"Can't you hear them? And it's... it's..."

“Ho! Ho! Ho!"

The camera panned up to the clear night sky above, and then they saw him. The reindeer panned into view first, their hooves kicking up a glowing golden dust from the clear night air beneath them. Then they saw the great red sleigh and the familiar bearded face of Santa himself. He took the reins in one hand, and waved to the people below with the other. Beside him, an elf was also waving with both hands and everyone watching the newsfeed heard a lyrical feminine voice yell:

“Holy shit! We're on TV!" The news crew were apparently not so hot with the bleep button just then as they had been with Tulip.

Shortly after that, she leaned too far over the side of the sleigh to get a better look into the camera and nearly fell out. Thankfully, a big hand reached out to grab her belt and pull her back inside with a little yelp.

Despite the sudden use of bad language, for which the studio would surely be receiving angry letters, the channel oddly didn't go back to

David in the studio. Instead, the cameraman followed Santa through the night sky. On the next pass, the elf had moved into the back and was throwing out presents to the people below. Each present was brightly wrapped and deployed a tiny parachute on the way down to float gracefully to the land.

On the ground, the crowd had begun a big cheer. "Santa! Santa! Santa!"

On the fourth pass, Santa waved at everyone once again.

“Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! Ho! Ho! Ho!"

Then he took the reins in both hands as his companion retook her seat behind him. When he gave them an encouraging flick, the sleigh jolted forward and then disappeared with a great whoosh of air and a flash that took them off into the night.

The camera refocused on Maria again. Like everyone else, she'd caught a present which was strangely addressed to her by name. She was holding it under one arm. For a few moments, she just looked between the sky and the camera. Then she shrugged and let out a long breath.

"I... I don't quite know what to tell you there, David. I guess this year, Santa Claus really is coming to town." With that, Maria threw down her microphone and walked off camera to open her present.

Shortly after that, the feed went black. Though the sound could still be heard, as people had broken out into a chorus of “Rudolph the Red

Nosed Reindeer."

Just after midnight, at a gas station out in the middle of nowhere,

Santa parked up his sleigh nearby and looked over to Callie.

“Right then, hurry up! And bring the reindeer some snacks if they have anything."

“Thanks, Santa!" She leaned over to plant a kiss on his cheek before hopping off the sleigh to run over to the station.

Since he had a moment, he stepped down from the sleigh himself and went across to check on the reindeer. They were clearly itching to get back into the sky, but they didn't complain as he gave each one a pat on their heads. It was only when he finally got to Rudolph that one of his antlered friends spoke up.