"Santa Claus is coming to town" [Writer's contest 3]

As a child, Christmas was my favorite time of the year, the weather was very soothing and most importantly, my uncles and aunts were usually in a very ‘’giving-mood.’’ The house was always filled with hampers containing lots of goodies, I could literally smell Christmas.

I recall when I was 8; our headmistress announced during the morning assembly that Santa Claus would be visiting schools daily, but our school would be exempted if we were not well-behaved (back then, that was a serious threat).

In our neat formation, we walked back to our classroom. That day, a class record was broken; a sheet of paper was saved, as the class captain did not need to write the ‘names of noise-makers.’

Even after school hours, the boys that would usually run across the hallway to get to the playground first were walking like angels. ”This is good, but Santa Claus’ visit had better be worth it” I thought to myself, as I listened to the music playing through the speakers (he’s making a list….checking it twice….wanna find out if you’re naughty or nice…Santa Claus is coming to town).

Our ‘well-behaved’ behavior continued for 2 days, the headmistress finally announced that we had been good students; therefore Santa’s visit would happen the next day. To top up the good news, she said we could put on our party clothes while coming to school.

When I got home that day, I pestered my mother until she agreed that I could put on my new pink and white striped gown. Morning came, and I was the first to wake up at home, I went to peep at my gown where it was hanging (not like I slept much though, I kept on having nightmares where my gown got missing).

My siblings and I were ready for school at 6:45am, the earliest we had ever been. My Mum put the last piece of hair decoration on my hair; the hairstyle was ‘Evelyn king’ my favorite one then.

“If any of you should get your cloth dirty, you will wash it yourself’’ we all laughed at our mother’s threat after she dropped us off. My two best friends Kachi and Daniela were already in school, they were waiting for me at the gate. “Wow, your dress is beautiful” Kachi said. Daniela was still too stunned to drop any comment, I blushed, feeling like Beyonce in the midst of Kelly and Michelle.

Our teacher told us that Santa would see the younger kids first before getting to us, so we had to wait in the multi-purpose school hall. One by one, the children strolled into the artificial manger that was constructed. Some of them came out happy and eager to open their gifts, while some kept on crying; maybe those were the naughty ones.

While observing, I noticed another Santa go into the manger while the one seated there went out through the door behind. Nobody seemed to notice, so I told my friends that I needed to pee. ”Don’t stay long, it’s almost our turn” Daniela said.

Immediately I stepped out, I saw Santa-1 walking to one of the classrooms with a package in his hand. He had no idea he was being followed, as all the other students were still in the hall.

He sat on a chair, took off the Santa hat and beard and started devouring the chicken which was part of the contents of the package he took along. Lo and behold, from my peeping corner, I noticed that it was Mr. Frank, the teacher that rarely smiled. You need to see how happy he was while consuming the chicken.

I walked back to the hall, wondering which teacher was acting as Santa-2. “What took you so long?” Kachi asked. “I think our headmistress is a liar” I whispered.

NAME:  Prisca Ilozumba