December 24, 11:00 PM - Christmas Eve night.

The Animorphs had spent Christmas eve with their families, and pretended they were going to a Christmas eve party. Most of them had to be home by one and two. They would really arrive home by about seven or eight.

"We are going to be totally grounded." Marco moaned.

"Consider yourself lucky." Rachel sighed. "My mom barely let me come out tonight. I'm going to be grounded till next Christmas."

"Think about that the next time you decide to rampage through a toy store." Marco smirked.

"Alright." Jake said, cutting off Rachel's retort. "We have six people. Now, we don't need as many reindeer as Santa does, so I guess four will be good. Somebody needs to make sure the sleigh is always stocked, and someone needs to actually go inside the house. We'll take shifts so that we don't get bored."

The Animorphs nodded.

"Chee, when you get a call over the radio, put the toy that we request on the teleporter and hit the button, okay?" Jake said. The Chee were slumped on the ground, extremely tired from their mad toy rush. None of them had up holograms. Greg and the other Chee who hadn't gone into hyper mode would be doing the teleporting.

Greg nodded, And Jake took everyone outside to the sleigh.

"Who wants to be a reindeer?" Jake asked. Cassie raised her hand.

"Who wants to keep the sleigh stocked?" Jake asked. Nobody raised their hands.

"Who wants to go inside the houses?" Jake sighed. Everyone raised their hands.

Jake grabbed five twigs from the ground. He broke one in half, and broke one half into half.

"Four big ones are reindeer." Jake said. "The medium loads the toys, and the small one goes in the houses."

Everyone grabbed a twig.

No! Tobias cursed. He had a reindeer twig.

Aw! Ax sighed. He got to load the sleigh.

Marco triumphantly lifted the tiny twig into the air. "Marco Claus is comin' to town." He sang. "Marco Claus is comin' town. Marco Claus is com-min' to Tow-wn!"

"Shut up." Jake laughed. He began to morph reindeer. "Let's go people."

Antlers popped from his head. Brown fur covered his body. His hands hardened into hooves. He bones reversed direction with a sick slurping noise. Magnificent brown antlers grew from his skull. Jake was a reindeer. The others quickly followed him.

"Cool." Jake said in a deep, rich voice. "I can still talk."

Marco tied Jake and Rachel to the sleigh. Then he tied on Cassie and Tobias.

"Ho Ho Ho!" Marco said, climbing in next to Ax. "Let's start this crazy trip!"

Rachel, Tobias, Jake and Cassie charged for the edge of the roof. They leapt into the air, and soared . . . towards the ground.

"Ahhh!" Cassie screamed.

"Ahhh!" Jake agreed.

"Up, Go Up!" Marco screamed. "Up you stupid people!"

"I think I would be if I could!" yelled Tobias.

"Remember that poem, Twas the night before Christmas?" Rachel yelled. "Didn't Santa Claus say, 'On Prancer, On Dancer, On Dasher-"

"Let's skip to the 'On, Donner' Part!" Marco yelled. Instantly the reins went taunt. The four falling Reindeer began hovering feebly.

"I sort of felt something." Tobias said. "Some part of the reindeer's brain just clicked."

"Could we please land before figuring this out?" Cassie whimpered. They drifted down slowly in a circle.

"I've got it." Marco said. "On Rachel, On Jake, On Tobias and Cassie!"

"Whoa!" Rachel said. She suddenly powered herself into the air.

"You know, you need people's real names and all that for magic spells." Marco said, smirking slyly at Ax. "Says so in all the books."

Ax growled.

'Let's move." Jake said for about the third time. "We wasted about a minute with that goofing around."

"First house." Erek said over the radio. "321 Sycamore street. A dollhouse, a racecar, and a mountain bike."

"Um, something doesn't feel right." Rachel said as they flew toward the house.

"Yeah." Jake said. He searched the reindeer's mind.

"Naughty!" Jake yelled. "That's it! Somehow I know the Naughty-Nice list."

"Must be magic." Tobias whispered, so Ax couldn't hear. Jake nodded.

"Boy, these kids were naughty. Let's give these toys to the next house." Rachel said.

The Animorphs flew next door. "That was simple." Jake said. Marco grabbed the dollhouse and the racecar. He balanced cautiously onto the roof. "Throw down the bike after me." he said. He saluted, and leapt down the chimney.

"AHHHH!" Marco yelled, scraping the hard stone sides.

"Oof." Marco landed on a hard bed of coals.

Clunk! A lady dropped the lighter she held in her hands. She stared at Marco.

"Hi." Marco grinned, his mind racing. "Didn't your husband tell you?"

"What?" She said. She looked a man who was lying snoring on a couch, a glass of eggnog in his hand.

"Thought the kids were still up." Marco smiled. "He hired me to be Santa."

More like an elf! Rachel cracked. Marco's smile twitched.

"Oh." The lady looked him up and down. She took the presents from him. "Well, thank you. You'll just be on your way."

"But it's ten dollars." Marco said, sticking out his hand.

Marco! Jake snapped.

"Thank you." Marco pocketed two fives and started to stand up.

BAM!

"ARGH!" A stream of profanities poured from Marco as a mountain bike hit him on the head.

"Oh!" The lady squealed, not hearing him. "You brought a mountain bike!"

She handed Marco another five dollars. "Thank you very much!"

Marco forced a pained smile and left. The lady closed the door behind him.

"AHHHHHH!" Marco bellowed into the night. "AXIMILLI- ESGAROUTH-ISTHILL!!!!"

I-I am sorry Marco. Ax apologized. I miscalculated.

"DID IT NOT OCCUR TO YOU," Marco hollered, jumping up and down and clutching his head. "TO WAIT UNTIL I HAD MOVED!?!?"

Quiet, Marco. Jake said, landing next to Marco. The whole neighborhood can here you.

"Let them hear!" Marco snarled, climbing in. "I was just hit on the head with a mountain bike! Does that mean nothing to you? Do you not care?"

Cut the drama. Rachel said. Marco grumbled as they flew off.