Episode 27: Pups Save Christmas! A Very Merry Rescue!

December 24th, 2029

Today was going to be a very special Christmas! This was the first Christmas that Ben was going to spend with Alex. Everest, Jake, Tracker, and Carlos had been invited down for Christmas, but they had chosen to spend the Christmas with their pups solo for their first Christmas together. Ben had explained the concept of Christmas to Alex several times throughout the past week as the holiday approached. Currently, the group was decorating a Christmas tree out front, using items that Rocky had collected as Christmas ornaments. Ben smiled as he hung up some tennis balls, while Rocky had set his catapult up for the other pups to launch several ornaments into the tree. "Perfect shot, dude!" Zuma exclaimed as Alex launched a tennis ball into the tree.

"You think so!?" Alex asked.

"Totally, little bro!" The chocolate Labrador giggled.

"I love Christmas. Can't wait for Santa to get here!" Chase barked.

"He'll be here soon, pups." Ben promised.

"Come on, let's finish decorating!" Skye reminded the rest of them as she dashed forwards.

Ryder emerged from the Lookout tower with a bucket full of the popcorn decorations. The group hung them on the tree- Rubble wanted to eat it, but was quickly dissuaded after Ben told the bulldog that it would make his stomach super upset. Marshall used his ladder to help hang some Christmas lights as they sang their own puppy version of "Deck The Halls". Ben hummed along with them while mentally reviewing the Christmas presents that he had bought for everyone. For Ryder, he had purchased some jetpack components. He had gotten a bunch of tools for Rocky, some steak flavored treats for Rubble, a new toy for Marshall, a pink bow for Skye, a bone for Alex, and a new surfboard for Zuma.

For Chase, however, during a rescue in the mountains yesterday, Ben had quietly snuck out Chase's favorite toy and plush companion, Officer Bear, and brought it over to Katie's pet salon for patching up. In addition to being an excellent veterinarian and a great friend, as well as the apple of Ryder's eye, Katie was an excellent seamstress. She had sewn and patched Officer Bear up for Chase, and the stuffed animal was sitting inside a present box for the German Shepherd to open come Christmas morning. He couldn't wait to see the look on Chase's face. Officer Bear had been in danger of falling apart, and now he looked exactly like he did on the first day Chase played with him.

Skye flew up the Christmas star to the top of the tree, and then came back down to land in the snow. "There! Now Santa will be able to find us for sure!" Skye cheered.

"And bring lots of presents!" Rubble added.

"WOOO! My first Christmas is gonna be awesome!" Alex howled.

The group then went inside the Lookout to relax and wind down after the decorating. That night, around nine in the evening, Ryder was checking the Santa radar with Zuma and Rubble when a big blizzard popped up on the radar. "Santa's heading right into that blizzard! And it's heading right for Adventure Bay!" Zuma gasped.

"OH NO! What's Santa going to do?" Rubble whimpered.

"Don't worry. If anyone can fly through a bad winter storm, it's Santa. Did you put out the sugar cookies and the carrots for the reindeer?" Ryder reassured the pups before asking them about the status of the snacks for Santa and his reindeer.

Zuma and Rubble looked at each other sheepishly. "Yeah… but I kind of tasted the cookies… and Wubble ate the cawwots. And then they were all gone. Alex is getting more." Zuma admitted.

"Then let's get to sleep so Santa can come." Ryder instructed.

The pups attempted to stay up to see the jolly red fellow, but ended up zonking out after about ten PM. Ben was sleeping with the pups, cuddled next to Alex, while Ryder was still up, watching the Santa radar. All of a sudden, Santa's signal vanished off of the radar. This made Ryder really worried. Either there was a technical error with the weather satellites, or something horrible had happened. His worrying was interrupted by a call on the Pup Pad. "Who could be calling at this time of night!?" Ryder wondered.

"Ho ho ho! It's Santa!" The caller answered.

Indeed, it was the legendary Saint Nicholas himself! "Santa… SANTA CLAUS!? Calling ME?!" Ryder gasped.

"I seem to have run into a big storm and a wee bit of trouble. My sleigh crashed, I dumped a load of gifts and my reindeer have gotten lost… but worst of all, the magic Christmas star that lets my sleigh and reindeer fly has fallen! Without that star, I can't finish the deliveries, and Christmas will be ruined! I need you and the PAW Patrol to help save the holiday." Santa explained.

"Us!? Save Christmas?! That's a pretty tall order." Ryder murmured.

"Yeah, I called several Ranger teams, but they didn't respond to my call. I need YOUR help this Christmas. And anyways, I was under the impression there was no job too big, no pup too small." Santa chuckled.

"You're right, Santa! We'll do everything in our power to save Christmas!" Ryder cried out, before hanging up. "PAW PATROL, TO THE LOOKOUT!" Ryder shouted, and his voice was so loud that Ben heard it through the ceiling.

The pups were also woken up, and Ben leapt to his feet. "If Ryder's calling on Christmas Eve for something, then things must truly be dire! Come on, pups!" Ben declared, heading into the elevator and spreading his arms out.

The pups sleepily trailed in, still groggy from their abrupt wakeup call. "Come on, guys! Wake up! IT'S MORPHIN TIME!" Ben roared as the elevator started to ascend, pausing at the halfway point to dress the pups in their outfits and gear before continuing to rise up, stopping at the control room.

The glass doors slid open and the pups walked out, too tired to jump into position like usual. "Paw Patrol, ready for… duty, Ryder, sir…" Chase yawned.

"An emergency tonight? On Christmas Eve?" Skye asked.

"It would be too sad to have the best day of the year ruined." Marshall commented.

"This might ruin more than just our Christmas, Marshall. It might ruin EVERYONE'S Christmas!" Ryder exclaimed.

"WHAT!? CHRISTMAS RUINED!?" Alex yelped.

"Santa's sleigh got caught in the blizzard and crashed. He's fine, but the presents he brought for Adventure Bay fell out of the sleigh! Even worse, the sleigh lost its magic Christmas star. Without it, the reindeer don't have the Christmas magic they need to fly, and Santa can't deliver his gifts to all the girls and boys and pups!" Ryder revealed, briefing the pups on this extra important mission.

"Santa crashed!?" Skye gasped in horror.

"All the presents!?" Chase whimpered.

"That's horrible! Where is Santa!?" Rocky asked.

"Right now, Santa is working on finding the Christmas Star, but he's asked us to help save Christmas. Rubble, I need you and your shovel to dig the sleigh out of the snow. Rocky, I need your forklift to help lift Santa's sleigh and some recycled parts to fix it. Ben can help you with that. Skye, Zuma, Marshall, and Alex, I need you to use your helicopter, hovercraft and fire truck to deliver the presents around Adventure Bay. Chase, I need your megaphone and net to help round up Santa's reindeer." Ryder instructed.

"Rubble on the double!" The bulldog barked.

"Green means go!" Rocky roared.

"Blizzard or thunderstorm, I'm raring to roar!" Alex howled.

"This pup's gotta fly like a reindeer!" Skye yipped.

"I'm all fired up to save the holiday!" Marshall proclaimed.

"Let's dive to the rescue!" Zuma cheered.

"Chase is on the snowy case!" The German Shepherd announced.

"I'm ready for a morphenomenal rescue!" Ben yelled.

"All right! PAW Patrol is on a roll!" Ryder announced as he took the fire pole to the garage, with Ben following him down.

The seven canines took the slide to get to their vehicles. Ben revved up his motorcycle and followed Rocky and Rubble to Santa's sleigh, while Ryder went with Chase to help round up the reindeer. The other four pups would be able to handle the present rescuing just fine. "Santa's sleigh… truly, a magnificent sight. Rubble, let's start digging. We have to hurry." Ben remarked, awed by the sight of Santa's sleigh sitting in the snow.

The bulldog and human got to work digging the sleigh out of the snow, managing to uncover it in a short amount of time. Rocky then used his truck's forklifts to raise the sled off the ground for an inspection. "The crash broke off one of the sleigh's runners entirely. I'll see what I have that could replace it." Rocky mused as he examined the sleigh, before running off to the back of his truck to search for a suitable replacement component.

Rubble then noticed something on the sled. "Hey, what's missing from up front?" Rubble asked.

Ben ran his hand across the design and felt the indentation of a star. "That must be where the magic Christmas star goes." Ben realized. Then the wind began to pick up and the snow started raining down faster. "This storm is worsening rather fast!. We'd better fix this in a hurry!" Ben yelled. With some duct tape and a ski that Rocky had in his truck, they were able to repair the sled. Ben took out his pup pad and calibrated it to track the signal of the Christmas star. "Santa will need all the help he can get in this storm, and I had some energy signature tracking software on my Pup Pad installed. Using the residual energies that the Christmas Star imprinted on the sleigh, we'll be able to find it. It's pointing us in the direction of Farmer Yumi's! Let's go!" Ben explained, before getting on his motorcycle and heading to the farm.

Once they arrived at the farm, Ben and the pups searched the yard to no avail. The Christmas star wasn't on the ground… then, they heard a moo. Looking up to the skies, they saw the star was stuck on Bettina, Farmer Yumi's cow! It was making the bovine fly like a reindeer! Thinking quickly, Ben coaxed Bettina down to the ground with some hay while Rocky snatched the Christmas Star from her side.

They all regrouped back at the sleigh. Ryder, Zuma, Marshall, Skye, and Alex returned from their present deliveries, while Rubble, Ben, and Rocky came back with the Christmas Star in hand. Chase then came back with the eight reindeer in tow! "Nice work Chase. Impressive job getting all eight of the reindeer to cooperate with you." Ben complimented.

Chase stuck his chest out in pride. "I am a herding dog, sir!" Chase chuckled.

"Ryder, Ben, my sleigh looks perfect! And you even managed to retrieve the magic star!" Santa happily said.

Ben gave the star to the bearded fellow, and he placed it back in its proper spot. The magic flowed into the sled and the reindeer, causing them to glow.

"I don't know how to thank you all! I was afraid for the first time ever, Christmas was ruined. But you and the pups saved it." Santa merrily told them, placing a hand on Ryder's shoulder.

"No problem, Santa. Just know that any time you're in trouble, just ho ho ho for help!" Ryder replied earnestly.

This earned a bout of hearty laughter from the saint. "I will, PAW Patrol, I will!" Santa answered. The pups took the sleigh for a little bit of a joyride before Santa whistled, causing the reindeer to return to him. "Now now pups, you've had your fun. I'd love to take you and the boys for a flight, but I really must be going! I'm way behind schedule as it is! Don't worry about your presents, I'll make sure they're delivered to you." Santa announced, before taking to the skies.

As the group headed back to the tower, they spoke about how wonderful this Christmas was. Indeed, Ben had trouble believing it himself. Chase and the others spoke about how much fun they had saving Christmas, before they yawned. Ben was so tired that he went into the Lookout and just laid down on the floor, falling asleep. This Christmas had indeed been amazing.