The Dogwood Forest

Have you ever wondered where Christmas puppies come from?
I'm not talking about the little canines that keep up mom and dad up all night Christmas Eve as they try to keep the little puppies quiet. I'm talking about the little puppies that miraculously appear under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning to everyone's surprise.
Well, I'm sure that you have heard of dogwood trees - those beautiful flowering trees that are one of the first signs of spring. No, I'm not saying that those trees grown in the United States can produce puppies. But put them in a different climate with a little unique nurturing and caring,and they can produce puppies.
It seems that hundreds of years ago, Santa flew down to the States with a scaled-down team of reindeer - only Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen - during the spring to see just what he was missing. He discovered the beautiful dogwood trees and decided to take a few back to the North Pole to remind him that spring follows winter, which means it is just three seasons away from Christmas.
Once they were planted, they just didn't seem to do well. Santa turned to his gardening elf - Green Thumb (what did you expect, Brown Dirt?) - and asked him to care for the trees and nourish them back to health.
Knowing that they needed food, and reindeer fertilizer was just a little too strong, he decided to bury a chunk of extra dark chocolate from the Milk Chocolate mine in the root systems of each of the trees. He also used just a bit of lemonade from the lemonade springs to give the trees additional life.
Well, lo and behold, the trees grew into much larger trees that the varieties we have in the States. They were as big as maples and the blossoms were as big as Comet's left front hoof. In other words, they were huge.
But then, the strangest and most remarkable thing happened. About two weeks after the blossoms appeared, they began to turn into tiny, living, breathing puppies. The four petals became the four paws and the center eventually became the nose. And even more remarkable than that is that the white blossoms produced boy puppies and the pink blossoms produced girl puppies. Makes sense doesn't it.
When Green Thumb discovered this phenomenon, he ran to Santa claiming the dogwood trees were blooming puppies. Thinking his elf had been drinking too much fermented lemonade, he went along with Green Thumb just to amuse him. But when he saw the little puppies hanging from the branches by their tails, Santa began to laugh so loud that Joe Blo and Mac heard him from the inner chambers of the Milk Chocolate Mine.
For the first time, Santa could deliver a "live toy" to the good boys and girls. Green Thumb merely clips the puppies from the trees on Christmas Eve so they can be delivered that night.
No wonder Santa needs to eat cookies at all the houses. The puppies eat up all the ones baked by Mrs. Claus for Santa's trip.
Puppies from Dogwood Trees at the North Pole. What's next? Kittens from Catnip plants?