Jungle Bells

It was Christmas in the jungle.

 

King Lionel, the lion who was king of all the Jungle had declared that all the animals were to celebrate Christmas.

 

The Giraffes would be in charge of decorating the trees because they had long necks and could reach the tops of them to put the stars on. The parrots and all the tropical birds would handle the carol singing because they were the best singers. The hippos would do all the cooking because, being rather on the portly side, they knew the most about food. The Elephants because they could hold pens in their trunks would write and deliver all the Christmas cards and Lionel, because he was king, would dress up as Santa and hand out the presents to all the animals.

 

But then, unfortunately, the baboon who was the wisest of all the animals in the Jungle, noticed that something was missing from their celebration.

 

“There’s no Snow”, he said.

 

“No Snow?”, asked Lionel.

 

“Yes”, said the Baboon, “You can’t have a Christmas without Snow. It’s the rule”.

 

“Well.. err.. umm”, though the Lion, “Where will we get snow from?”.

 

Suddenly, one of the monkeys who was sitting in a tree nearby hurled a cocoanut at Lionels head. “Bonk!”, it went, as it hit him right in the centre of his bushy mane.

 

“Oww!”, he roared, “Who threw that cocoanut?”.

 

But the monkey just ran off, sniggering.

 

“Anyway”, said Lionel returning to the subject of his Christmas Celebrations, “What was I saying? Oh, yes. Where will we get Snow from?”.

 

“We could do a snow dance?”, suggested one of the elephants.

 

“A Snow dance? Will that work?”, asked Lionel.

 

“Well. I’ve heard that people do rain dances to make it rain so perhaps if we do a snow dance it might start to Snow”, said the Elephant.

 

“Very well”, said Lionel and then, speaking in the voice he always used when giving orders to the other animals he said, “I want everyone to stop what they’re doing and start dancing and…err… think of Snow”.

 

And so all of the animals in the jungle started to do a snow dance; the elephants danced a slow, elegant Snow waltz; the cheetahs zipped here and there doing a fast dance; the hyenas did silly dances which made all the hyenas laugh; the giraffes nodded their long necks and the hippos, because they were too fat to move around too much, tapped their feet.

 

But, though they all danced until they were out of breath not one drop of snow fell.  In fact they all felt much hotter instead of cooler.

 

“No, no”, said Lionel, “This isn’t working. Our snow dance hasn’t made any snow we’ll have to try something else. Does anyone else have any other suggestion about where we can get snow from?”.

 

Suddenly, another cocoanut came hurtling down from  the trees, thrown by one of the monkeys and, just as before, hit King Lionel right on the head.

 

“Ow!”, roared Lionel, angrily, as the cocoanut struck him, and looking around to see who the cocoanut throwing culprit was but seeing no one, said, “Would whoever keeps throwing cocoanuts at me please stop. It really is quite annoying not to mention gives me a very sore head”.

 

“We could get Snow from the mountain top”, said one of the Parrots.

 

“Mountain top?”, asked Lionel, “Does snow grow on mountains?”.

 

“No. It doesn’t grow on them but it falls on them from the sky and, because the higher you get the colder it is, the snow doesn’t melt away”, explained the Parrot.

 

“Very well, Parrot”, said Lionel, “You take as many birds as you can. Fly up to the top of the mountains nearby; gather up as much snow as you can and bring it back here”.

 

So the Parrot did just that. It organized all the birds into a group and they flew up to the top of the nearest mountain and, grabbing up as much snow as they could in their beaks and claws, they flew back down with it to King Lionel.

 

However, the birds beaks and claws were so small that not even the toucan who has the largest beak of all the birds could gather up much snow and, by the time they flew it back down to the jungle it had all melted and turned  into water, pouring out of their beaks and claws and falling like rain rather than snow.

 

“Oh no”, said Lionel, looking at a big puddle of the melted snow, “This isn’t working either. The Snow keeps melting each time you bring it down from the mountain. We’ve got to think of something else. Has anyone else got any other suggestions about where we might get snow from?”.

 

Once more, a cocoanut went hurtling towards King Lionel’s head.

 

“Bonk!”, it went as it struck him, this time in the ear.

 

“aaaaarrgggghhh!”, growled Lionel, flying into a temper, “That’s it. I’ve had enough. Whoever keeps throwing cocoanuts at me is in a lot of trouble”.

 

And then, seeing one of the little monkeys high up in the trees that was holding a coacoanut, King Lionel ran after him, trying to grab hold of him and, because cats can climb trees, the King managed to corner the little monkey in one of the branches and the monkey shook with fear.

 

“I’m s-sorry y-your highness”, the little monkey said, so afraid that it was stuttering, “B-but I was only t-trying to suggest that you g-get snow from these Cocoanuts”.

 

“Snow from a Cocoanut?”, asked Lionel; his anger turning to confusion, “How do you get snow from a cocoanut?”.

 

Picking down another of the cocoanuts from a nearby branch, the monkey broke it open and showed Lionel that, under its hairy brown husk, it had a white inside.

 

“You grate the cocoanut”, said the Monkey, “And it looks just like flakes of snow”.

 

Hearing this, King Lionel smiled and, forgetting all about how angry he’d been with the monkey, he gave him a big hug.

 

“Oh Monkey!”, he said, “That’s genius! You’ve solved our snow problem”.

 

And that is how, when Christmas Day came, all the animals in the Jungle were able to celebrate a White Christmas and, thinking of how the monkey had thrown the cocoanut at his head, King Lionel had a brainwave too; he made the little monkeys in charge of grating and scattering the cocoanut from the trees so that it looked like falling snow.

 

Then, dressed up in his white beard and Santa Costume, King Lionel went around the Jungle handing out presents.

 

To the Giraffes he gave a very, very, very long Scarf; to the hyenas he gave a books of funny jokes that made them all laugh for months after; to the hippos he gave the thing they liked most of all which was cakes and chocolates and nice things to eat but the best present of all he gave to the little monkey; a special cocoanut shaped trophy engraved with the words, “For the little monkey who made this Christmas magical by inventing Coconut Snow”.

 

Then, when all the animals were sitting down to their Christmas dinner he said, in his loudest and deepest Santa Clause voice, “Ho! Ho! Ho! A Merry Christmas to the animals of the Jungle and to everyone”.