TopShelf's December 2010 Santa's Helper Story Contest Results

 
Inane Christmas music that some idiot had decided was the perfect Santa’s Workshop tune, echoed blandly in the noisy room. Just hours away from the Fat Man’s only reason for existing, everyone including those preposterous excuses for reindeer, were getting ready for the Visit.
 
 

 
Chris had a secret that was burning a hole in his soul. He’d tried to share it with his wife some years before, but she hadn’t been ready to hear it then, so he’d kept hidden and struggled on as best he could. Most of the time he did pretty well, but at stressful times like Christmas it would rise close to the surface, near enough for others to notice.
 
 

 
A single mother about to spend her first Christmas alone receives the gift she needed most from an unusual Kris Kringle, who opens her heart and her mind to new possibilities.