Naughty or Nice by Ananya Gulati

“It is almost Christmas! And I can see everyone’s faces lightning up as I say this. This year we are going to have the best Christmas of the century, without anything going wrong. Each one of you are invited to the grand party tonight!” announced the Mayor of Milbill.

The town looked beautiful -the snow lay like cotton on the cobbled paths. The trees, once full of green leaves, were embodied with pearly white snow. All the ponds were frozen, and perfect for ice skating. The icy wind made everyone’s hats shake. The view looked surreal, too magical to be true. The Christmas spirit was seen all around – people were feeling merry and joyful – no matter where you go something Christmassy was ought to be going on. The kids were singing carols, nans were making cookies and mince pies, snowball fights were being held and snowmen were being made. A cheerful vibe was being spread far and wide. Everyone was excited about the party that was going to be held that night.

“It’s going to be a blast,” said Maya to her friends Noah and Lily.

“Better go ready, the party is going to start in an hour” replied Lily,

“Yup!” agreed Noah.

“Bye Noah! Bye Lily! See you at the party.”

The party was lavish, every arrangement was spectacular. The ribbons were embodied on the wall exquisitely, the disco was busting with colours. The food was scrumptious. Maya leaped around with excitement while her curly hair waved from side to side as she moved! Nothing could possibly go wrong…except…

“Apologies everyone, the electricity of the entire town has gone, and it looks like it is not coming any time soon, until Christmas, because the conductor broke, and the electricians have gone away on holiday,” reported the mayor.

“But with the electricity gone, there would be no heating. And it is extremely cold,” shouted a woman from the crowd.

“We will freeze to death!” screamed another voice.

“Yes, I realize everyone’s troubles, and that is why we have arranged a guest hall for all of you! Since everyone will be together, the room will be covered by warmth, and we are also trying to collect coal for everyone, but no promises since that process takes time,” hesitated the mayor, “We will also be providing mattresses, food and quilts to all of you.”

There was a long hustling and bustling in the crowd, everyone unwillingly dragged themselves to the guest hall, it was a huge place, not very hygienic. And it did not have a festive vibe!

“This doesn’t feel right,” whispered Noah.

“Yeah, Noah is right, I mean I love sleepovers but this not what I meant,” commented Lily.

“Guys, at least we are all together, we will figure something out! But right now, we need to go to bed, so let’s go to our families and set up our mattresses. Hopefully we can be next to each other,” encouraged Maya.

“Good night,” replied the other two.

The next day – Maya, Noah and Lily woke up late, to see everyone’s sullen faces.

Maya dragged the other two and whispered to them

“Listen, I have a plan to get enough coal for everyone, because sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty. And then instead of normal presents we are going to get coal!”

Lily’s face lit up, but Noah looked doubtful –

“That is an excellent plan, but we have to raise our naughty graph really high to get enough coal to heat the whole town” he said

“Are you serious Noah, being naughty is our thing,” replied Lily as she jumped up and down with excitement.

“All, I am trying is say is that we need a plan and a list of naughty things we are going to do.”

“Alright, alright, Mr. Perfect we shall do that” giggled Lily

“So, it’s settled,” smiled Maya.

All three of them started doing naughty things like staying up past their bedtime, sneaking sweets before dinner, complaining ‘I am bored’ all the time but that wasn’t enough. They had to step up their game.

It was Christmas Eve, and the time was 6 pm, this was their last chance do naughty things and they planned to do three extremely cheeky things.

First all three of them skipped the long queue to buy Christmas crackers, rung people’s doorbells, and to add fuel to the fire they started a food fight at dinner! All these things left people around them enraged. But they were really happy.

It was finally night but none of them could sleep!

“I am too excited; do you think Santa has been there yet? Should we go check.” said Lily with a grin busting on her cheeks.

“Yeah, let’s go!” whispered Noah.

“Alright!” agreed Maya.

But as they got out of their mattresses, they saw the most magical sight, they saw Santa himself. His red outfit, his white beard, his sparkling sack. He was better than anyone imagined! He turned to the kids and said – “You guys are the naughtiest nicest kids in the world!”

“So are you going to give us coal Santa?” questioned Maya.

“Yes, but not only coal, you guys are going to get your normal presents too, because are on my naughty list and my nice list!”

“I don’t understand, why?” asked Maya.

“You really have to ask him that,” whispered Lily.

Santa grinned!

“You guys only became naughty to get enough coal for the whole town, and that is the nicest thing a kid has ever done! Merry Christmas! Ho! Ho! Ho!”

“Bye Santa!” shouted the kids!

The next day seeing the coal everyone started grinning, and just in case you are wondering, the electricity came after the two weeks, but everyone went home since they got enough coal to heat their houses!

And that year the town did have the best Christmas of the century!

By Ananya Gulati