An unexpected gift from a secret Santa arrived. She frowned down at the present set down gently among the “Cloudrider Drigible Corp.” stationary. The present was wrapped in shiny, crinkly, red paper and tied with a holly green silk ribbon. It was so neatly and perfectly wrapped that it looked exactly like one of those fake presents in the display windows of shops. It looked so much like one of those display props, that Snowball smiled and decided that someone must have gotten one of them from a shop and put it on her desk just to wind her up.  

      She took off her coat, hung it up, and smoothed down her dress. As she smoothed her extra-milk-coffee coloured dress, she thought about how happy she was that she had white fur. As she sat in her chair and her tail slowly twitched back and forth, she continued thinking that those with white fur, like her, and black fur had it the easiest. White and black fur matched most outfits. Gingers also had it easy when it came to matching fur and clothes. She pitied the calico’s because the location of their blotches could really throw off an outfit.

      She reached out her hand and went to pick up the present. Expecting it to be light and empty. Her ear and whiskers went back, and the beginning of a hiss escaped her lips before she caught herself. Not only did the present have more weight than an empty box should, but she could feel things sliding in the box and proving that it was, in fact, not empty. A quick inspection of the tag read, “To: Snowball, From: Your Secret Santa.” This was definitely an actual secret Santa gift to her.

      Snowball was really upset now. As one of the leads in the R and D department, she knew that her department was participating in the company secret Santa gift exchange. However, the whole R and D department knew that she did not participate in any of the holidays. She didn’t do any of the Christmas activities; none of the romance holiday activities, she didn’t go out drinking with her friends while everyone else was wearing green, she didn’t participate in the dressing up for candy holiday, or any of the other holidays. In fact, Snowball had made sure to send messages not only to HR, but to all of the department leads, through the teletyper, every year to remind everyone to not include her in any of the holiday events. She knew she mentioned secret Santa specifically every time, because she didn’t want someone to spend money on her.

      She turned on her teleputer and opened her correspondence program. Her first telemail she sent to the Head of HR. 

Dear Mister Fluffy,

I hope this telemail finds you well. I am just checking to make sure that, once again, I was not placed on the secret Santa list. As you are aware from previous years, I do not normally second guess if you have done so. I only ask, because I have found a secret Santa present addressed to me on my desk this morning.

Sincerely,

Snowball

 

Snowball then got started with her day. More correspondence needed to be sent, meetings scheduled, designs to work on, as well as many other tasks. An hour later, she received a correspondence back from Mister Fluffy.


Dear Snowball,

Thank you for your correspondence. I was tempted to reply right away that I had not given out your name. Because I know I did not. However, I decided to check and re-check my lists, to make sure that I had not by accident. I can confirm that your name was not partnered with anyone. If someone did send you a secret Santa, it was of their own volition and not part of any official company event.

Warmest Regards,

Mister Fluffy

      

This was worse, because that meant that someone decided to do this on their own. It would be so hard to track down the person responsible for the gift. She did not have the time to figure out ‘whodunnit’ as it were. Then she smiled as she got a great idea. Instead of hunting them down, maybe a company-wide telemail politely stating ‘thanks, but no thanks and take it back,’ would work. She quickly started typing a new correspondence that would be sent to the whole company. 


Hello and season’s greetings to all,

I found a secret Santa present addressed to me. While the gesture was thoughtful and kind, I cannot accept it. I do not participate in any holiday, and I feel that it would be rude for me to keep this gift when I will not be paying it forward. Can whoever put the present on my desk come collect it? I have a meeting right before lunch and several after. Therefore, I’ll be away from my desk from about 11.30 to 14.40 and leave the present on my desk. You can retrieve it during that time if you’d prefer to stay secret.

Many Thanks,

Snowball

      

Then Snowball turned her attention back to the rest of her day. She went to her first meeting where she not only showed off her design but argued that she should join the flight team testing it out. She hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, but she wanted to be a dirigible pilot. Her hope has been to work her way up to be a dirigible pilot. She had been grounded so far, but the next step in her plan was to start reviewing the designs while in the air. While this meeting didn’t actually agree to having her in the air, she hadn’t received a definite ‘no’ either like she had in previous meetings. Snowball considered this a win. Lunch and the following meetings were uneventful. 

      When she returned to her desk, the present was still where she left it. She turned her teleputer back on and reopened the correspondence program. She had a lot of telemails regarding her message. Most were from individuals stating that it wasn’t them. The rest were from department leads informing her that they hadn’t included her name in their lists or given her name out to anyone who asked. However, not one correspondence was either claiming responsibility or knowledge about the culprit. Snowball sent one final correspondence out to everyone saying that if the gift went unclaimed by the end of the day, she would open the gift without worrying about not participating in anyone’s exchange.

      As the workday wound down, some of the staff started heading home. Several coworkers walked past her desk and noticed the gift still sitting there. They shook their heads, sharing with her the disbelief that someone would be so ignorant and disrespectful of her wishes and boundaries. Snowball purposefully stayed later than she normally would in hopes that the sender would appear. 

      Finally, she needed to leave. So, she picked up the present and opened it. She was a bit shocked to see a dirigible pilot’s hat, scarf, and jacket inside the box. She picked up the hat and noticed that it was a souvenir hat, not a real one. However, because she had told no one about her desire to become a dirigible pilot, this was a bit unsettling. The only people who could hazard a lucky guess had either been in meetings with her today and heard her vent about it and assured her they wouldn’t do something like that or some of the people who had already sent back a correspondence informing her that it wasn’t them. Still, it was the company’s souvenirs, so maybe someone feeling bad about her being ‘left out’ had stopped by the company gift shop on the way in. Then they didn’t feel bad about not collecting the present. That theory made sense until Snowball saw the remaining item in the box.

The item was a four-week dirigible pilot training course paid in full and reserved under her name. Snowball started to worry that this gift was not a gag gift, not a mistake gift, and quite possibly not a gift from any of her coworkers. There’s just too much weirdness about it for it to be one of her coworkers. This feeling increased into one of the rather strange kinds of joy. The kind of joy that uproots one's long-standing belief in something or belief against something, that type of joy that because it is done this way or in this fashion it seems almost pleasant to have one's foundation of thinking shook than it would in other times. Snowball is not sure, but she is almost quite ready to be a believer. She doesn’t know if she can because this could change everything, well maybe not everything, but a lot. And just as she was about ready to shrink back into the comfort of disbelief, one last correspondence hits her inbox. It is from Mr. Fluffy to inform her that she still has two weeks of paid vacation left and since she hasn’t assigned it by 16.59 Christmas Eve, he needed to add it on to her winter vacation, so she’ll have the next four weeks off. Her eyes started to get misty as she logged off, packed the items gently back into the box, and headed home.

This Christmas Eve as Snowball approached her apartment door, carrying this present, this present that she had scorned and despised for most of the day, she now had it clutched to her chest as if it was the most valuable item she had ever touched. She opened the door and gasped as she saw that her entire apartment had been decorated for Christmas. A couple of presents sit under a tree she had definitely not bought. As she closed her door she smiled as she could hear the faint “Ho, ho, ho!” Because now she is a true believer in Santa Claws!

 

~FIN