It's Christmas Eve, and this is the final story of this series. Thank you so much to everyone who has read, commented, left a review and messaged me :D Hawk, thank you for your reviews the last two days - my travels were safe, thank you :D
More notes below, and here is the 24th story, dusted with a little Christmas magic...
In the early morning light, before anyone else was awake, Holly crept through to the living room and sat down cross-legged in front of the Christmas tree.
Gazing up at the two tiny dolls that belonged to her mother, the little girl squeezed her hands together.
'Hi, dollies,' she whispered loudly. 'I got to ask you something very important. I'm going to ask Santa, too, but you're special and super good at making wishes come true as well.' The dolls stared back at her, twinkles in their eyes from the Christmas tree lights. Taking a deep breath, Holly told them her wish, whispered a thank you and blew kisses at them before hurrying back to bed.
The dolls stayed motionless, but anyone who looked close enough would have seen an almost life-like light in their eyes…
In the afternoon, Holly began her letter to Santa Claus. Working on her laptop, Stella kept an eye on her daughter, but Holly was engrossed in her task. Stella smiled to herself at the effort going into the letter – Holly had a large sheet of her best paper, which she was decorating with scrolls, swirls and a multitude of pictures.
'That looks beautiful, sweetie,' she said, and Holly looked up.
'Thank you, mommy.'
'Can I see it when it's all finished?'
'You can look at it, but it's for Santa so you can't read it,' Holly explained, and Stella nodded seriously.
'No problem, baby.'
Still, every so often she peeked over at the letter's progress, smiling secretly at the concentration in Holly's tongue sticking out and the sighs heaved every so often.
'You're doing a great job. Santa's going to love receiving such a beautifully decorated and carefully written letter,' she said.
Holly beamed. 'I've drawed lots and lots of pictures for him.'
'They're fabulous,' Stella said, catching a glimpse of garish kittens, trees, cookies and ponies among the myriad illustrations.
'Are you writing your list to Santa?' Holly asked.
Laughing, Stella shook her head. 'No, baby. Daddy and I are too big to write lists to Santa.'
'But mommy.' Holly looked troubled. 'You won't get any presents from Santa if you don't write a list
Stella hastened to reassure her. 'Daddy and I have got everything we need, so we don't mind that Santa doesn't bring anything. And it means Santa has more time to deliver gifts to all the children.'
'But you could ask Santa for just one thing. He wouldn't mind, mommy, 'cause you've been very, very good,' Holly said seriously, making it difficult for Stella to remain straight-faced. But the sincerity of her daughter touched her.
'That's very sweet and thoughtful of you, baby… Well, I guess I could write him a letter and we could send ours together. How about that?'
It would do no harm, and seeing Holly's face light up at the idea, Stella felt pleased to have suggested it.
'You got to be quick, mommy, 'cause mine is nearly finished and we got to put them in the mailbox today – it's only five sleeps till Christmas.'
With paper and pencils provided by Holly, Stella set to as soon as she sent her last work email. It took a little tapping of her pencil before she glanced at her Christmas tree fairy and soldier, and inspiration struck – to wish for Holly to receive what was on her list to Santa. She wrote it out, folded the paper and found an envelope for both their letters.
'Make sure you get the address right or the mailman won't know where to deliver it,' Holly said anxiously, and Stella reassured her she would. Holly fetched their coats while Stella found a stamp, and they were soon walking out to the mailbox, where they dropped it in with a satisfying 'thunk'.
Hours later, in the time between night and dawn, while the Taylor family slept, the two dolls on the tree turned to each other. In voices no human could hear, they spoke about what they'd seen. In perfect agreement with each other, they sent a spark of light into the star-filled sky heading for the cold lands of the north, and the granter of Christmas wishes for young and old. He read the message, stroked his beard thoughtfully before a smile spread across his crinkled face and he laughed softly to himself.
'Well, Holly Taylor, it's an unusual wish, but let me see what I can do…'
Thank you so much for reading, and thank you for indulging me with this one! It provides the grounding for a story in the works :D
I'd like to share that December especially is a difficult time for me, I often feel very low and even more anxious than usual, so writing this has helped me tremendously. Thank you for sharing these stories with me, it means a huge amount. Happy Christmas and good wishes to you all! Lily x