Like with each of the legendary characters, we like to interview them to get their perspective on how they met Santa Claus and became a legendary figure. The following story was told to our research team by the Easter Bunny and we corroborated the story with Santa Claus.
One Christmas Eve, many, many, many years ago, Santa was on his way to a new village that appeared on his list for deliveries. Since this location was new to Santa, he wasn't exactly sure what to expect when he landed his sleigh. You see, back then, Santa did not fly with any type of sophisticated electronic communications or even helpers like he does today. No, back then, he would just load up his sleigh and head out to make his deliveries around the world to any village that he was aware had children, or in this case, little bunnies.
We cannot divulge the location of this village since it is still the current secret location of the East Bunny's factories where he makes all of the candy and treats for the Easter baskets that he delivers each year. What we can tell you is that this village has thousands upon thousands of bunnies and rabbits that live and work together; pretty similar to all of the elves up at North Pole City. Most of their homes are either underground or hidden within trees and burrows to help in protecting all of the rabbits and bunnies and keep them safe.
This was the issue that Santa was not aware about until he arrived there the first time. He landed his sleigh out in an opening in a field, went back and gathered his sack of presents, and started walking towards where the village should be located. Once he arrived at the village, there were no cabins or buildings. He thought that this was a mistaken entry in his delivery schedule, until the clouds cleared up and the moon light revealed thousands upon thousands of the little holes and burrows.
Santa sat his bag of presents down on the ground and reached inside. When he pulled his hand out he had ten to twenty little tiny presents in his hands. He stood there in the moon light and realized that he had a very big job ahead of him. How was he going to deliver all of these little presents, inside all of these little holes so that they go to the correct little bunny. He thought to himself, he wished he would of brought a couple of the elves with him to help make these deliveries, but then after the first couple he realized that even with them being so small, they couldn't fit into the little holes themselves.
Over and over Santa would reach into his bag and pull out a few of the gifts, then spend time crawling around on his hands and knees reaching inside the rabbit holes and blindly trying to place the presents gently inside the hole as to not wake up on the little bunnies.
This went on for hours and it seemed like the more he delivered, the more presents and holes he would find. "How am I going to get all of these delivered?" he thought to himself, "I have so many more deliveries to make this night, I may not make it."
Santa stood up to take a break. As he looked around, he noticed a large rock over at the side of the village. He thought he would go over and sit down for a moment and relax and think this project over to see if he could optimize his deliveries.
As he approached the rock, he noticed there was a young little bunny sitting there looking up at the moon sobbing. The little rabbit was so upset that he didn't even notice that Santa was there at his village delivering presents.
The little bunny was startled when Santa sat down next to him and asked, "Why are you so sad my little friend?" and he reached over to gently pet the little bunny.
This was the fist time that any human actually showed any compassion at all to one of the little rabbits, so the little bunny was a bit nervous at first; however, it didn't take long for him to calm down and notice the kindness and compassion of Santa.
"There, there, my little friend," said Santa as he kept on petting the little bunny to calm him down, "Everything will be fine, it's ok. What is your name my little friend?"
The little bunny sobbed and looked up at Santa and sniffled, "Peter sir. My name is Peter."
"Oh so you can talk, " replied Santa, "I knew that you could. Why are you out here so sad my friend. My name is Santa by the way."
"I know who you are Santa, I was the one that sent you the letter about our village," replied Peter.
"Well it worked Peter, I am here, why are you so sad?" asked Santa.
"It is hard to explain, " answered Peter, "so hard to explain. Nobody here in the village understands. I have tried to explain it to them, but they don't understand me. Some of them mock me and make fun of me when I talk about it. It's hard for me to eat, and I hardly ever sleep. I'm out here every night, sitting on this rock, starring up at the stars and just sobbing since I cannot figure out what to do and it just troubles me so.... ", and Peter just broke down and started crying.
"Oh, now, now," said Santa, "as he reached over and started petting Peter again, "there is no need for that. I have found that in all of my years, there really is no issue that cannot be taken care of if you just take a minute and think about it hard enough. A solution will come to you and it can be fixed. Tell me about your issue. I will sit here with you and listen, and maybe we can come up with a solution together."
Peter looked up at Santa and stopped crying. He paused for a moment and said, "You wouldn't believe me sir if I told you. You will just make fun of me."
Santa sat back and chuckled, "Oh, come now, I told you I will listen. Just tell me your problem."
Peter took a deep breath thinking about his words carefully. "Alright, basically, I want to do what you do. I want to travel all over the world and bring baskets of gifts and candy to all of the children in the world, and I want to do it around the first full moon after the Spring equinox."
"Wow, that is very interesting, very interesting indeed," replied Santa as he sat back and looked up at the moon.
"You don't find that strange or ridiculous?" asked Peter.
Santa just sat there for a moment starring up at the moon. He did even look down to give his reply, "No, no I don't. You see my little friend, it is written in the Elf folklore that there will be a small animal that will come forward one day to help in bring joy and love to the children all over the world around the first full moon after the Spring equinox." Then he looked down at Peter, "How did you get such an idea in your head?"
Peter stood up on his back legs to get closer to Santa, and pulled back the hair on the top of his head. "You see this scar I have here? I got this about five years ago when I was out in the field there by the river. It was a beautiful day out, and all of a sudden a bolt of lightning came out of the sky and hit me right in the top of the head. It knocked me out for about a week. My parents thought I wasn't going to make it, but when I woke up, all I could think about was doing what you do."
"Interesting, very interesting," said Santa, "yes, yes, very interesting."
"You don't find this amusing and want to make fun of me?" asked Peter.''
"I do not; not at all, and we are going to make this happen... somehow," replied Santa.
Peter began to get very excited. His sadness left quickly and he began to dance and hop around. "This is wonderful, thank you Santa, thank you."
"There is so much that we have to do," said Santa. "You are going to need so much training and learn so many things. I'm going to need to bring you up North with me and we will get this all figured out with the elves. I'll introduce you to Father Time and the others, and they can help us as well. First things first, I will need your help tonight my little friend, and then we need to tell your parents you are going with me for a little while for your training."
"Yes, yes," said Peter, "anything you need me to do, I will do it." Peter was so happy he could hardly contain himself.
"Calm down Peter, calm down, breathe," replied Santa. "I need you to help me deliver all of these presents here in your village. It is hard for me to get up and down and reach in all these little holes, we need to get these delivered and then we will move on. Can you help me with these?"
"Oh, yes sir, no issue, no issue at all," said Peter, "just pull out the gifts, read the names and hand them to me, I will put them where they need to go."
So they began. Santa would pull out a package, read the name, and in what seemed to be a matter of seconds, Peter was back for another one. It was as if he was meant to make these deliveries.
Once they were finished, Santa had a conversation with Peter's parents and explained to them about the prophecy and how Santa felt that Peter was destined to be, The Easter Bunny.
Most of you know the rest of the story, but since that moment, Santa and Peter have become great friends and every once and while, Peter will help out Santa when he needs to make deliveries to small confined places. Most people don't know that one.
