Once again, young Gulf Islands writers delighted Driftwood story contest judges with their creativity and ability to capture the holiday spirit.
“I was impressed by the breadth of imagination all of these kids showed,” said longtime book publisher Marlyn Horsdal, who was a first-time judge and read stories written by 12- and 13-year-olds.
Fran McIninch, who judged the nine-year-old age category, said, “I feel they should all get an award for participating and making the effort.”
Also judging this year were veterans Joan Gage and Sheila McEachern, and newcomer Janice Parker. Thank you to all five women and longtime coordinator Victoria Olchowecki.
Results are: Age 7-8 category: first place, Sofia Névé Langer, Christmas in Hawaii; second place, Elora King, You Cannot Have Christmas Without Merry. Age 9 category: first place, Lily Hughs, The Christmas Adventure; second place, Lilly Slade-Waters, Turtle’s First Christmas; honourable mention, Alexi Stotecky, The Christmas Day; Lyra Smith, Fluffy’s Christmas. Age 10 category: first place, Willow Kilpatrick, Believe; second place, Fern Cardinal, The Mystery Behind the Advent Calendar; honourable mention, Lia Bourns and Eva Ilinykh, The Little Ferntail Butterfly. Age 11 category: first place, Isla Maruca-Alarie, Never Too Old for Christmas Magic; second place, Athena Dragland, A Gift for Maggie; honourable mention, Millie Smid, The Hat. Age 12-13 category: first place, Marrella Hoffman, Christmas at the Retirement Home; second place, Violet Penner, Inaccurate Lists, an Over-Hot-Chocolated Elf and (G)iPad Kids; honourable mention, Inara Demich, A Siberian Solstice; Aurelia Lukow, The Missing Gifts.
Winner of the cover art contest is Grade 10 GISS student Nya Hornsey. Cover artwork from eight members of Melissa Hingston’s Grades 4-5 class at Fernwood Elementary School is also included in a gallery in this post.
Artist Hornsey and all first- and second-place story winners receive vouchers that can be exchanged for gift certificates at Salt Spring Books. Vouchers are available for pick-up at the Driftwood office at 241 Fulford-Ganges Rd. during regular office hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, or by arrangement with us through news@gulfislandsdriftwood.com. Vouchers must be taken to Salt Spring Books to exchange for certificates by Jan. 31, 2026 (but do not have to be used by then). Thank you to Salt Spring Books for being a dedicated partner in the contest by providing the prizes for so many years now.
First- and second-place stories are published below. Ana Roy, age 15, was the sole entrant from an older age group this year. Her excellent story is also included below.
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Christmas in Hawaii
By Sofia Névé Langer
Age 7-8 Category
First Place
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Persepheny, who was no ordinary girl. She was special, but she didn’t know that! On the other hand, Santa was getting tired of doing his job, so he decided to find a child to do it for him. So, he asked his elves to find someone who could do the job. Santa had booked a flight to Hawaii!
When the elves found Persepheny, they brought her to Santa. He inspected Persepheny and then said, “Well, this looks like someone to do the job, if she can say the magic word.”
“What is the magic word?” asked Persepheny.
“Supercalifrajaslisticexpialadocious,” replied Santa.
“Supercalifrajaslisticexpialadocious,” said Persepheny. She gasped. Had she really said that long word?
“Yes, you have,” said Santa, reading her mind. “You have to give the presents out, but be careful. There might be a snowstorm or the presents could fall out! And I don’t want that to happen, do you?”
“No!” yelled Persepheny.
Finally Santa had convinced Persepheny to drive his sleigh.
“Thanks!” said Santa, thinking of drinking from a Hawaiian coconut.
“You’re welcome,” answered Persepheny. “I’ll do it!”
Christmas was only two weeks away, and Persepheny was very nervous about losing the presents, or if there would be a snowstorm, so she asked Santa if he could lend her elves to guide her along.
Santa said, “Yes, of course!”
Santa wished her well and left for Hawaii with his sandals and beach towel packed in his suitcase. He was curious to see what Christmas in Hawaii would be like, and left for the airport with a happy grin.
When Christmas Eve came, Persepheny was more nervous than ever! She was also excited, so she called that feeling “ner-cited.”
Persepheny helped the elves load the presents into the sleigh and harness the reindeer, but, as they climbed in, snow started to fall! It fell really hard and really fast!
Persepheny’s nervousness came back, because she might lose the presents in the snowstorm! Now, it was turning into a blizzard!
So Persepheny cried to the reindeer, “Let’s go quick before the snow is too deep! Dash away, dash away, dash away all! Thank you Rudolph for leading us with your nose so bright!”
The heavy sleigh struggled, but flew into the air on its journey around the world! As Persepheny gave out presents, she noticed most houses were pretty easy, except for a few. One of them was particularly difficult because she was almost seen by the children! Some of the floorboards were really creaky in that house! She quickly ran into the bathroom to hide.
After those children went back to bed, Persepheny returned to the sleigh and delivered presents to children around the world! Persepheny was so happy, she couldn’t wait to do it next year!
Meanwhile, Santa was drinking juice from a Hawaiian coconut in his sandals and happy grin. Christmas was great in Hawaii. He couldn’t wait to do it next year!
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You Cannot Have Christmas Without Merry
By Elora King
Age 7-8 Category
Second Place
Once upon a time there were two friends named Merry and Christmas. They were helping set up for the Christmas dance. They were also carrying the big Christmas tree when suddenly, it snapped and it smashed Merry, pinning her to the ground! She was stuck.
“How are we supposed to have Christmas without Merry?” Christmas said. “This is terrible. We need to get Merry out of there. Someone help! Mrs. Claus, help me get Merry out,” pleaded Christmas.
“OK, I will try,” said Mrs. Claus. “Eeaaaaaa, it is too heavy! We need Santa. I will go get him.”
“Hohoho!” bellowed Santa.
“Be quiet!” said Christmas seriously. “We need to get Merry out of there right now.”
“OK, I will try. Aaaaaaaaaa, it is too heavy! We need the reindeer. I will get them,” he said.
“Hey boys, we need help to get Merry out from under the tree. She is stuck,” he explained.
“OK, we will try. Aaaaaaaaaaa, it is never going to work!” they cried.
“Wait, I have an idea! I will attach a rope from my sled to the Christmas tree. On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer, on Vixen, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. Wait! Where is Rudolph? Oh, no, he is still at the North Pole eating hay! It is OK. It will still work. OK, here we go. Aaaaaaaaaaaaa.”
Pop!
“Yay, it worked! Thank you so much,” said Santa. “You guys are the best!”
“Thank you, everybody,” said Christmas. “Christmas is saved!”
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The Christmas Banquet
By Lily Hughs
Age 9 Category
First Place
Once upon a time on Christmas, there was a penguin named Pengweeny. He was very funny and my best friend. He lived in a little log cabin in the forest. When he got hungry, he went out to find fish.
He was happily swimming alone when he saw a fish. All of a sudden, a giant fin popped out of the water. A shark started chasing him and he screamed!
Pengweeny was okay, but he still needed something to eat. He decided to catch a plane to Hawaii, hoping there would be no animals who would eat him.
When he got to the plane, he was surprised to find that the pilot was a seagull! He went and sat down in his seat, and the plane took off. He decided to play checkers with the guy next to him named Ebbyfry, who was a shrimp. They played checkers and Ebbyfry won.
Pengweeny was thirsty, so they went to the potion-brewing stand and made a speed-walk potion. After drinking it, they ran up and down the aisle of the plane 100 times in three seconds. Pengweeny was really excited to get off the plane.
He got off and looked around and felt so happy that he jumped into the water. He saw hundreds of fish as well as turtles. He swam down and caught a fish. He brought it back up and noticed a Mer-pup swimming in the water next to him. She grabbed him up and dove down to a beautiful kingdom made of seashells. She swam into a castle, putting him down and saying, “Hello, my name is Princess Coral.”
He told her his name, just as a graceful creature came swimming toward them, saying, “Princess Coral, what are you doing?”
“Look, Mother, it’s a penguin.”
Pengweeny bowed, introducing himself.
“Why don’t you come and stay for the Christmas feast?” Coral’s mother said.
“Yes, please! But will there be fish?” Pengweeny asked.
“Of course there will!?” they said, and they all swam off to prepare for the Christmas banquet.
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Turtle’s First Christmas
By LILLY SLADE-WATERS
Age 9 Category
Second Place
One night an egg was hatching. It was a turtle egg. The eggshell was glimmering from the moon. It cracked and cracked until a little head popped out into the shimmer of light. It was snowing outside but not heavily falling down.
From that day on, Turtle had always wanted to meet Santa. Every Christmas she looked up at the moon and most of the time she didn’t see him, but one night she heard a jingle of a bell. She looked up in confusion. There was a big sleigh with a big fat dude on it. She still wanted to meet Santa, but she wanted to meet an elf even more.
She packed her stuff and headed out to Antarctica. She waddled into the water. After 10 minutes of paddling she wondered if this was a good idea. She decided to continue, and the water kept getting colder and colder. She got so cold but she finally made it to the ice land, Antarctica.
She saw a sleigh fly across the sky so she followed it to Santa’s house. There were elves everywhere. All those little elves had black and white bottoms and tops and they all wore little red or green hats on top. The elves were making toys and so much more. Everything she could have wished for. But there was no turtle stuff in the workshop, like little fish. And why were there no coral-shaped sculptures and little rare shells? There was more human stuff than she could ever imagine. She didn’t see anything for turtles, not even a little turtle picture! It was crazy because she thought there would have been more things for turtles because turtles were so cute.
The turtle then saw this big fat dude in the crowd and she waddled up to him and it was Santa. She said to Santa, “What’s up, Santa? Why aren’t there things for turtles in your workshop? I have been looking forward to Christmas my whole life! Now it’s finally here and there’s nothing for me!”
Santa replied, “Well, little turtle, what would you like?”
The turtle said, “Everything!”
“Well, I can’t do that.” Then Santa thought for a moment and realized he could do something amazing for this turtle and all the turtles across the land.
“Jellyfish! I will make sure that there is enough fish and jelly in the world for all of you!”
From that day on, Turtle was so happy. Christmas turned out to be such a special time and the trip to Antarctica was a memorable experience.
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Believe
By Willow Kilpatrick
Age 10 Category
First place
Once upon a time there was a girl called Maple. She was 10, and her whole life she had believed — she believed in Christmas, Santa and all magical things. When she was young it was normal — all her friends also believed and knew that Santa was real. Well, until Grade 5 . . . .
In Grade 5, some of her friends started talking about Santa and saying that Santa was just their parents. She found it was hard being the weird kid and felt like everyone made fun of her because she was the only one who thought Santa was real.
No matter how much she tried to keep believing in the magic of Christmas, her friends got into her head, and she started seeing things differently — the elf on the shelf looked felted, Santa’s handwriting looked so much like her mum’s, and a person that lived at the North Pole . . . really? All just children’s stories . . . . But still, Maple did not want to give up.
She had a special memory that stayed with her. When she was six years old, Maple, her brother and her mum were standing on the treehouse outside at Christmas time and suddenly up in the sky they saw a glowing red nose and two little antlers darting across the starry night. It felt truly magical.
When she told her Grade 5 friends about this they said, “Sure,” and, “You were only six years old when that happened and it was probably just a dream,” and, “Planes have red lights on them so it was probably only a plane!” Her friends’ comments stuck in her heart. But still Maple did not want to give up.
On Christmas Eve, Maple decided that she would do something to prove things to herself once and for all. She found her stash of saved-up Halloween candies and power-ate it all night to keep herself up. Then her plan was to secretly spy on Santa. Maple also set up a spy camera just in case she fell asleep.
Late that night she fell asleep and missed Santa. In the morning, she realized what had happened.
“Well, at least I have my spy camera,” said Maple, hopefully. But as she went over to watch the footage, she saw that she had forgotten to turn it on.
“No! I forgot to turn it on!! Now I have no proof!”
She felt that she had failed herself.
But when Maple walked upstairs and saw her family around the glittering Christmas tree with presents underneath, she thought, “Maybe I don’t have proof that Santa’s real, but in my heart I do know that Santa exists and I always will.”
After winter break, all her friends were talking about how fake Santa was.
“I don’t need them to believe to know it’s true, only I need to believe,” she said to herself.
Suddenly the conversation didn’t seem as important to Maple. And she felt the Christmas joy FINALLY fill her up.
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The Mystery Behind the Advent Calendar
By Fern Cardinal
Age 10 Category
Second Place
There was a bump. And a shake. Jingle, a small wooden hamster, with a white crescent on his forehead, woke up with a startle. He opened his apartment window and saw that his wooden home had been moved to the checkout counter of the Ye Olde Knick Knacks Shop.
He heard the owner of the antique shop talking to a human and her young daughter.
“You’re very lucky to get this advent calendar. It’s the only one in the world!”
What the shop owner knew that this human family didn’t was that this advent calendar was much larger on the inside than on the outside. It hid a whole town behind it, full of tiny carved woodland creatures. But all the humans saw was an old, wooden advent calendar.
Jingle ran outside the back of his apartment to ring the old bell at the centre of town. The wooden animals came out yawning, not used to being awake in the daylight hours.
“We’re being moved,” said Jingle, looking at the sleepy creatures. “We must be careful! We don’t know what these humans want.”
The frightened animals went back to bed.
In the evening, Jingle awoke and saw that their home was now located inside a human house, decorated with mistletoe and twinkling Christmas lights. His mouth dropped to the floor. Worried, Jingle decided to check on his bestie, a shaggy wooden raccoon named Stocking, who lived in apartment number one.
Stocking’s front door was wide open! He was nowhere to be seen. Jingle looked everywhere, asking all the other wooden toys if they’d seen Stocking, but no one had. He was gone.
Soon the sun came up and the animals got sleepy again. As Jingle went yawning back to his apartment, he vowed to unravel the mystery.
That evening Jingle awoke to a wooden fox named Rudolph shaking him violently. “Holly is missing!!”
Jingle jumped out of bed and raced to Holly’s apartment (number two). Just like Stocking, the front door was wide open and the chestnut-coloured squirrel was nowhere to be seen.
Days flew into weeks and every morning another toy animal disappeared from their apartment. Soon Jingle was the only one left in his apartment — number 24.
The next morning he awoke to large, cold hands grabbing him from his bed! He flailed his little wooden arms and looked into the eyes of a human child. She placed him down gently on a huge wooden dresser. To his surprise all his animal friends were there!
The human girl skipped away squealing, “Mom! Come see what I got in the advent calendar! It’s a hamster!”
Jingle jumped up and down with his friends. They were all safe, even Stocking. The human girl had simply been setting them up on the dresser as a display.
“And the humans will return us to our apartments after the holidays,” Stocking explained.
Jingle sighed with relief. The mystery was solved and next year he’d be prepared for the Christmas tradition of the advent calendar.
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Never Too Old for Christmas Magic
By Isla Maruca-Alarie
Age 11 category
First Place
It was Christmas time, and there was a little girl named Freya whose parents owned a bakery in a quaint little town called Cranberry Vale. Freya loved the holiday season, and it was going to be her 13th Christmas.
She had two special reasons she was excited this year. One, because Christmas makes everybody happy and she is the kind of girl who loves seeing other people smile. Second, the bakery is very busy during the holidays, and her parents let her help out. She dreams of running the bakery on her own one day.
Three days before Christmas, snow was falling outside. Freya’s parents needed to make a quick trip to the next town for ingredients, but on the way back the road was blocked by heavy snow and they couldn’t get home that evening. For the first time, Freya had to sleep alone in their apartment above the bakery. She was worried about opening the shop on her own the next morning.
Snuggled in bed she looked out her window and saw a shooting star. Quickly she made a wish: she wished she had all the ingredients she needed and some extra hands to help. Then she drifted off to sleep.
In the middle of the night, Freya woke to the clatter of pots and pans and the sound of many little footsteps downstairs. Freya crept downstairs, and pushed open the kitchen door where she saw about 15 little Christmas elves, in tiny little aprons, busily running around the bakery.
She heard one of the little elves say, “Shhhhh, we don’t want to wake Miss Freya.”
“Who, me?” Freya said, stepping into the kitchen.
Another little elf replied, “Oh, hello Miss Freya, we are here to help you in the bakery.”
Then another elf said, “I’m so glad you wished us here last night. Santa’s toy shed was getting a little cramped!”
“You’re Santa’s elves!” Freya gasped.
Then she noted, all around her, the counters were covered in perfect piles of treats. There were mince pies, apple strudels and fritters, macarons, chocolate eclairs and many more delicious delights.
Soon it was time to open the shop! Customers poured in and bought many holiday treats. Then to Freya’s surprise, her parents arrived home at last.
She told her parents everything and led them to the kitchen to meet the little elves — but they had all vanished.
Freya’s dad said, “Oh honey, don’t you think you’re getting a little too old for believing in Christmas elves and fairy tales?”
Her mom, looking around at the perfect piles of pastries, said, “But how else do you think Freya managed all this on her own?”
Freya grinned, and with a twinkle in her eye she said to her dad, “You’re never too old for Christmas magic,” and then ran outside to play in the fluffy snow.
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A Gift for Maggie
By Athena Dragland
Age 11 category
Second Place
There once was a little girl called Maggie. She lived in a small cabin made of logs in the big woods on a snowy mountain in Banff, B.C. with her mother and father. It was winter in the big woods, and it was getting very cold.
Maggie was an only child and her friends lived so far away that she saw them very rarely, but her best friends were the animals in the woods like rabbits, squirrels and birds. She loved animals and they loved it when she came to visit them in their home.
One winter’s morning when the snow was falling harder than normal, Maggie woke up, got dressed and excitedly, she quickly ran to the pantry to grab birdseed and peanut butter. With both items, she went to the door and got her leather bag.
“What are you doing, Maggie?” her mother asked.
“I am going to feed the birds!” And with that Maggie swung open the door and bounded off into the snow.
Maggie trenched into the forest where the winter wonderland got even more beautiful. She sat down on her long jacket and started to get out the peanut butter. Now where were the pinecones, she thought? Just then a cold frosty air swept by her and the snow came dumping down. What was happening, she thought? She rolled down a hill, then opened her eyes and the forest looked different and the trees circled around her. In the middle of the clearing there was a young woman wearing a long dark green dress. Her hair was dark brown and flowed down to her hips. Standing next to her were different animals of all kinds. They all gathered around her and she had a bag of food.
“Hello.” Her kind eyes gazed upon Maggie. “I am Noel the winter fairy, who are you?”
“Maggie,” Maggie managed to whisper.
“Why are you here?” Noel asked.
“I somehow tumbled down here in a big wind storm.”
“Well, do you know where your home is now?” Noel asked.
“No, I don’t.”
“Well, we can help you. I come here every year to help the animals and I know my way around these parts of the woods.”
“That would be great,” Maggie said.
“Yes, but first we have to help the animals,” Noel said.
“I know what to do, I brought some bird seed and peanut butter and now we just need some pinecones,” said Maggie.
“I know where those are,” Noel said and then they got to it using the items Maggie brought and Noel’s sweet treats.
After they had helped the animals, Noel said to Maggie, “You have been such a great help and I would like to give you a gift.” She kneeled and picked up a snowy white rabbit that was so small it could probably fit into the palm of her hand.
“This is for you,” Noel said. “It’s a young orphan rabbit and I would like you to have it.”
“Really!” Maggie said.
“Of course,” replied Noel. “I think you will be great friends.”
Maggie picked up the rabbit. It looked up at her with its dark eyes. “I’ll name you Snowball.” And with Snowball in her hand she and Noel travelled home.
At Maggie’s door she said goodbye and went inside. Inside she told her mother all about her adventure and her special gift.
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Christmas at the Retirement Home
By Marrella Hoffman
Age 12-13 Category
First Place
It was a dark, snowy evening at Serenity Springs Retirement Home. As the halls filled with families visiting for the holidays, Edith hobbled her way through the crowds, making it to the singular chair sitting in front of the fireplace. As the old lady watched the grins of her peers as they hugged their grandchildren, tears started slowly rolling down Edith’s wrinkled cheeks.
To Edith, it had only felt like yesterday when she was one of those grandmas hugging their loved ones. Although in her mind it had been only a few days since the accident, the calendar said otherwise. Four years ago was the night everything in Edith’s life shifted. Her family was halfway through the 10-hour-long drive from British Columbia to Alberta to see Edith for Christmas when their small car slid down a steep, ice-coated hill and all passed away. As Edith patiently waited for her family to arrive, minutes turned to hours, and eventually, hours turned to years.
Now, four years later, some part of her still hoped that somehow, she could see her daughter and three kids one last time. Every night leading up to Christmas, she kneeled on the cold tiles and prayed for just a chance to see her loved ones again.
Just as the small, old clock on Edith’s bedside table hit midnight, a loud bang jostled her awake. Now awake, she took a deep breath, and smoky soot filled her lungs. She left the cozy warmth of her bed and hobbled out to the same place where just hours earlier she had been standing perfectly still. As she peered into the fireplace, now covered in charcoal, she saw a big black boot. Not a boot you would see just anywhere; this boot was the size of a watermelon, and soon after she noticed the boot, another large boot hit the bottom of the fireplace with a boom.
A large, blubbery, pale man stepped out of the fireplace, charcoal chunks degrading underneath his feet. His face almost instantly turned from joy to pure shock. Edith’s jaw dropped, and the two stood in complete silence, just taking in what they had both just seen.
“You weren’t supposed to see me,” the man said. “No one was supposed to be awake!”
Now clearly stressed, Edith couldn’t help but feel guilty for the strange man in her home. Edith wanted to say something, but her lips wouldn’t move out of the shocked expression he left her in.
After chatting with the guy, Edith found him not to be as scary as she once thought. He asked about who was visiting her, and even though he meant no harm, the question sent tears to her eyes.
Eventually, the two checked the time, realizing they had been talking all night. The nameless guy seemed quite distressed at that thought, as he quickly grabbed the back of her top and tossed her into his sack.
Although she knew she should be frightened, she felt oddly safe in the presence of this mysterious man. The man threw the sack into his sleigh and they took off. She felt a big thump as they appeared to be landing, and before she knew it, they had landed in the North Pole.
While Mrs. Claus heard all the commotion, she scurried outside. All three of them enjoyed the nice warm dinner provided by the reindeer, and when Edith told them her story, they decided to let her live with them, so she would never have to spend the holidays alone.
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Inaccurate Lists, an Over-Hot-Chocolated Elf and (G)iPad Kids
By Violet Penner
Age 12-13 Category
Second Place
Mr. Cane had an especially important job. He was the elf that monitored the Naughty-Or-Nice-Atron1 (NONA1), which the inventor Ms. Gingerbread had created. It said which children were, well, Naughty or Nice. He then printed the names on the classic, scroll-like lists, and gave them to Santa on Christmas Eve.
It was a week before Christmas, so everyone was working overtime. That meant that Mr. Cane had extraordinarily little time to sleep, so he stayed awake by drinking gallons of hot chocolate. Now, the head chef, Mrs. Mix-a-lot, had gotten bored of making the same hot chocolate for him repeatedly, so she passed the job on to the intern, Gumdrop, whose favourite way to make hot chocolate was with a lot of warm milk. While hot chocolate with warm milk is delicious, it is also relaxing. So, when Mr. Cane drank the hot chocolate prepared by Gumdrop, he felt his eyelids drop.
“Soo… sleepy…” he muttered, while curling into a ball in his office chair.
He woke to the sound of alarms, and Rudolph yelling over the PA system, “We need those lists, Mr. Cane! It’s five minutes until lift-off!”
Mr. Cane shot up like an overenthusiastic tulip put in fresh water, grabbed the lists, and sprinted through the halls of the North Pole Toy Factory to the sleigh. He passed the lists up to Santa and the reindeer took off.
Santa was halfway over Finland when he noticed the discrepancy between the lists and the amount of presents he had. It clearly stated on the list that Annie Green was midway through the “Nice” section, but he had a huge lump of coal with her name on it! (Literally and metaphorically.) He turned the sleigh around and pulled up in the North Pole courtyard.
“The lists aren’t correct,” he cried. “If we don’t figure this out, I fear it won’t be a very merry Christmas!”
Suddenly, Ms. Gingerbread burst in.
“Good news, everybody! I figured out how to make the NONA1 portable!”
Santa stared at Ms. Gingerbread.
“If that’s true, I’m giving you a raise.”
“It is true! Here, have a look!” Ms. Gingerbread handed Santa a small, black rectangular screen.
“Huh. It looks like a smartphone.”
“That’s where I got the idea! I made it bigger so that it’s easier to see the names, and I just made the lists an app. I call it… a GiPad!”
“Why?”
“Because Gi is the first part of my name, and it’s catchy. See, I wrote it on the back.”
Santa looked, and it was written there in white. Then, he realized he needed to get a move on, got back on the sleigh, and took off. He delivered all but one piece of coal, but at the last house, while he was slipping a lump of coal into Michael Thompson’s stocking, the GiPad slipped into the stocking with it, and he didn’t notice.
In the morning, Michael opened his stocking and found the GiPad.
“i…Pad,” he read, for the coal had smudged over the “G.”
Michael took the “iPad” to school, and showed it to his friends. Next year, all the kids were asking for iPads, and Michael was the first of what are now known as iPad kids.
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As the Snow Falls
By Ana Roy
Age 15
Tia watched the snow drift through the sky from her glass prison. She sat in a chair, blankets layered over her lap. The sky was filled with stars that peeked through the curtain of clouds. Instruments beeped and hummed around her, tangling with the thick scent of antiseptics. Christmas lights shone through the layer of fog that filled the city lanes. Her hands quaked in her lap. Whispers could be heard behind her as the nurse entered the room. He tugged on the corner of his clipboard, his eyes glancing towards the door. He opened his mouth to say something, and she raised a hand to silence him.
“Please,” she choked out, “Don’t say it. I already know they’re not coming.”
The nurse’s face turned a sickly shade before he glanced down at his papers.
“I’m so sorry,” his voice trailed.
Tia nodded, her hands constricting around the blankets. The nurse scurried from the room, leaving her with the crushing weight of loneliness. Resting her hand on the frigid glass, she leaned in to catch a glimpse of the people below moving in and out of the hospital. Their faces blurred in the twirling basin of snow. She didn’t expect to recognize anyone anyway. After all, not a single one of her family had come to visit her. Her nails sank into her palms, a silent tear travelling down her face. She choked back sobs. All she wanted was to see her sister’s face again.
Her chest felt heavy, her breath coming in short, heaving gasps. She dragged herself to her feet, one hand snatching her IV. The gap between the floor and the bed felt mountainous as she hauled herself over the edge. Chatter drifted past her door, strangers discussing their Christmas plans. She prayed that each shadow crossing the threshold would be her sister.
Tia sank back into the bed, watching the snow fall outside. She let everything sink in, every word that had gone unsaid.
Suddenly, a shaft of light ripped through the dark room.
“Tia?”
Framed in the doorway, with a net of curly hair, was her sister’s face, wide and bright. Her rosy cheeks fell when she saw Tia’s broken form.
“Meleka?”
Meleka dropped onto the bed, cupping her hand. “I’m here.”
Tia’s cheeks were drawn as she smiled. Her sister wrapped her in a tight hug, her arms soft. They didn’t need to speak, every harmful word behind them. The snow gently fell outside, covering the world in white, but inside, they were safe and warm in each other’s embrace.