"Pop Goes The Weasel" - A Sabrina Christmas Tale

Hello, everybody!  Welcome to the PEP CULTURE ADVENT CALENDAR!

This is Day #1 of 25 special holiday Archie favourites that I have picked out especially for you.  These classic holiday tales are from various eras and time periods of Archie gone by that really made an impact on me when I was growing up, and remain some of my all-time favourites.  I really hope that these stories spark memories for you too, and that if you've never read any of these stories before, that they will become some of your favourites as well.

In fact, for the first weekend of the holiday story kickoff, we're going to be doing a little bit of a theme.  Both tales will feature a wolf in sheep's clothing trying to cause mischief and heartache for children during the Christmas season, and Archie and his friends trying to come up with a way to stop them in their tracks so that no child will be hurt.

Because let's face it...a miserable child is not something we want to see at Christmas.

Today's first tale actually doesn't feature Archie, but a character that made her first bewitching appearance in the Archie universe in 1962, and who in 2018 is still a beloved character today.

I'm talking about Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch, of course.

In all honesty, some of my favourite Christmas tales have starred Sabrina - a young girl whom Halloween seems to be the more dominant holiday in her household.  There's just something about the way that the tales have been written that make them stand out.  And don't be surprised if you see at least one more Sabrina tale pop up in this advent calendar.

This tale originally appeared in "Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch #77", and it's a bit of a rare story because I only have ever seen it reprinted once.  And I'm not sure why that is because it's a really good concept for a story - unless of course the reason they don't is because the bad guy in this tale is a department store Santa Claus.

Anyway, the story is called "Pop Goes The Weasel", and it will become clear as to why this Santa will likely end up on the real Santa's naughty list.

The story begins with Sabrina watching the children sitting on Santa's knee, and her getting feelings of joy upon how the children love Santa Claus.  I have to admit when I was a little kid, sitting on Santa's knee at the mall was a really fun experience...and hey, we got candy canes at the end so it was totally worth it.

This department store seems to go one step further, and each child that visited Santa Claus received a free balloon!  Wow, that's quite generous.  And of course, the kids love the idea of getting a balloon from Santa Claus himself.  I sure hope that the elves didn't strain their lungs too much blowing those up.

However, there's trouble afoot within the store.  Sabrina compliments a little boy on the bright red balloon that he just received from Santa and no sooner does she do this that the balloon the boy is holding pops, leaving him upset.

Soon after, a little girl's balloon also breaks...as do the balloons of at least four other children within the time frame of thirty seconds.  Now, one occasional bad balloon popping...okay.  But six in a row?  Something's not right here.

Sabrina decides to pay a visit to the manager of the store, and suggests that there might be something wrong with the balloon supply.  The rubber in them might be faulty, or the elves might have put in too much helium.  To Sabrina's frustration however, the manager stands by their balloons, insisting that it was not their fault and that the children must be destructive creatures who can't stand nice things.

Sabrina has no choice but to believe the manager, but she still thinks that something is going on.  Too many balloons are being broken for it to simply be a coincidence, and we know that most of the kids that have gotten them love the balloons because they were a gift from Santa.  Sabrina goes back to the Santa display, and watches the kids interacting with Santa...and also watches as the balloons of each of the kids that visit with him explode within SECONDS.

Now, Sabrina, being a teen-age witch can always seem to tell when she is in the presence of another witch or warlock.  There are certain hand gestures and movements that they make when they are casting spells that even the average witch in training can spot.  And Sabrina always notices that just before the balloons burst, Santa wiggles his pinkie finger.

Yep...our department store Santa is a sneaky warlock, determined to ruin the Christmas spirit for hundreds of children in the store.  And it makes Sabrina - a witch who has a heart filled with Christmas spirit - very angry.

But Sabrina is inside of a gigantic department store.  It would be very difficult for her to teach our resident Bad Santa a lesson without accidentally exposing herself to be a witch.  Difficult, but not impossible.

The balloons themselves are the key to Sabrina exposing the phony Santa for who he is.  She conjures up a quick spell and with one swish of her hand causes all of the balloons in the store to simultaneously burst!  Wow, just kill Christmas for everyone, Sabrina!

But clever Sabrina has added a little something extra amidst the shreds of multicoloured latex.  For she has conjured up a spell that added a five dollar coupon in each balloon - which could be used to select any toy in the store valued up to that dollar amount!  Now, how's that for a way to say Merry Christmas?

And before you go thinking that five dollars doesn't seem like a lot of money...keep in mind that this story was released during the Christmas season of 1982 - when comic books were only worth sixty cents.  That coupon could provide hundreds of ideas for the kids to enjoy!

The kids are ecstatic about the toy coupons, and Sabrina takes pleasure in knowing that her little trick has restored the faith of all of those kids who were disappointed by the Santa Claus that tried to puncture their dreams.  Do you want to know who ISN'T happy with this?  The sour puss manager.  After all, the balloons were only worth a few cents.  But hundreds of five dollar toys?  That doesn't bode well for the potential profits of the department store.  Santa is fired and shown the door.

And Sabrina offers him a balloon as a consolation prize...or rubbing salt in the wound.  You decide.

I absolutely love this tale because it shows just how kind-hearted Sabrina really is.  She genuinely wanted to spread joy to the children, and tried to restore their faith in Santa.  Oh, and she also exposed a warlock's evil scheme and unintentionally embarrassed a stuck up old manager in the process, which I consider extra frosting on the Christmas cupcake.

Again, this story is very hard to find, as I can only recall one other instance in which it was featured - Betty and Veronica Double Digest #17.  With a cover that ironically features Veronica popping Betty's thought balloon.  I wonder if that makes Veronica a bad Santa too?  Who can say?

Coming up in Day #2 - the first of a couple of tales starring Jingles the Christmas Elf...and how Jingles with help from Archie and his friends try to teach Christmas spirit to a greedy toy company.