I’ve decided I want to write a Christmas story for children this year, perhaps even a novelette if I can get enough distance out of what I have in mind. I have one specific idea associated with Christmas that I want to write about and already have a fair idea of what will happen and how it is going to end. I’ve written nothing of it yet so I’m using this snippet to begin that story. The following snippet is the literary equivalent of improv… unedited and presented as is.

She placed the first candle onto the table, gently to make sure not to drop it onto the wolfskin rug. A single drop of wax bubbled and rolled down the length of it, cooling and stopping after a few inches. She prodded it gently and then looked at her finger and at the dirty mark it left there. She wiped the soot on the rug and looked at her sister. ‘Well?’

‘Yes, I have been a good girl,’ said the eight year old, sounding a little scared.

‘Are you sure about that?’ her sister leaned forward and smiled, waving a finger as if she knew something.

‘Yes,’ she said, not really sure.

The girl grinned. ‘Because you know what happens to the really naughty children.’

‘They go on the naughty list and don’t get any presents. But I have been a good girl, I will get presents!’ She crossed her arms. She was scared but also didn’t like that her sister seemed to be saying she had been too naughty.

‘Oh that’s just the ones who are a little bit naughty. It’s worse for the very bad children – the one’s who don’t go to school and say their prayers and are really horrible to children.’

She frowned, thinking for a second. ‘That doesn’t sound like me.’ It might have sounded a little bit like Michael – the boy who pulled her hair. She really hoped he didn’t get any presents.

‘Then you don’t have to worry about him,’ she leaned back against the chair and crunched up into a ball.

‘Who?’

‘Krampus’