole minutes.

Peter coughed and stuttered. ‘What is to be done? Can we tell Papa Noel what is right and wrong? He is the People’s Papa Noel!’

‘Is it right to ignore Joseph’s injury today, your hurt tomorrow, our headaches forever’? shot back Maria.

‘Nooo’, answered all the dwarfs together!

‘Tomorrow we will tell the good Papa Noel we want better treatment for injured dwarfs and more respect for the workers!’ Maria shouted.

The next day, before sunrise, the dwarfs rolled out of their bunk beds, picked up their lunch pails and headed to work singing their usual work song. As they entered the workshop, Papa Noel, peeked out the door of his Big House, he smiled merrily under his blood-shot bloated eyes (product of a few empty bottles of wine) and joined the song, waiting to finish so he could jump back in bed. But lo and behold, the dwarfs lined up in front of his house instead of their machine tools.

Shocked, Papa Noel bellowed out, ‘What gives? It’s 6 days before Christmas - the children will be disappointed!’

There was a dead silence. Some dwarfs turned toward their benches while others looked down in shame. All looked nervous and fidgeted - except Maria, who stood straight and tall.

‘Papa Noel, we are unhappy with the way you responded to Joseph’s injury yesterday. We want more concern and attention when a worker dwarf is hurt on the job.’

Papa Noel turned red and then white and then green with anger, outrage and greed all in turn. He walked toward Maria, who neither flinched nor turned back.

‘I want you to know that I have only the concern of the children of the world, and you care only for a scratch on the little hand of a simple dwarf.’ Papa Noel poured his scorn on Maria and by his look on all the dwarfs by her side.

The dwarfs were shamed. But Maria spoke up with serenity.

‘But if we dwarfs with our little hands did not make the toys and toil all day and part of the night, the children would never receive toys, and you, Papa Noel, would be a nobody.’

Papa Noel was furious. ‘I have a good mind to send all you dwarfs back and lock you in your rooms with dried bread and water!’ he roared.

Maria was now angered by these threats. ‘We are not ‘dwarfs’ - we are worker dwarfs. And you know very well there would be no toys for you to deliver if we did not produce them!’

Papa Noel’s pocket spoke before his mouth: it told him no toys, no payoffs on Christmas Eve.

‘I command you, Maria, to return to your room. The rest to work!’

As the dwarfs returned to work, Maria alone returned to the cold dormitory. And while the dwarfs worked all day without pay, Maria was deep in thought.

‘He listened to me when we were altogether. Alone he sent me away’, she reasoned. She went on, ‘Why do we work all day without pay and he works not and gets our pay? Why do we work all day? Why not half a day, with pay? Why doesn’t Papa Noel work as we sing?’

By nightfall Maria had worked out a plan. And after the supper of watery soup, dried bread and one animal cracker, Maria stood up and spoke. And everyone listened, for they felt guilty that they let Maria take all the blame.

‘When we met together with Papa Noel over Joseph’s injury, he had to listen. Alone he walked away from me. We must be together in solidarity to have him listen.’

All the worker dwarfs nodded their heads in agreement.

‘We slave all day and get no pay; we even sing about it. But Papa Noel gets pay on his trips on Christmas Day. We should share the pay as we work away. Let’s change our song, like this’:

Hi Ho Hi Ho
Its off to work we go
We want our pay
Or off we go
Hi Ho Hi Ho

‘Where do we go’? asked Matilda, the smallest dwarf.

‘We stay home, we make snow people, we skate and slide’but make no rides,’ answered Maria.

‘But Papa Noel will be very angry, he won’t be merry!’ shouted Robin, the red-cheeked dwarf.

‘Let it be. We want equality and liberty!’ shouted Maria, who was joined by all the dwarfs. ‘Tomorrow we march to Papa Noel’s door singing our new song and tell him what we want before we will begin to work!’

The next morning the dwarf-workers (that’s what most called themselves now, and a few of the boldest just called themselves ‘workers’) were very excited and nervous because they had never marched together to tell Papa Noel anything.

Maria led the singing but they all sang louder than ever.

Hi Ho Hi Ho
It’s off to Noel we go
We want our pay
We want our say
Hi Ho Hi Ho Hi Ho

When they arrived at the Big House and knocked at the door, Papa Noel was still in his red pajamas, which just barely covered his big round belly.

‘Ho Ho! What’s this? It’s too early to bring your presents to Papa Noel! Ho Ho Ho!’

‘It’s not a present we bring; it’s a petition, a collective petition. And this is what we want!’

As Maria read the demands, Papa Noel had a notion to grab and beat her, but he thought better of it since he wasn’t sure how the other nine dwarfs would act. He listened and feigned a merry look in his eye.

‘And if we don’t receive our pay, we won’t work a single day till Christmas Eve’, finished Maria to the cheers of her fellow worker dwarfs.

‘Well I see’, said Papa Noel, ‘then we shall all be paid in due time.’

‘No,’ said Maria, smelling a dead rat or a lie, ‘we want our pay today.’

‘Okay’, said Papa Noel, ‘after work you shall all be paid in equal shares,’ he said with a twinkle in his eye.

The dwarfs all turned to their work, whistling their new song, and the finished toys flew from their hands into the delivery bags.

Unbeknownst to the dwarfs, Papa Noel was on the telephone calling to see if he could produce the toys cheaper in Africa, Asia or Latin America, where the workers did not claim pay and no Marias were there to teach the workers’ song.

But everywhere he called, they said it was too late, Christmas was only a few days away.

At the end of the day, Papa Noel counted the bags of toys and was very pleased. But he told the worker dwarfs he could not pay because the money was still on its way.

That night the dwarfs met and now they were very angry because they learned that merry Papa Noel lied.

Matilda spoke up fierce and straight. ‘We make the toys. Why should we wait on him to give us our pay’?

Robin followed, ‘He says ‘we’ work but he never lifts a finger to make a toy!’

At the end of many such speeches and more than can be remembered, Maria said, ‘Tomorrow we tell Papa Noel that we shall no longer work for him, but he should join us on the line, or no pay shall he receive.’

Everyone shouted with glee. And little Matilda added, ‘And we shall all share our meals and rest time too!’

The next morning the worker dwarfs appeared at the door and told Papa Noel that he was no longer the owner, no longer ‘Papa Noel’ but ‘Worker Noel’ and that they would produce and distribute the toys and if he wanted to share, he had to take his place at the worktable.

‘Why this is an unholy revolution that goes against God’s Creation!? he shouted and almost fainted at the thought of a day painting (toys).

‘He who doesn’t work, doesn’t eat,’ spoke Maria as the dwarfs marched off to work.

At noon the dwarfs entered the Big House and shared a sumptuous meal of greens and fruits and fish and cheese, while Worker Noel sulked alone muttering under his breath. In the mid afternoon the workers stopped and had a rest for soon their assembly spoke of better times to work and play.

So it came to Christmas Eve and the worker dwarfs decided in assembly to elect four Papa and Mama Noels to bring the toys and share the pay. And the old Papa Noel’What became of him’ He soon realized that if he didn’t join the assembly and join the workshop he soon would be alone and hungry and out of the world’s way. So off to work he went and sang all the way:

Hi Ho Hi Ho
It’s off to work we go
We have our say
We get our pay
Hi Ho Hi Ho Hi Ho

The worker dwarfs produced more toys for more children than ever before. But delivery was most difficult. The Mama and Papa Noels had to dodge the Invaders’ helicopters and bombs in Iraq and the bullets of the Occupiers in Palestine.

‘Woe to the Invaders and Occupiers who deny the children their toys and happiness!’ cried the dwarfs.

‘We shall deny them and their families their days of celebration and they shall be forever off our lists of joyous visits.’