The Christmas Excuse

Sally and Jamie; a little boy and girl of 5 and 6 came running excitedly into their mothers cramped little bedroom and sat upon her bed, bouncing on the springy mattress and waiting to hear this years excuse.

Every year their mother would have a really good reason why Santa hadn't bought them any presents.

One year it was because evil gremlins had snuck into Santas workshop and had broken his sleigh; another year all of Santas reindeers had gotten sick from eating a christmas pudding that had been poisoned by the evil snow queen; they were almost like little Christmas stories and, over time, though they secretly knew the stories weren't true, that their mother just didn't have the money to buy them presents, because she put so much effort into telling them, the children had grown to like them.

"What happened to Santa this year?" asked Sally looking up at her mother with a big, bright beaming smile on her face, "Did his reindeers get sick again?".

"Oh no", said her mother, "His reindeers aren't sick".

"Well did his sleigh get broken?", asked Jamie.

"No", said their mother, shaking her head, "His sleigh isn't broken".

"Well what happened?", asked Sally, "Did something happen to Santa? Did Jack Frost freeze him like last year?".

"No", said their mother, "Santa's perfectly fine".

The children looked confused.

"But you always tell us an excuse", said Sally.

"Well I'm sorry", said their mother, "But there'll be no excuse this Christmas".

"But why?", asked Sally looking sad.

Their mother smiled slyly and then, reaching under her bed, pulled out two large gift wrapped presents tied with silk ribbons.

"Because", she said, laughing and handing the presents to the children, "This year Santa delivered your presents".

The mother looked at the happiness that lit up her childrens faces and started to cry; thank goodness she had managed to find a job, just a small job working as a cleaner but one that paid enough for her to afford presents this year; hopefully, she would never have to make another Christmas excuse.