Rusty is questing!
Episode 1/29: Tinsel was so proud to be wearing her new scarf. A graduation gift from Rudolf, no less! To mark Tinsel's progress from reindeer kindy to reindeer Santa Sleigh School! Tinsel was determined to practice as much as possible, so that she would do herself and Rudolf proud, so she promised herself that she would stay awake all night to practice, if that's what it took to be Santa's best ever reindeer trainee? And if not quite the best ever, then a close second to Rudolf himself, for Tinsel would never debate that Rudolf was and will probably always be Santa's best ever reindeer trainee!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 2/29: And so it came to pass...night after night...that Tinsel snuck surreptitiously out of the barn while all of the other little reindeer trainees were sleeping, just to practice her sleigh pulling skills. And she thought she was improving? But the sleigh felt especially heavy one night, and try as she might, Tinsel couldn't get it to budge, even an inch! Tinsel wondered if she was getting weak from lack of sleep, or if Santa had hidden a sack of potatoes in the little training sleigh...?

Rusty is questing!
Episode 3/29: Tinsel was nigh on ready to give up, after trying so hard to pull the sleigh, and barely able to move it an inch! But she took a deep breath, centred her little self, and tried one more time. Wheeeeeee! Tinsel was airborne! At last! But somepet was cutting zzzzzzzz's in her empty sleigh??? Did Santa snowaway, err stowaway, on board? With a glance over her shoulder, Tinsel confirmed that it was Rusty asleep in the sleigh. No biggie! They'd be back at the barn before Rusty even woke up, as long as Tinsel could remember how to land the sleigh... but... the reindeer trainees' lesson on How to Land a Sleigh was actually scheduled for tomorrow... Houston, we have a problem!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 4/29: So, just to recap, we have a snowaway err stowaway on board. And the maelstrom created by the polar vortex emanating from the Northern Orb is no less than the crisis associated with your father-in-law taking his false teeth out before he goes to bed and forgetting where he put them! But Tinsel remains calm. A sure indication that she is in shock or she is suffering from lockjaw! On the one hand, Tinsel is still riding the waves of euphoria from realising that she really CAN fly! On the other hand, Tinsel has lost all sense of where and when she is flying. This is probably not a good thing? Is it?

Rusty is questing!
Episode 5/29: So Tinsel manages to land the reindeer training sleigh without too much difficulty, unless you count runners breaking off the sleigh, and the snowaway err stowaway Rusty being unceremoniously tossed out on their tush? No biggie! The sun is shining, and Tinsel is still in one piece. Rusty is also probably still in one piece, thinks Tinsel, wondering to herself if Rusty was always that ugly? But Tinsel quickly reminds herself to suppress that uncharitable thought! As they do seem to have soft landed in a very pretty sunny place?

Rusty is questing!
Episode 6/29: Oh, thinks Tinsel! What an awesome place to visit! Santa would love this place! There are friendly penguins, and these funny little fluffy dudes bringing us cordial and gingerbreads, even if one of them seems to be eating one of the gingerbreads they brought for us? A local custom perhaps? To prove that the gingerbread isn't poisoned? How thoughtful! Maybe I will have time to have a chat with them before Santa rescues me? ...unfortunately Rusty shares neither Tinsel's optimism nor Tinsel's belief in Santa...

Rusty is questing!
Episode 7/29: The little reindeer Tinsel's tales about Santa and about Christmas have gotten the cheerlings thinking... They wonder if it might be possible to bring Christmas to the South Pole? And they begin to imagine what preparations they could make? For Tinsel is adamant that those who don't believe, won't receive!
The cheerlings have had plenty of time to explore the South Pole, especially the old abandoned research stations and weather stations, so the little white cheerling starts thinking about using the contents of some old boxes and crates they found stashed away in the back of a dusty old closet...

Rusty is questing!
Episode 8/29: While Rusty is enjoying an afternoon nana nap, the little South Pole pets quietly ask for Tinsel's help with something that has been troubling them greatly? For the dusty box of old wrapping paper wasn't the only thing the little pets had found in the abandoned research station. They also seem to have found the skin of some kind of dead pet, with a very strong musky odour, shoved into a box?
So it is with some trepidation that Tinsel follows her little South Pole friends to the place where they dragged the box, hoping that Tinsel would help them to give the remains a decent burial...

Rusty is questing!
Episode 9/29: With great trepidation, Tinsel opened the lid on the box, unsure what to expect? But Tinsel burst out laughing as soon as she realised what the box contained - bits and pieces of some old Santa costumes! Tinsel quickly explained faux fur to her little South Pole friends, and they all began pulling the costume pieces out of the box to play with! Obviously most of these costume pieces were designed with a somewhat bigger Santa in mind than these little pets, but they still had lots of fun playing dress up!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 10/29: Tinsel was especially pleased, because this meant they could add a Santa to their South Pole Christmas celebrations! When the real Santa is a long long way away, a pretend Santa is the next best thing, isn't it? But it would need to be somepet that fitted into the costume pieces a little better than Tinsel or her South Pole friends...
But just as the little pets were discussing the possibility of waking Rusty up and asking them to dress up as Santa, a big fat old walrus waddled up to the team. This surprised Tinsel, because that big old walrus was almost as far away from home as Tinsel herself was! In a gruff gravely old voice the walrus informed the little pets that he was holidaying at the South Pole with his seal cousins, to escape the cold northern hemisphere winter!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 11/29: With the promise of an endless supply of gingerbread cookies, the big old walrus agreed to play Santa for the little pets! And so it came to pass that the walrus invited the little pets to dress him up in their Santa costume pieces, and he modestly accepted their assurances that he was an especially debonaire Santa!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 12/29: Tinsel is delighted when her new little friends take her to an abandoned research station to check out the dusty old boxes and crates filled with gift wrap and Christmas decorations! Hoping to lure Santa to the South Pole, by cleverly creating all of the commercial trappings of Christmas, Tinsel teaches Rusty and the little South Pole pets all about everypet's favourite Christmas past time - wrapping all of the gifts!
Oi! Tinsel! You're not doing a very good job of looking thrilled about this little task!!!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 13/29: Tinsel is most impressed when her little South Pole friends show a real aptitude for the fiddly work of wrapping, sticking down and tying ribbons. Maybe flippers and fingers do have a small advantage over hooves (but only on this particular occasion!)? Meanwhile, Rusty thinks that Tinsel has given Rusty the most important job of all. Colour coordination! Because each of the gift boxes the little South Pole pets found has its own particular lid, and it just wouldn't do to mix them up!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 14/29: As the gift wrapping extends late into the afternoon, Tinsel and her little South Pole friends begin to weary... Tinsel wonders how Rusty is faring, because they haven't heard a peep out of Rusty for quite some time? What none of them realise is that Rusty tired of wrapping gifts fairly early on, and simply tossed the gift out of the big blue box behind them, climbed inside, and pulled the lid down, to take a well deserved nap, in Rusty's humble opinion!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 15/29: Tinsel and her South Pole friends finish wrapping the last of their little gifts, piling them up one on top of the other. When Rusty eventually wakes from Rusty's nana nap, at the bottom of the pile of gifts, they will have quite a job of it, digging their way out from under there! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 16/29: Tinsel is concerned that the very next stage of her cunning plan to bring Christmas to the South Pole might not be achievable? Rusty asks Tinsel why she is looking so forlorn, and Tinsel explains that her next task is to find a Christmas tree to decorate! On a barren icy continent, where she hasn't espied anything growing yet!!?
Not one to mess around, Rusty suggests they all take a stroll, and check out some of the more rocky areas, where there might very well be volcanic soil and secret lakes hidden deep within the driven snow!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 17/29: And so it comes to pass that our little group of friends is searching high and low, under and behind, snow covered rocks and meteorites. And searching, and searching, and searching... Valiantly hoping that, if there is even one tree growing anywhere on the antarctic continent, they will be clever enough to find it!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 18/29: Those who don't believe don't received, whispers Tinsel quietly to herself, just before the little penguin lets out an almighty drawn out H-O-N-K-!, flapping his flippers like his tail feathers are on fire! The cheerlings quickly begin scooping snow away from whatever it is that the little penguin has found, as Tinsel watches on mesmerised...

Rusty is questing!
Episode 19/29: Rusty races over to help the little pets clear away the rest of the snow, revealing the most beautiful tree any of the little pets have ever seen in their young lives! And this isn't too hard for the South Pole pets, who have only ever seen one other tree before in their lives, and that was a big fake shiny green one!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 20/29: In her heart of hearts, Tinsel has always associated Santa with Christmas, so she is sure that Santa will find them at the South Pole, just so long as they can make the South Pole look a lot like Christmas! In her limited experience, Tinsel sees Christmas in terms of decorations, presents, a Christmas Tree and Santa, of course! The trick will be to make them all come together at the South Pole in time for Christmas?
But as Tinsel has been taught at Santa's reindeer school, just take one step at a time. So for this step, Tinsel has convinced Rusty and the little South Pole pets to come on a scavenger hunt with her, searching for Christmas decorations!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 21/29: It doesn't take Tinsel and co very long to stumble upon a treasure trove of Christmas ornaments in a valley, half buried in snow. The little cheerlings explain to Tinsel and Rusty that the scientists at one of the research stations once had an outpost here, and they put up a big fake shiny green tree and hung pretty baubles off of it. Some sort of science experiment to see how strong the katabatic winds were, perhaps? But the wind carried the big fake shiny green tree clean away, spilling the pretty baubles off it onto the snow... Tinsel doesn't recall ever having tasted the new leaves or shoots off a big fake shiny green tree before, but she's delighted nonetheless, and prances around, proudly displaying one of the pretty baubles on her antler!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 22/29: Tinsel and co quickly begin sifting through the snow, digging up and collecting as many baubles as they can carry! Tinsel is rather proud of her South Pole friends, who are doing an amazing job, given their lack of experience at scavenger hunts!
Rusty also starts digging frantically, sending snow flying everywhere, wondering if there might be other treasures buried here, like that elusive FS Swamp Tree Rusty has always wanted?
Tinsel looks worriedly at Rusty, realising that she doesn't really know much about Rusty, and wondering if Rusty could be suffering from some sort of snow malady, like an antarctic hysteria perhaps?

Rusty is questing!
Episode 23/29: Tinsel and co make a big pile from all of the little baubles they have found, and sit around the baubles admiring their pretty colours and patterns. Tinsel and the South Pole pets decide to leave Rusty to their digging, knowing that Rusty will rejoin their little group when Rusty feels the urge for another gingerbread cookie!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 24/29: After dusting off and polishing all of the old ornaments the cheerlings and the little penguin had found near an abandoned research station, wrapping some little gifts for one another, finding a tree hidden beneath the snow, and choosing a pet to wear what remained of the old Santa costume, Tinsel declared it was time to decorate their Christmas tree!
Even though Tinsel was too young to have ever helped decorate a Christmas tree herself, and she really really really wanted to decorate this one, Tinsel stood back and supervised while Rusty and her new friends decorated their own beautiful tree! With the innate wisdom of the very young and the very innocent, Tinsel understood instinctively that if she wanted Rusty and her friends to believe in Christmas the way that she did, they had to create Christmas for themselves...

Rusty is questing!
Episode 25/29: After decorating their very own Christmas tree, Tinsel had one last Christmas activity planned for her new friends. A nativity play! Tinsel's new friends all chose their roles for the play, and joyfully enacted their own little play on the night before Christmas, using the abandoned research station for a stable.
Although Tinsel didn't know the whole story of the nativity, all of the pets felt the Spirit of Christmas that comes from pet family togetherness. Even Rusty was caught up in the littler pets' enthusiasm, warmly congratulating all of the actors at the end of the play. So it was a happy group of pets that finally began drifting off to sleep, one-by-one.

Rusty is questing!
Episode 26/29: As everypet's eyelids began to droop, Tinsel kept a lonely vigil, singing Christmas carols to pass the time. As Tinsel's voice rose in the pure sweet notes specific to young reindeer, the ice moths were drawn to Tinsel's singing, in a similar manner to that in which their northern cousins are drawn to flame. But poor little Tinsel's voice almost broke, as she came to her favourite carol, dedicated to her hero and mentor, Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, and Tinsel finally laid her head down to sleep, in the cozy warmth of the improvised stable...

Rusty is questing!
Episode 27/29: Sometime during the Antarctic night of perpetual daylight, a strange feeling came over Tinsel, and she sensed that Santa was close by, speaking softly with Rusty. Tinsel rubbed her eyes, then opened and closed them a few times, before she actually believed she was awake, and not just dreaming! And Tinsel shamelessly eavesdropped on what Santa was whispering to Rusty. A very Merry Christmas to one and all! I have presents for all of those pets who believe in Christmas, and something special for you Rusty, for taking such good care of my precious little Tinsel!
But Rusty took a deep breath and told Santa the whole truth. Rusty told Santa that it was Tinsel that had spread the story of Christmas across the South Pole and brought so much joy into all of their hearts, not Rusty, and that Tinsel was indeed a very special little reindeer!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 28/29: While the little reindeer and the cheerlings were sound asleep, Santa had created a special Christmas present for the cheerlings! A magnificent ice castle, where the cheerlings could store all of their Christmas decorations and make gifts for all of their South Pole friends for many Christmases to come!

Rusty looked on in awe, secretly wishing they had an ice castle of their very own, to use in their PnF Art!

And so it came to pass that wise old Santa already knew that Rusty had been a good little pet all year long, and Santa had had a busy night creating not just one, but two ice castles, so Santa was able to grant Rusty's secret Christmas wish on the spot, by gifting Rusty an ice castle of their very own!

Rusty is questing!
Episode 29/29: Having distributed his sack of gifts, bid farewell to Rusty, and left the Cheerlings to settle into their new home, Santa hitched up his team of reindeer, and took to the skies... closely followed by his errant little Tinsel, pulling the newly repaired practice sleigh that Santa needed for training the younger reindeer.
As the visitors pulled away from the South Pole, and its perpetual Summer sunlight, night began to fall, filling the sky with stars, and revealing the Northern Twilight Orb in all its splendour, to guide Santa home...
And as Santa disappeared into the sky, Rusty heard the faint echo of Santa's voice bouncing off the ice:

Ho Ho Ho, and Merry Christmas one and all! And Rusty, don't forget to race on home to swap places with another pet, as I'm sure that another one of my young reindeer will need help too!