"Here," Andrew handed me a small wrapped box, "Merry Christmas, partner." I laughed gently, "I bought something for you, too." I reached into my bag, and opened the top enough to see the name tags on the gifts I'd gotten for everyone. I handed him one that I'd wrapped in metallic black and red, "Open them together?" "Thanks." He slid a finger under the edge of the wrapping as Chris came into view. "Holly?" He held out an elaborately wrapped box. "Ah!" I stuffed Andrew's gift under my arm and accepted the other, "It's gorgeous! Thank you. Hold on!" I reached in and withdrew the box wrapped in navy with white drifting snowflakes, "We were going to open them together?" "Sure." He rubbed his fingers over the wrapping. "We can't do it now." Andrew's mouth tightened in what seemed to be irritation before he tore his open. I frowned at his impatience, but smiled when he held up his gift. "Wow. Just..." He shook his head, "How'd you know?" "I'm one of your three friends," I said with a laughing voice. "Sorry, sorry, just joking! You mentioned how much you wanted a new set of strings for your guitar. It's a 12 string, right? The clerk at the music store said this was a good set." "It is." He looked up, a genuine smile and high spots of color decorating his face, "Thanks." Chris' mouth curved as well, "We can open ours together. If you like." "Oh." I tore my eyes off Andrew and regarded the other boy, "Sure, yeah. That'd be great, just let me open Andrew's first." "Skip it. Open it later, it's not as nice as what you got me." He turned, the strings in one hand, the other dug deeply in his pocket. "Merry Christmas." He walked away. I took his package out from under my arm, and shrugged at Chris who shrugged back, and put the gift into my bag. "Ready?" I poked a finger under the fold in the back, ready to rip off that beautiful paper. He stripped the bow off his box, and pulled on the paper, "Three?" "Two." "One!" He ripped off the paper as I ripped mine. I gasped and he smiled brightly, "Thank you, Holly." He dumped the box out into his other hand, "They're leather?" "Oh, yes." I smiled at him, "I wasn't sure if you like gloves, and this winter has been depressingly snow free, but... I hope you like them." I pulled free his gift, and tears sprung into my eyes. It was a book. "I love this book." "I saw you reading it at the library." His moth turned up at the edges, "More than once." I dropped my bag and threw my arms around him, "I..." I pulled back, suddenly embarrassed, "I know you're not into the whole hug thing, but I can't believe you remembered me reading this book! Thank you, Chris." "Merry Christmas... Holly." Later, I was reading my new book in my room when I remembered my bag still had a gift in it. I put the book down, carefully bookmarking with a carefully folded piece of the wrapping paper it'd come in. I found the bag, and pulled free a neatly wrapped package that had a small card with my name inked on it. I pulled the paper off carefully, folding it and putting the wrap off to the side to keep. Andrew's gifts weren't to be torn up and forgotten. I smiled at the box, then pulled the top free. Nestled inside was a gift card to my favorite bakery off campus along with a Ziploc bag of caramels. I picked it up and opened it, grabbing a sweet out to put in my mouth. It was delicious. And homemade. I put the box down, my tears now flowing freely with the sheer sweetness of this gift. I saw a piece of paper had been folded under everything else. I pulled it free, and read it:

Holly - I know you like this shit. Andrew

I laughed so hard, and ate another piece. I really do like this shit. I sighed, thinking that he got it wrong, again. This gift was way better than the one I'd gotten him. Too bad I could never tell him now.

Based on the penguin picture you posted!

(Based on the prize item)

On Christmas day morning, 13-year-old Jim woke up and excitedly ran to the Christmas tree where the presents were all gathered. There was a particularly big wrapped box that caught his attention so he decided to open that one first. When he opened it, he saw that it was a black bookshelf with a black cat statue on top of it. Jim was a book lover and a cat lover so he was extremely happy to receive this gift. Now he has a place to keep his books! His father told him that it was an antique item that he found in an old shop and knew that Jim would love it.

Jim took the bookshelf up to his room and placed it on his desk. He opened it to see the inside and it was empty. However, as he looked closer, he noticed that there was a small ribbon sticking out from one of the corners so he decided to pull it. To his surprise, it was actually a screen and there was an inner cabinet too! There were even some books in there. Jim thought this was really cool and just as he was about to take out the books, his mother called him for breakfast so he went downstairs to eat first.

After filling his stomach, Jim went back to his room. As he opened the door, he saw that there was a young lady in a white dress sitting on his chair.

......

"Who are you?!" yelled Jim.

"Ah young boy you are finally back! My name is Shinwa and I am a goddess. My rival Maleria had trapped me in that bookshelf for so many years now, I thought I would never escape! But thanks to you for pulling that ribbon, I am free again! As a token of appreciation, I will grant you any wish!"

This was a Christmas that Jim will never forget.

Twas a dark and stormy night, but Darkheart Phantom really liked that. Though it didn't make up for the fact that it was the most awful time of the year. Subetans walking around all a smiles, it was infuriating. That Melody girl giving out gifts all willy-nilly. Bright lights and garish colors all over the place, they hurt his eyes!

Something must be done to put a stop to all of it. He discussed it with Liara, coming up with one scheme or another, but discarding them one after another because they just didn't solve all the problems. They finally hashed out a plan that would make everyone sad and sorry. They prepared everything, making sure their plan would go off without a hitch.

Finally all was ready! Liara started by luring Melody away from her cottage, claiming a cold, hungry child needed her help. She led her to an old abandoned house and locked her in the cellar - that would teach her that no good deed goes unpunished!

Darkheart stole into Melody's cottage with a very large sack of "gifts." Those greedy fools would be so eager to open his little surprises. His evil laughed sounded more like a silly giggle. His packages were full of coal, in their eagerness to open them up, the boys and girls would end up covered, no more garish reds and greens, black and gray would be the order of the day. Everything thing was going to plan - Darkheart was actually smiling and friendly even having to deal with children all day long, because he know what awaited them.

Unfortunately for Darkheart and Liara, the Subetan spirit wasn't so easily subdued. Instead of crying over the filthy coal mess, they all gathered together to have a huge snowball fight, for once they were eager to get hit because every snowball cleaned off a bit of the coal. Soon they were all laughing and running around. It was terrible!

As for Melody, she discovered an old hidden cache of gifts in the cellar. Instead of being frightened by her ordeal, she was grateful and spent the time sorting and preparing the gifts.

All was well and a merry Luminaire was had by all!

Katie was awoken by a noise just after midnight, coming from the roof. Hmmm. What could that be? She already knew the truth about Santa - before she went to sleep, she saw her prents stuffing gifts under the tree -, so she couldn't even imagine! Luckily her parents didn't know she knew, as they love the mystery and cheer as much as she does. The noises lasted about 15 minutes! She almost went downstairs to ask her parents. Instead, it went on for so long that she thought she was wrong, maybe she didn't see what she thought and everything was Santa, I mean, that had to be his antlephore..

Katie's parents heard the bedroom door close from the living room where they were wrapping presents and putting them under the tree. Damn, what was Katie still doing up?! They dearly wanted another few years of magic for her. They walked around the house to make some noise so she wouldn't sneak out again and opened the back door quietly. They had a plan, they made it when she was younger and oh so curious: rockin' antlephore, they called it. They grabbed a bucket and put some rocks inside and went to the front of the house. They threw rocks towards the roof, hoping to sound like antlephore on the roof! After about 15 minutes and waking up 1 neighbor, they hoped it was enough and quietly entered the house. Then they talked about the noise the antlephore made and how the snacks they left out were gone! Now they had to wait until morning to find out if the magic remains..

it worked!

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by Rox

Contestby micheleey

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by Lypsyl

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Little kitty wandering through the neighbourhood discovered this magical Winter Wonderland 💕 by Roses

Day 10: Outfit Not Found

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