It was the 24th of December and the Bakers were celebrating Christmas Eve together.
The Yule Clog was burning in the fireplace and everyone was cheerful and happy, as expected from a Christian family on Christmas Eve (and of course the glasses of holiday sludge on the table sure did increase the level of joy.)
'Do you think Father Christmas will show up tomorrow morning?' Asked little Emilia.
Her father, who was fairly drunk from all the holiday sludge he drank, replied, red-faced and loopy: 'of course he'll show up my darling! He shows up every Christmas morning to spread joy!'
Emilia cheered when suddenly there was a crack in the fire and the flames suddenly became emerald green.
The Bakers stared at the fire with fright, clueless about what was happening when all of a sudden a man emerged from the flames.
He was wearing over his plump body green robes, lined with white fur. His face was red and he laughed out loud 'ho ho ho! Merry Christmas little muggles!' He cried.
The Bakers looked at him in shock.
'Are- are you... Father Christmas?' Asked Emilia, her eyes filled with Wonderment.
The drunken wizard stared at the muggle girl, wondering what in Merlin's name she was talking about.
His mind was too foggy to fully comprehend the situation he'd gotten himself in. He looked around the room and saw the people were expecting his explanation.
'Sure! Why not? I am Father Christmas!' He decided to roll with it after his foggy brain failed to come up with another idea to get him out of this situation.
The fright on the muggles faces quickly turned into excitement.
'Aren't you supposed to show up only tomorrow?' Mr Baker asked.
'Well, at Christmas Eve I go down people's chimneys and give gifts to children who were nice all year, while I give coal to children who were naughty,' he said, grinning widely, impressed with his own made-up story.
'So you're here to give me a gift, then?' Asked Emilia her voice becoming squeaker.
'Depends... have you been naughty?'
He really hoped she was because he didn't have anything on him to give her.
'No no! I've been nice all year!' Emilia promised.
Of course she was, he thought to himself bitterly.
'Well, in that case, here you go!' He said and pulled out of his robes his wand and conjured a pretty doll and handed it to Emilia.
'Thank you, Saint Nick!' She said and hugged her new doll.
'Well, I'll be leaving now. Merry Christmas!' He cried again, pulled out of his pocket a handful of glittery powder- Floo powder, threw it into the fire, jumped into the flames that turned emerald green again.
'Leaky Cauldron!' He called and disappeared through the flames.
After a few moments of silence, Mr Baker cried: 'I can't believe we just met Saint Nicholas! We must spread the word: Father Christmas comes through the chimney to bring gifts to those who were nice and coal to the naughty!'
'Tomorrow morning, now you're too sloshed to go out,' said Mrs Baker.
And thus began the Christian folk story of Santa Claus and his gift-giving tradition.
Merry Christmas!
Author's note: the idea of the connection between Santa Claus and Floo powder crossed my mind a few months ago and I decided to write a short fic about it for Christmas. I thought that it made a lot of sense that the story of how Santa comes down the chimney happened due to a drunken wizard mistake.
Since this story occurred before the name Santa Claus was used, I used Father Christmas/Saint Nicholas, who wore green robes and came at Christmas morning to spread joy and eventually became known as Santa Claus.
Ironically, I don't even celebrate Christmas because I'm Jewish, but I still felt the need to write this fic. I hope you enjoyed it and merry Christmas to all celebrating!