Solar Santa

By Abigayle Carmody.

I’m hanging up my Santa boots after all these years. No more Merry Merry Happy Christmas HO HO HO for me. Magic’s gone. Kids are onto it early. Probably googling Is Santa real? on their parent’s phones with their fat little fingers before they can say Merry Christmas. Kids ask me to leave them things like computer coding starter kits, or robots with voice app controls. They sure know the latest gadgets. Don’t get any requests for footballs these days, dolls or whatever. At the Santa briefing we were told not to suggest gendered toys. Fair enough mumbled the Santa next to me. Suppose it is, things change. All I ask is that before the end of my last day as Santa I see a little pair of eyes light up when I say I’ll be flying from the North Pole on Christmas Eve, my sleigh packed with presents, Rudolph dancing through the stars, bells jingling in the night sky. Merry Christmas HO HO HO.

My final shift was nearly over when this serious little boy came up to me, said he was with his Daddies. Merry Christmas young fella, I said. Kid looked as though he felt sorry for me. I tried the North Pole story but he wasn’t having it. Didn’t ask for presents, just said he was worried that my home in the ice might melt one day. I didn’t know what to say. He leaned in, his eyes full of kindness. It’s okay Santa, he said, as long as the sleigh’s electric and there’s charging stations in the stars. He asked me why I was crying. I told him they were happy tears, that because he cares so much about my home not melting means there’s still plenty of magic in the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abigayle writes fiction and non-fiction. She’s working collaboratively on a visual and writing arts project, recording and writing people’s true stories. Abigayle facilitates storytelling workshops. Her story, Love, Loss and Jam Tarts was selected for a 2016 Perth International Writer’s festival event. Abigayle’s writing’s on ABC radio, is published in a short story anthology, and her manuscript, Dancing in Half Circles, was shortlisted for the T.A.G Hungerford award. She has had short stories and a radio play shortlisted for national competitions.