A truck with skis (with reindeer behind) would be the perfect car for Santa

Newspapers are made up of two subcultures. You have the editors and you have the reporters.

However, the language of journalism is changing and instead of “reporters,” you now have “content

providers.”

You can blame the digital revolution for this strange state of affairs. Once upon a time, reporters wrote “tight” copy, to be able to tell a story with as few words as possible. TV and radio news, and websites, changed all that. Why use one word when two or more will do?

So now, instead of reporters, you have “media members.”

Once upon a time, a reporter’s job was to leave the office and find out what was happening in the world, or the country, or the town and then return to the office to write it up. One time, many years ago, I was walking down a street in Milton and out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought was a fish jump in a backyard. I knocked on the door of the house and the gentleman who answered showed me his fish hatchery. It turned out to be a great story.

But it probably wouldn’t happen today. Why? Because now, reporters get told what to do by editors. A reporter can say, ”I have this great story about a fish hatchery in a guy’s backyard,” and the editor will say, “Who cares? Go cover the mayor cutting a ribbon. That’s what people want to see in the paper.”



So the reporter will roll his or her eyes and do what they've been told. Which is what I did a few weeks ago – rolled my eyes, that is – when my editor at Wheels sent me a note.

“We think you should write a column about what car would Santa drive?”

I rolled me eyes because my editor obviously is not aware that Santa doesn’t drive a car. HE DRIVES A SLEIGH.

But an assignment is an assignment and I am always up for a challenge. Besides, when I was editor of Wheels, we had a similar promotion. We asked kindergarten children in Toronto to draw and colour Santa’s car and we published a bunch of their pictures in the Wheels Section the last Saturday before Christmas. The kids got right into it so the idea that Santa would have a car is not as far-fetched as some of us might think.

Now, Santa has a big job. He has to drive all over the world to deliver presents on Christmas Eve, so size matters. There would not be enough room in a Smart car to fit them all in so I think a Hummer powered by hydrogen might be his first choice.

However, I am not particularly crazy about the Hummer’s styling. I am, however, a big fan of 1930s-era convertibles with lots of chrome so one of those might be right down Santa’s alley. Let’s hope so, anyway.

I seriously considered putting in a call to Elon Musk, who is Time magazine’s Person of the Year, and asking him to dash off something for Santa to drive – the Rudolph EV, for instance – but I didn’t have the nerve.

“Hi, Mr. Musk? I’m a newspaperman whose assignment is to write a story about what car would Santa drive and I need your help.” And he would say, “Listen dummy, HE DRIVES A SLEIGH. I’m too busy designing rocket ships and hyper loops to be bothered by fantasy anyway.”

So I picked up the phone and tapped in the number of my grandchildren. Who needs Elon Musk anyway.

Remi Watson, 7, lives in Kingston with his mom Carolina, dad Lee and sister Soleil.



“I think he would drive an electric truck with skis attached to the bottom,” Remi said. “On the back of the truck, he could carry all his presents. He would have the skis because it would be easier than driving. It would be on autopilot so that Santa could be in the back of the truck delivering the presents.

“The reindeer will be on his sleigh attached to the back of the truck so, if there was a problem with the truck, they can just leave it and continue on their rounds. He would have a charging station at the North Pole. He would recharge at a charging station anywhere in the world and if he runs right out of power, as I’ve already said, the reindeer would take over.”

I asked Soleil, 4, what the Clauses would drive when it wasn’t Christmas. She replied:

“Santa would drive a van with great big snow tire wheels. They would drive around the North Pole to the grocery store and places like that. The van would be powered by electric eels.”

Thank you, Soleil. I bet Elon Musk wouldn’t have thought of electric eels.

So there you have it: out of the mouths of babes.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

Norris McDonald, a past Wheels editor in chief, covers the Canadian automotive and global racing scene for the Star. He is a member of the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.  nmcdonald@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter @NorrisMcDonald2.