Father Christmas’ Enforced Break

The latter stages of a snow filled Christmas night were something of a blur for St Nicolas.  Feeling increasingly ancient in his new prison environment he had much time to reflect on the errors of his ways.  He also resolved that in future years he would moderate his alcoholic in take, as on reflection the third bottle of cherry was the catalyst to his downfall.

Not even Rudolph’s red nose was sufficient to compensate for his own lack of vision. One of the benefits of his current situation were the insights he was able to lean from the prison alcohol awareness group.  He was also grateful for the regular updates on events in Lapland, from Mrs Claus, though longed for his swift return so he could resume the supervision of toy production.

He also needed to attend to the huge backlog of correspondence that had developed in his absence.  Again, in some senses prison had proved a merciful escape, St Nick spared further blushes to his rosy cheeks caused by the numerous tabloid exposes of his festive antics.  Some of the journalists who penned the stories would definitely be on the ‘naughty’ list for a year or two.   


There was though an end in sight to the time spent behind bars for Father Christmas, as the prison governor was looking into his case.  Some adults never forget the magic that Santa Claus can bring, and luckily for St Nick it had proved to be the case in this instance.  The only proviso to his early release was that there were to be no further over indulgence on his global present drop.  Revised sets of arrangements were agreed, and henceforth, people the world over would be leaving out a non-alcoholic beverage for Father Christmas.

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 06/28/13 using the prompts: Ancient, snow and prison

Word count = 296