Advent Calendar Challenge: Day 13

[froodle]

Today's prompt was "signs", submitted by deifire


"Twelve sleeps 'til Santa!" screamed the advertising that plastered the World o' Stuff. Andrea knew it was just a ploy, designed to spur Mister Radford's customers into panic-buying dubious sets of bathsalts for relatives they didn't see the rest of the year.

It was working.

She looked down at the list, clutched in her sweaty fingers. Some of the names were crossed through. Many of them were not.

Marisea appeared at her side, cheeks flushed, her long brown hair tangled in the toggles of her heavy woollen coat.

"I shouldn't have left it so late," Andrea moaned. "What was I thinking?"

"You were thinking that your home dimension doesn't celebrate Christmas, and so it didn't really apply to you?" said Marisea.

"Exactly!" said Andrea. "And then they got all, 'oh Andrea, we want to be supportive of your new human lifestyle, tell us all about these rituals', and like an idiot I did, and now they're all, 'oh, this Christmas thing sounds like fun, we'll kill one of the smaller dragons for supper and exchange gifts and sing songs. You can bring your girlfriend and we won't eat her or turn her to stone or anything!'"

"They're adjusting," said Marisea. "At least your mom stopped screaming and grabbing the first aid kit every time you show up at her door on two legs."

"I shouldn't have said anything about the presents," said Andrea. "They're not gonna want scented candles and matched sets of hats and scarves, and I'm not going to find a sacrificial goat in the village stores!"

"I'd ask Mister Radford about that before you dismiss it out of hand," said Marisea. "And, you know... maybe you're not giving them enough credit. They've had a thousand years of animal sacrifice. Human, too. This time around, they might like hats and scarves and scented candles."

Andrea looked at the display table, where penguins and snowmen and slightly deformed reindeer cavorted on an array of brightly-coloured knitwear.

"A lot of them do have more than one head," she said thoughtfully.

Marisea was rummaging in a large Foreverware chest beneath the table.

"They have earmuffs, too," she said.

"TWELVE SLEEPS!" screamed the signs.

Andrea sighed.

"We'll take it all," she said.

"I'll help you wrap," said Marisea.

Comments

[undeadpeach.livejournal.com]

Christmas is a stressful time of year. Hanukkah not so much. :-)

[froodle]

i always think christmas would be more fun if we treated it like halloween, ie if you wanna go all out, you can,but if you want to skip ot entirely nobody bats an eyelid

[undeadpeach.livejournal.com]

I'm Jewish and our holiday is 8 days long. :-)

[froodle]

that sounds awesome!

[undeadpeach.livejournal.com]

Yeah I know. :-) Have you ever seen 8 Crazy Nights? It's with Adam Sandler.

[froodle]

i havent, im not a big fan of his stuff

[undeadpeach.livejournal.com]

That's ok. He is weird as fuck in this movie. o_o