Next up is Donner. Moral of this story is: Uh, suck up for the first hundred years so you can be King of the Grog Hole? That’s not much of a moral, but it is what happened.

Sponsored by Blogdramedy, each story will be about one of Santa’s reindeer and must be exactly 243 words long. Many other bloggers are taking part. The list follows the story, if you would like to check out other stories and compare.

Donner.

Another Santa-induced name change occurred with Dunder, which evolved into Donder, and finally, probably due to Jack Frost nipping at Santa’s nose and Jack Daniels nipping at Santa’s gullet, Donner.

Donner’s father was a drifter and his mother, it was said, a fallen doe, having given birth without benefit of matrimony. Donner grew up in severe poverty, however he was lucky enough to be the recipient of a scholarship to the Clause Sleigh Training Academy offered by the Foundation for Underprivileged Reindeer (FUR). Donner, who aspired to pull himself up by the hoofstraps, completed his flight training and was named to Team Clause in the summer of ’96.

After one century, he received tenure at which time it took more than merely being voted off the Team by the other reindeer, it took an Act of Clause. Once he held the position securely, he began to plump up and returned to the old neighborhood, dressed in fancy clothing, smoking from a cigarette holder, throwing bucks around at the Grog Hole.

He liked to wear a black top hat, white gloves, a grey cummerbund and a white cashmere coat. As he stepped out of the hired limo, everyone stopped and stared, at the great Dunder, from the old neighborhood. Born into poverty, ascending into wealth.

All the other reindeer fawned over him, and took his coat and hat, and escorted him to the best seat in the house, whereupon Donner declared grog for everyone.

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