Santa's Helper • Luke Hemmings

One - On the First Day of Christmas

My younger sister and I have been stood in the queue to meet Santa for over an hour now and all I really wanted was to get home, make a hot chocolate and watch movies. 

Every year my parents force me to take my six year old sister to the mall so that she can meet Santa, which I find pretty unfair because by the time I was seven I had walked in on my parents wrapping my presents from 'Santa' and my whole world had suddenly come crumbling down. Still, even without Santa, Christmas is definitely my favourite time of year.

I love the feeling of waking up every morning of December, knowing that each day you're one day closer to Christmas. I just love the warmth of a Christmas Tree, decorated beautifully, in the corner of the living room while you watch TV with the heating on. There's something magical about walking through town and seeing houses lit up with fairy lights and walking into shops and everything having Santa or reindeer's plastered everywhere.

"What do you think Santa's going to bring me, Ruby?" My sister, Alex, asks. 

I smile, looking down to her. "Whatever you ask for."

Alex nods, the ears of her cat hat swaying back and fourth. "I'm going to ask for Niall from One Direction."

Same. I nod at her response and chuckle, moving closer in the line. Finally, we could see the dude dressed as Santa at the front - probably now on his thousandth child making them promises he wouldn't be able to keep. Nevertheless, it made the kids happy and that was somewhat uplifting to watch.

As we approach closer in the queue, a tall boy dressed an elf approaches us - carrying lolly pops with a frown on his face as if he definitely did not want to be here. 

Alex tugs on my arm to grab my attention, before whispering, "That elf has eaten too many runner beans. He's so, so tall like a tree!"

I chuckle, looking over to the boy she was referring to. He's definitely pretty tall for an elf and slightly moody to be working with children. I watch him speak to the kid in front of us, his eyes rolling as the kid gushes to their mom over Santa. 

We step closer, so we were now next in line. The grumpy elf comes over to us and hands Alex a lolly pop without saying a word. He gives Alex a small smile before looking up to me, biting on his lip ring (which definitely did not go with the whole elf look).

Once the boy looks away again, Alex pulls on my coat sleeve once again, before whispering (loudly) to me, "That elf was a scary elf."

The boy dressed in the elf costume comes strolling back over to us. I watch him as he crouches on his knees so that he's Alex's height and gives her a false smile. "Look, kid, I'm only here dressed like an idiot because my mommy won't give me money for a new car. I'm not here to sing and dance for you like some sort of freak. Got it?"

Alex quickly nods, before letting go of my hand and running behind my back. I glare at the boy as he jumps back onto his feet, dusting off his yellow tights and adjusting his pointy ears. 

"Don't talk to her like that again, you asshole," I snap at him, although he didn't seem to be showing much consideration. "Jeez, she's just a kid, who's excited about meeting Santa."

The boy scoffs, "Honey, if you didn't realize it's just some fat guy dressed in a-"

"Shut up!" I yell over him, knowing that the kids behind us were listening. I couldn't believe the words coming from a dude who's dressed up as an elf, meaning to be encouraging the Christmas spirit. "You could at least try to smile."

The boy groans before showing his teeth and giving me and false grin, but his eyes still half open. "Happy, now?"

I give the boy a disapproving look before walking off to finally go and have our turn with Santa. Alex runs over to Santa and climbs onto his lap, before they begin talking about Christmas. Santa promised Alex that she would get Niall Horan on Christmas morning, which looks like that's going to add a little bit of disappointment - but still, he also said she would be getting a barbie doll so that should bring back the happiness.