They moved only recently, because of global warming, the area they inhabited was almost uncovered by snow, attracting the attention of local mining companies. The world has changed. Christmas has changed. After a conversation with Santa Claus, who started giving the bad children briquettes instead of coal, Mr Claus decided to set an example and change his approach to Christmas.
Thanks to the Cohesion Fund, he built an ultramodern recycling factory NorthGreench, in which recycle old toys. He sent the elves to the Office of Social Policy and Employment so that they could attend free "RE-PAS" retraining courses, where they learned how to upcycle and manage social networks. He didn't want to change the traditions completely. The children's letters to Jesus always had a special charm for him. However, he created an email address where they could send him lists of gifts they wanted. Bad kids who created a high carbon footprint in a given year automatically went to spam. The biggest environmental burden, however, was the Grinch, who tried his best to pollute EcoChristmas. Despite being green, he had nothing to do with ecology. In his factory, he made toys with high phthalate content, ordered gifts from AliExpress and posted hoaxes about the greenhouse effect on Greta Thunberg's Facebook page.
But the most miraculous day of the year could never go wrong. On the morning of Christmas Day, Santa tried to banish the annual jitters by helping the elves wrap the last of the presents in newsprint. He then put on his red coat, which Mrs. Claus had traded him at the swap meet for a snowman sweater he unfortunately couldn't fit into, and headed to the composter to take out the organic scraps from breakfast. Since he wanted to avoid the ozone hole and the time for his departure was inexorably approaching, he quickly made one more run to the barn to deworm Rudolph and the other reindeer with ivermectin. Before leaving, he took the traditional sip of Coca Cola from a glass bottle, winked at Mrs. Claus, and left to start the electrics.
He turned on the GPS and started Waze to avoid the snow cyclones, which were becoming more and more erratic due to extreme weather fluctuations. After four years, he also delivered presents to the United States, which had rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, but this time he had to disappoint the local children because of the thick smog in Beijing. His world tour was almost at an end. One last gift remained to be delivered. The festive LED lighting of the house navigated it perfectly, allowing it to land smoothly on the rooftop solar panels. He climbed down from the sleigh, picked up the last package, opened the skylight, and climbed into the house, which smelled of cabbage with smoked tofu, potato salad with white soy yogurt, and unfinished mead in KeepCups. He crept quietly into the living room, which was romantically lit by certified beeswax candles standing quietly on the window sills. In the corner of the room, in a potted plant stood a stately tree from the forest nursery, on which were hung dried lemons, pinecones with bows, and various fabric or wooden ornaments. He took off his gloves, rubbed his hands together, and strode over to the bio-fireplace, where he warmed himself for a moment. He placed one last gift under the tree and offered himself a vegan gingerbread house. The feeling that he had once again made millions of children around the world happy was intoxicatingly warm in his heart. He looked around one last time and made his way home. All wrecked, he lay down in bed next to a soundly sleeping Mrs. Claus, whom he kissed and promptly fell asleep.
Christmas. The period when we indulge the most, but during which we think about our planet the least. The shopping avalanche is sweeping us away frantically and we completely forget that it's the holidays, during which we are supposed to slow down. It does not take an economist like Santa Claus to notice that we are destroying the planet we live on at a breakneck pace and turning it into one giant rubbish dump. Every day is not going to be Christmas, but every day each of us can contribute in small ways to ensure that future generations will experience this wonderful holiday. And let's not forget that the most beautiful "zero waste" Christmas gift is spending time together with those we love.
- Rudolf Beliš
