An unexpected gift from a secret Santa arrived.

There were no footprints outside. The snow was an uninterrupted white blanketing the patchy earth. Her warm and fluffy bed was now, however, contaminated by the monstrosity of a beautifully wrapped gift adorned with a shiny golden bow.

Fine, she thought. Another pile of garbage to go into the dumpster. She was not taking any favours from any Santa any day soon. Plus it sat on top of her favourite princess.

Grabbing the red wrapping paper, she walked across her room and made to throw it in the bin. This time she would not care, she told herself. But then, she heard a familiar voice.

‘Hey, that’s not very nice,’ he said. Sitting on top of her desk was an old man with a long white beard, wearing a red coat lined with white fluffy cuffs, donning a matching pointy hat, a miniature golden-nosed reindeer snuggled on his lap, snowflakes dotting them all.

Her Santa, exactly as he was five years ago, when he first popped into her room. Then of course he had to ruin everything.

She marched towards him, still clutching the gift, though the neatly wrapped paper was now crumpled. ‘You are trespassing in my room. Get out!’

‘Well, well, that’s some fiery temper. My snowflakes are melting off. How nice,’ Santa smiled, ‘Rudolf seems to enjoy it too.’ Sure enough, the reindeer clicked happily towards her as the snowflakes burned away, leaving the pair dry and warm.

Holding up the very crumpled gift, she demanded, ‘Take it back and leave. I don’t want to see you ever again.’

Santa shook his head, stroking his long white beard like a wise saint, ‘You know just as well as I that I am incapable of gifting you anything. Hmm. That would make me not your Santa then. Ho ho ho.’ He laughed heartily at his joke, ‘Because, you know, I am not giving out the gifts, but I am Santa. You get it? Ho ho ho.’

She would have just thrown the gift at Santa if not for Rudolf sitting there acting like a shield. She had an agenda with her Santa, but she didn’t want to hurt the reindeer. She liked the reindeer.

‘I don't care who gave it to me. Get it away from me.’ She scooped Rudolf up with her free hand and yeeted the gift towards Santa, smacking him in the face.

‘Now, Get. Out.’ She unsheathed the clothes hanger she always kept under her bed and pointed it at Santa. It was a small wooden clothes hanger with red streaks, decorated with ice and snowflakes. The ice appeared to be dented in one corner. Rudolf looked between them, but ultimately settled to snuggle on her shoulder. Pulling sleds was backbreaking work.

‘Merry Christmas,’ Santa said, before disappearing in a puff of white mist. The gift hit the desk with a decisive thump.

‘Urghh!’ She yelled at the unfortunate air, ‘I said take it back!’


It was not always like this. The gifts Santa and Rudolf brought her used to be her most treasured prizes. The day Santa and Rudolf visited used to be the day she looked forward to most in a year.