Where Is Santa’s Reindeer? a personalized book with your child as the hero

At the North Pole, on Christmas Eve, everybody was busy. The elves were wrapping the last presents and tying the last bows. Mrs Claus was baking a batch of gingerbread for the journey. And Santa's youngest helper, a child called Sam, had the most important job of all: getting the reindeer ready for the biggest flight of the year.

Sam pulled on a red winter coat, knitted mittens and snow boots, and crunched across the snow to the stable. Inside it was warm and smelt of hay. Dasher was there, and Dancer, and Prancer and Vixen, Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, all of them stamping their hooves and tossing their antlers, excited for the night ahead.

But at the end of the row, one stall was empty.

"Comet?" called Sam. "Comet, where are you?"

There was no answer. Comet's blanket lay neatly folded, and Comet's bucket of oats had not been touched. And the stable door at the back was swinging gently open.

Sam looked down. There in the snow was a line of hoofprints, leading away from the stable. And the hoofprints were glowing, softly, with a faint silver light.

Sam ran straight to Santa's workshop. Santa was checking his list for the very last time.

"Santa! Comet's missing!"

Santa looked up over his spectacles. "Missing? On Christmas Eve? Oh, dear me." He spread a big map of the North Pole across his desk. "Comet is a curious reindeer," he said. "Always wanting to see what's over the next hill. If those hoofprints go anywhere, they'll go this way, into the snowy forest." He tapped the map with his finger. "Can you find Comet and bring Comet home, Sam? We have to leave at midnight, and the sleigh won't fly properly without the whole team."

"I'll find Comet," said Sam. "I promise."

So Sam set off, following the glowing hoofprints out past the workshop and into the moonlit pine forest. The trees were tall and dark, and their branches were heavy with snow. Every so often a clump of snow slid off a branch and fell with a soft flump. The hoofprints wound between the trees, round a big rock and over a little hill, and then, quite suddenly, they disappeared under a fresh drift of snow.

Sam stopped. Which way now? The forest went on in every direction, and it all looked the same.

Just then, a little robin fluttered down and landed on a low branch, its red breast bright against the snow.

"Please, robin," said Sam, "have you seen a reindeer go by? A reindeer called Comet?"

The robin put its head on one side. Then it hopped along the branch, chirruped and flew off a little way between the trees. It landed on another branch and looked back at Sam, as if to say, "This way!"

Sam followed. The robin flew from tree to tree, waiting each time for Sam to catch up, until they came out of the trees on to the bank of a frozen stream. And there, beside the ice, stood Comet.

Comet had found a little fir tree growing all by itself by the stream, decorated with a long, shining garland of silver tinsel. Nobody knows who had put the tinsel there. Perhaps an elf. Perhaps the wind. But Comet had wanted a closer look, and had pushed in among the branches, and now the tinsel was wound round and round Comet's antlers, and the other end was caught fast on a low branch. Comet could not move forward or back.

"Oh, Comet," said Sam. "There you are."

Comet gave a small, embarrassed snort.

"Hold still," said Sam. "I'll get you out."

Very carefully, Sam reached up and began to unwind the tinsel. It was tricky work in mittens, so Sam took them off and did it with bare fingers, even though the air was freezing. Round and round, loop by loop, until at last the end of the garland came free of the low branch. Sam lifted the tinsel gently off Comet's antlers, and Comet stepped free and shook all over, sending snow flying everywhere.

Then Comet nuzzled Sam's cold hands, and the robin chirruped from its branch.

"Thank you, robin," said Sam. "Come on, Comet. It's nearly midnight!"

Comet did not need telling twice. Comet set off at a gallop, back along the glowing hoofprint trail, through the moonlit pines and over the little hill and round the big rock, with Sam running behind as fast as snow boots would go. Ahead, through the trees, the lights of the North Pole stable shone golden and warm.

Everybody was waiting in the yard. The sleigh was piled high with presents, the other reindeer were already in their harness, and Santa was looking at his big gold watch.

"Comet!" cried Santa, and all the elves cheered.

Sam led Comet to the empty place in the harness, and the elves buckled the straps. And with every bell on the harness jingling, Comet took a place in the team at last.

Santa climbed into the sleigh and picked up the reins. "Well done, Sam," he said, with a wink. "I knew I could count on you."

The clock in the workshop began to strike midnight. "Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen!" called Santa. "On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen!"

The reindeer leapt forward, and the sleigh rose up off the snow, up and up into the starry Christmas Eve sky, with Comet running proudly at the front. Sam waved and waved until the sleigh was just a tiny twinkle among the stars.

That night the sleigh flew over towns and villages all over the world. It flew over sleeping houses with warm, glowing windows, and over rooftops where children lay dreaming, and in every house it visited, the presents were left under the tree, right on time.

On Christmas morning, Sam woke up early and went out into the stable yard. The reindeer were all back in their stalls, fast asleep, and Comet was snoring happily. And there in the snow, right outside Sam's door, lay a tiny silver bell from Comet's harness, tied with a little red ribbon.

Sam picked it up and gave it a shake. It rang with a sound like starlight. It was the best thank-you present of all.