Snowballs and Christmas

Snowballs and Christmas

“What do you want to do now? I’m getting cold,” James said to his younger brother Teddy.

“We can’t go in yet. They’ll send us to bed as soon as we do.”

“Which is where I want to be. There is zero chance we’re gonna see Santa Claus just because it’s a little dark.”

James was old enough that he was only talking about Santa for Teddy. He himself had decided Santa was probably just a myth. But he wasn’t going to spoil it for Teddy.

“Well we might! He has to start somewhere and we live pretty north.”

“Fine,” James said, picking up a handful of snow, “Let’s have a snowball fight!” and he whooped Teddy in the back with it.

“Hey! You know if you’re not nice Santa won’t bring you nice stuff!”

“I’ll take my chances!” he said, tossing another, and just missing Teddy’s head.

“You’re on,” Teddy yelled, grabbing some snow and hurling it at his brother.

Ten minutes later, exhausted and covered with snow they both lay on the ground breathing hard and looking up into the sky.

“Ok,” Teddy said, “I’m tired and freezing and covered with snow. I’m ready to go in.”

“Finally!” James said, then, “Look!” pointing to the northern sky.

The faintest line of lights shot across and then disappeared behind the evening clouds.

“Was that...? Teddy started.

“What else could it have been?” James answered, somewhat in shock.

The boys never spoke of the incident to anyone. But when they grew up, they founded a toy factory and spent a lot of time making sure every child they could reach got something from Santa at Christmas.

Santa can be cagey, but he loves the help.