“Okay, Dad,” Holly whispered to her father a little past noon. The food was mostly eaten and the kids were growing restless. “I think it’s time for Santa to arrive.”
Mark winked and excused himself. He headed upstairs to change into his Santa costume and in a few minutes he would come around the front with his bag of toys to surprise the children. Holly went to the far end of the room and began cleaning up the food.
“Great party,” Aliyah said, coming up alongside Holly. She helped stack empty plates and pick up utensils. “Did you try the cinnamon rolls? They were amazing.”
“I know, right? Mrs. Gonzalez said she’d give me the recipe. I think I might have a new teacher potluck dish,” Holly replied.
“You doing okay?” Aliyah asked, watching her friend’s face. “Do you need me to get you ice cream? Brownies?”
“I’m okay,” Holly promised. “Or, I will be. Maybe we can eat ice cream tomorrow and complain about men. I could use a day of that.”
“Done,” Aliyah promised. She gave her friend a hug. “You let me know. I’m here for you.”
“Thanks,” Holly said, forcing a smile.
“Wow. Your dad was fast,” Aliyah said, pointing to the front door. “I thought he just went upstairs. Usually it takes him forever to change.”
Holly frowned. Usually it did take her dad a long time to get into costume. He always took extra care attaching the beard for this so that the kids could tug on it and not have the secret ruined. The glue took a long time to dry.
Yet, there was Santa at the front door.
“Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!” boomed Santa, throwing open the front door to the bookstore. The kids all cheered and ran to gather around the jolly old man.
That’s when Holly noticed that Santa didn’t have the right red velvet bag. Instead, he had several dark red bags. Six of them. He settled himself in the large comfortable chair by the Christmas tree, ready to give out his gifts.
“Where’s Jake?” Santa asked, pulling out a present from one of the bags.
“Here!” Jake called, coming in from the back. Jake was one of Holly’s students and had a deep love of dogs. Unfortunately, he was also very allergic.
“This is for you,” Santa told him, handing him a beautiful stuffed dog toy. As soon as it was in Jake’s hands, it became alive, barking and wagging its tail.
“It’s a robot dog!” Jake shouted, joy turning his surprise into joy. “Thank you, Santa!”
Holly stopped putting things away and began walking toward this strange Santa.
“Where’s Molly?” Santa asked, looking around.
“Here,” said the small girl, coming up to him shyly.
“Merry Christmas, Molly,” Santa told her, handing her something from the bag. It was a big, fluffy unicorn.
Molly loved unicorns. She shrieked with delight.
These were not the toys Mark and Holly had bought for the kids. And that was not her father in the Santa costume.
Who was this impostor Santa? Holly frowned, making her way slowly toward him. She didn’t want to startle the kids. The last thing she wanted was to make a scene and ruin the image of Santa for them.
“Where’s Marcos?” Santa asked, reaching into a bag. He pulled out a bright shiny red sled, handing it to her bright-eyed student.
“Where’s Anna?” Santa asked, looking around. Again, another one of Holly’s students.
“Here, Santa,” said the small girl, looking up hopefully. He handed her a giant bin of Legos and the poor girl looked like she was about to pass out.
“Oh, Santa,” she cried. “How did you know? This is exactly what I wanted!”
Anna threw her arms around Santa’s neck and kissed his cheek before picking up her Legos and running to her mother with the world’s biggest smile on her face.
A dog? A unicorn, a sled, Legos... somehow all these toys sounded familiar. Holly tried to place how she knew what each of her students wanted and then remembered the snowflakes from her classroom.