Seven-year-old Dona was a wee bit older than her little sis Fiona and way younger than her 10-year-old big brother Luke. Christmas was just round the corner and since none of her kids believed in Santa Claus, their mum Luna decided to be frank with them.

On a bright Monday morning, with just a week left for Christmas, she made an important announcement. “Children as money’s a little tight at the moment, each of you will be getting one small gift so that I can buy your daddy the file cabinet he needs badly,” she said.

While Luke’s face turned gloomy, Dona and Fiona weren’t too upset. Why? Well, they had a number of dolls, especially Barbies, and games to play with in their free time.

About two days before Christmas, when their daddy was away at work, their mum brought out a huge carton and a large roll of glossy wrapping paper.

“Sweethearts I need your help to wrap the gift. Don’t forget that your daddy’s gift is our secret,” Luna winked at her children. While the girls got the cello tape, Luke found the scissors. Once the cabinet was decorated, the four of them dragged it into the store room. After all, their father never went there.

So it was decided that the big carton would be put under the tree as a surprise for daddy when he got up for Christmas breakfast. Dona and Luke knew that their parents always stayed up till the wee hours on Christmas Eve, putting presents under the tree before going to sleep.

Dona had her own alarm, it was her birthday gift from daddy, and set it at 12:30 am so that she could be the first one to check out the gifts under the tree.

The moment the clock struck twelve, she waited for a while and tiptoed into the hall room. She saw three small gifts. It hurt somewhere. Know what was worse? The smallest gift box had her name ‘Dona’.

Dona did not dare to touch it. She did not want to guess what her one and only gift was and spoil the fun. So she walked back to her room and slid under her quilt. The smiley faced quilt could not quite comfort her.

And lo! It was finally Christmas morning soon. Dona jumped out of her bed and taking little Fiona by her arm, she rushed down the stairs. Luke was already there.

The three of them helped drag out daddy’s gift. Breakfast was quite grand with bacon, rolls, muffins and ice-creams!

“Mum it’s time for presents, let’s go,” said little Fiona. And they all went back into the drawing room.

Fiona was the first one to rip off the gift paper. It was a pretty drawing book. “Thank you daddy and mommy,” she said trying to sound happy.

Dona followed next. And her smile was genuine when she saw it was a dainty jewellery box. It even had a built-in mirror. “I love it,” she said.

Mommy and daddy smiled as Luke opened his box and found a red-coloured car. “This is nice,” he smiled.

Then their mum suggested, “Help daddy open his present.”

The three of them ripped off the glossy paper, and Lo!!!! Luke screamed. Shouts of joy and wonder filled the hall as the three kids discovered more than a dozen wrapped gifts with their names on it inside the carton.

And Luke being Luke, grabbed at all the boxes with his name.

And then they remembered. They looked towards daddy to see if he was disappointed.

“What about the cabinet mum, you said daddy needs it badly?” Dona asked.

To this, her mum just smiled at her, “Honey, how could you forget that we got it for him on his birthday last year. In fact, this is the cabinet’s carton.”

Indeed none of the three children had remembered! But who did? Well, Santa knew exactly what Daddy needed and do you know what it was – it was a fountain pen set. For mum, there was a knitted red cardigan.

Santa after all never forgets anyone – especially sweet little children who have been good through out the year.

The next few hours were spent with the three children gushing over their gifts – there were toys, books, crayons, hats, rings, cars, bikes, caps, toy guns……. It was the best surprise Santa could have given them! And yes, the children learnt to believe in Santa after all.

So, little ones what would you like this Christmas? Would you like to read another short christmas story ?