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When somebody mentions Santa Claus or Father Christmas, we all think about a jovial, chubby old chap with a magnificent white beard dressed in special red clothes. Santa, however, is quite an ordinary man for the rest of the year. He has a factory where he works with his elves to make many of the presents that he distributes on Christmas night. Each year, one or two of them go on a training course to learn about new toys and other things.
Christmas, in 1907 could have been a real disaster but for the timely intervention of Santa’s very good friend, Fred Lonsdale.
Santa had taken a couple of his elves to France the previous year to visit a famous toy-maker in Le Mans. It was towards the end of June and they were there while the sensational French Grand Prix race was being run; this race was the first ever real Grand Prix in the World. It was a thrilling race, full of excitement, with enormous automobiles, belching out clouds of oily smoke and making a tremendous noise as they raced, furiously around the dusty public roads that were being used as the race track.
Santa was annoyed by his host, a famous toy-maker, who, in a silly French accent, told him, in no uncertain terms, that the French would vin ze race because they, and their automobiles, were vastly superior to everyone else and particularly the English. Santa was furious, he wanted to explode with rage but he couldn’t because he really needed the toys that he had come to buy.
A French man, two in fact, because each car had to carry a riding mechanic, did win the race, and won it quite easily. The French people were delighted, and while they celebrated, Santa concluded his business and prepared for the journey home. When they got home, Santa went to see Fred. He told him about the race and the magnificent cars, “They were really awesome, Fred,” he said, “they were enormous,” he became even more excited, “ they were unbelievably noisy, they were amazingly fast, incredibly powerful....”
Fred looked at Santa and asked, “Are we going to build one, then?” He said, calmly. Santa replied, excitedly, “Yes, Yes”, he said, “we are; there are some supercilious Frenchmen who need putting in their place, and you and I, Fred, are the ones to do it.” He continued, “Let’s get Christmas out of the way and then build the ‘Lonsdale SC’, we’ll show them!”
“Lonsdale SC?” Fred enquired.
“Yes Fred,” Santa replied, “It can’t be in my name, that would never do, but it could be in yours and the SC would stand for Santa Claus, no one would ever make the connection, it could stand for nearly anything.”
The two men started collecting the things that they would need to make the car. Santa began to neglect his ‘proper’ work a bit; it was a good job that his elves were dedicated to the job and experienced enough to get everything ready for Christmas night.
Fred and Santa started making the automobile soon after Christmas in Santa’s garage at his home; they worked through January, February and March and, by April, the vehicle was nearly finished, it was magnificent. It had big wheels, a long bonnet to cover the enormous engine, a big steering wheel and two little red leather seats. They talked about what colour to paint it, decided that red was too Father Christmassy and chose green. At that point, Santa sent off an entry form for the 1907 French Grand Prix which was going to be held on the roads around Dieppe on the second of July.
The finished car was stunning and looked really fast, even when it was standing still. Fred and Santa tested everything and made adjustments. Fred could not go to France for the race so Santa persuaded one of the elves, his name was Elvis, to go with him and be the riding mechanic. Before they went, Santa left instructions for the ‘proper’ work that the other elves had to do while they were away.
Santa and Elvis drove to the docks at Dover on their way to Dieppe. There were no ferries in those days so the car had to be hoisted onto the cargo boat by a big crane, driven by a steam engine. Santa had been worried about being recognised so he devised a sort of disguise; he asked his wife’s hairdresser, Vanessa the Dresser, to trim his white hair and his beard and then to darken them with a dye. He wore normal clothing for an automobilist of that time, a big leather overcoat, a leather helmet, goggles and a pair of big leather gloves called gauntlets. Elvis was dressed in a similar fashion but he insisted on having some shiny bits on his back and shoulders. The disguises worked excellently, no one took any notice of them.
The drive to Dieppe was quite uneventful and Santa and Elvis drove the car to the garage and booked into their hotel. They had an early night because they would have to be up at the crack of dawn the next day. The race would be very long and tiring; the course was ten laps of the 48 mile circuit and would take at least seven hours. “It’s an awful long way, Santa,” Elvis said; he had mixed emotions, he was very excited but he was also terrified.
There were thirty eight cars entered and, rather than a mass start, they were started, one at a time with one minute between them. Santa was called to the start-line by a Frenchman with a megaphone calling, “Monsieur Lansdail, s’il vous plait.” Santa took his place, another Frenchman held a Tricolour, the French flag, up as the starter shouted, “trios, deux, une,” the flag was dropped and Santa erupted into the distance.
The race was terribly exciting but fraught with danger; there were chickens and even cattle roaming freely in the road, there were quite a lot of people who knew nothing about the race and were terrified when the enormous noisy vehicles thundered past them at colossal speed. Several cars suffered from mechanical breakdowns and the driver and his riding mechanic would work together to fix the problem and get back into the race if they could.
Santa and Elvis started about half-way down the field and set about catching and passing the cars in front of them. They passed several on the first lap and were feeling very pleased with themselves when they were overwhelmed by a tremendous noisy cloud of dust that hurtled past them; they had been overtaken by another car.
Elvis had got used to the danger and was beginning to feel better about the race, he had started to get quite excited and, as they passed more cars and were catching up with the leaders, he started urging Santa to go faster. If you can get a video, or DVD of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, look carefully at the opening sequence, you might see Santa and Elvis in the race.
When they had completed nine laps, they had worked up to fourth place but half way round the last lap, disaster struck; a front tyre burst and sent the car spinning off the road, down a grassy bank into a field. Santa and Elvis did manage to change the wheel and, with help from the people around, got back onto the road and drove to the finish but they had lost several places and were way down in the finishing order.
Santa was the only Englishman and the only English car in the race and his valiant effort was reported extensively in the English newspapers. He and Elvis returned to England as National Heroes. Santa was extremely worried that he would be recognised. Fred was too busy to take his place and there was nobody else so Santa really had to make the public appearances himself. He got Vanessa the Dresser to do a bit more work to his disguise, his hair and his beard but then Fred pointed out something that made him feel silly. “Santa,” he said, “No-one has ever seen Father Christmas, no one knows what he really looks like, there is no way you will be recognised, and don’t forget,” he cautioned, “Christmas is getting nearer every day, remember, you have important work to do.”
“You’re right, Fred,” Santa replied, “right on both counts. Mind you, the elves can cope, they know what they are doing, and what needs to be done; they’ll be all right.”
Santa and his racing car remained quite popular and were invited to take part in all sorts of shows and exhibitions around the country. At one exhibition, a man asked Santa if he would like a job for a couple of weeks before Christmas. “I think it would be a bit unusual,” the man said, “I would like you to pretend to be Father Christmas and greet the customers in my department store, we could get you a red coat and trousers, you could have fur lined boots and hat and we could get your beard bleached.”
Santa laughed, he thought it was funny but he said that he really didn’t have the time, he had important things to do. The businessman was very persistent and eventually got Santa to agree. Fred and the elves were very cross; they were disappointed with him and said so. Santa claimed that he had no choice but to agree and promised to work extra hard with them to make sure that everything was ready for Christmas Eve.
Santa had finished his work at the big store by six o’clock each day and then he rushed home and spent several hours back at his factory. On Christmas Eve, he was particularly keen to get home quickly and, as soon as the shop shut he changed his clothes and rushed to his car. It was getting to be real Christmas weather, it had started to snow. The Store owner, however, was waiting for him and said, “Come up to my office, Old Chap; you have done an excellent job and I’ve got a little something for you.” Santa, again, could not refuse and it was almost an hour later when he was able to set off home. He was in a hurry and it was dark and the snow was falling quite heavily.
Santa drove as fast as he could, he drove as fast as he had done in the race in France. He was going very quickly as he came to a tight bend in the road and, as he hurtled around it, he felt the car begin to slide; he couldn’t control it and it kept sliding off the road. The automobile crashed through a fence and down a grassy slope into a muddy ditch, where it came to a standstill. Santa was stranded, he could not drive out of the ditch, his wheels kept spinning.  There were no such things as mobile phones in those days, in fact there were no phones at all so Santa was stranded, miles from home on Christmas Eve when he should have been at home, eating his dinner and getting ready for the most important night of the year.
Meanwhile, back at Santa’s house, everyone was getting very concerned about the missing Father Christmas; by half-past eight, the elves began to wonder what to do. By nine o’clock, Santa’s wife said that his dinner was ruined, it had been in the oven for far too long. Fred decided to go out and look for him and suggested that the elves make sure that everything was ready. “Make sure that the reindeer are okay and get them ready to be hitched up when he comes; the sleigh’s all loaded but check that as well.” An hour later they were really worried, Fred had not returned and there was no sign of Santa. “He should be on his way, by now,” one of the elves said, “If he isn’t on his way soon, he will still be delivering presents while the children are getting up in the morning.”
Mrs. Claus was also very worried, “It’s not like my Santa,” she said, “he’s always so reliable, where can he be?” She then asked, “Would it be possible for you elves to do it?” They all agreed that it would NOT be possible. The time was ticking by relentlessly and there was still no sign of Father Christmas.
At eleven o’clock, Mrs. Claus made a decision; she gathered the elves around her and told them, quite emphatically, that someone had to make the deliveries. “If those presents aren’t in the stockings or by the tree by six o’clock in the morning,” she said, “there will be the biggest catastrophe imaginable. You two,” she said pointing to the two foreman elves, “will have to do it and you must do it now. Get your warm clothes on, and while you are doing that, you others get the reindeer harnessed to the sleigh.
Meanwhile, Fred had driven all the way back to the department store and had not seen any sign of his old friend Santa; he turned round and started driving back home. At the same time, Santa had given up trying to get his racing car out of the stream, he stumbled back onto the snow-covered road and started walking home. Fred was now driving quite slowly looking over all the hedges and walls, increasingly more worried about what had happened to Santa. Eventually Fred saw a man trudging along the road in front of him and, as he got nearer, he realised that it was Santa.
Both men were cold and Santa was exhausted but they were delighted to see each other, climbed aboard Fred’s car and drove home as quickly as they could. They arrived back at Santa’s place just as the two elves were starting out on their journey. The elves stopped, Fred stopped and there was a great hullabaloo, everyone was rushing about and there was a lot of shouting. Santa Claus’ wife hugged her husband with tears in her eyes; he said, “No time for that now, love, I’ve got work to do.” She wasn’t pleased by that but helped him change into his Santa suit.
It was only a few minutes later that Santa set of, heading out to the first houses on his list. Fred Lonsdale had found Santa Claus just in time to save Christmas for all the good little boys and girls,
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