6. Santa

Chapter 6

Santa

This wasn’t the first time I’d gone to an event I found on short notice. There had been days in the past when I woke up and decided, hmm, a parade sounds like fun , and then I’d look around for a Christmas parade somewhere in the world, found one that caught my eye, and showed up. But for some reason, this one felt different—too rushed.

When I arrived, instead of letting everyone see me, I used some of my Christmas magic to observe and take the whole event in. I wanted to scope out the area, see where I was going to be stationed, and make sure I was prepared with the supplies I needed. That was when one of my favorite elves walked up to me. Not that I was supposed to have a favorite.

Sprinkles’ presence surprised me. At first, I feared something was wrong. Usually, I do all of these alone—I don’t have any helpers. And here was one of my elf foremen randomly by my side, while I was distracted by the reindeer.

If it had been really serious, Ryfon would’ve been the one showing up. At least that’s what I told myself.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered, close enough for only him to hear.

“I came to help. Ryfon said that there were lots of gifts.”

Relief flooded into me. He was here to help me because Ryfon thought I had a ton of work and could use his help. There was no crisis back home. If anything, Sprinkles being here meant things were going well because they were able to spare an elf.

I kept looking around, pretending to myself that it wasn’t that I wanted to see Dario, the organizer. It was weird how focused I was on him. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen a hot guy before—I’d seen tons—but there was something about the look on his face in that bio pic of his that just… called to me.

Maybe coming was a bad idea. Not that it had been my idea in the first place. But now that I saw all of the kids, there was no way I wasn’t going to follow through. Bad idea or not, I was here for the count.

I looked around at the setup. They had a Santa house for me, which was nice, and it didn’t take long before I realized exactly how I wanted to run this. There were going to be a lot of kids, a lot more than the organizers realized. But that was okay. I had magic on my side. It wasn’t like I’d run out of presents, and the stickers and candy canes they gave me could be replenished if I needed them to be. Being Santa had its benefits.

Once I had a plan in place, I popped into where I needed to be, along with all the presents and my sleigh. I didn’t bring my reindeer—they were back home. Even if I had the time to go get them, I didn’t like having them at events. The kids tended to be a little overzealous in their attention: grabbing antlers, pulling on ears, hugging their legs as they tried to walk. They didn’t mean any harm by it—they were just kids who loved my reindeer. But it was best not to bring them unless an event required it. And if that were the case, I always made sure there were rules in place ahead of time.

It always fascinated me how I could “pop in” to places like the Santa house they had prepared for me and not have anyone notice. I mean, sure they saw I was there, but no one thought twice about the fact that I hadn’t been moments earlier. But it had been universally true for my entire time doing events like these.

I sat down, and the kids started to file in. One by one, they came, many wanting to sit on my lap, asking me for their wishes or telling me a wish for someone in their family. Those were always the hardest for me—when a little one would wish for their mom to be better for Christmas, or their dad to get a new job, or their sister not to be sad anymore. So many heartbreaking desires that shouldn’t weigh heavily on children.

A little girl came up to me, list in hand, determination in her eyes.“If you’re Santa, what’s on my list?”

I tried not to go overboard with my magic, not loving it when parents got suspicious. At least, not modern parents—times had changed, and grown-ups tended not to believe as much anymore. When they saw something they didn’t understand, instead of assuming it was really Santa like in days of old, they jumped to me being a bad guy. No one needed that.

“Well, Emily...”

Her eyes went wide. Using a child’s name was pretty easy because, if anybody questioned it, I could say I’d heard their parents say it. No problem.

“I think that on your list this year, you have a blue unicorn bunny with a tutu, a dragon—a real one, which, by the way, you’re not getting because dragons make fire and poop a lot...”

She giggled.

“...and you want a sewing machine for doll clothes.”

Her head bounced up and down.

“Wow!” She climbed down from my lap without even asking. “You check out. Now tell me, how did you know all of that?”

“Because I’m Santa. Now, I have some more bad news for you.”

“I know, you said no dragon.”

“And I’m also going to say no sewing machine.”

Her dad, standing in the back, gave me a thumbs up.

“You need to be older for one of those. But I do think I have something for you here.”

I reached into the pile of toys and pulled out her present. When she opened it up, sure enough, it was her bunny-unicorn.

“Santa, Santa, Santa, you’re the best!” She hugged me tight, the stuffed animal squished between us, then ran off to show her dad.

Once again, Dario walked by, and once again, I was distracted. So much so that I didn’t notice when a little boy, Vinny, was standing by my leg until he grabbed my pants.

“Hey, did you want to tell me what you want for Christmas?”

He shook his head.

“Do you want to sit on my lap?”

He shook his head again. I leaned in and whispered, “Are you here for the presents?”

He smiled brightly and nodded.

It wasn’t long before I pulled out his gift—a brand-new tractor. He gave me a fist bump and then ran to his parents. That’s when his words came—the little guy was so shy around me, but he made his happiness known with those he trusted. And that was more thanks than I could ever ask for.