Santa’s Secret

“Well, Rudolph, my old red-nosed buddy”, said Santa, “I won’t be doing this for much longer.”

“Really?”, said Rudolph.

“Kids today have it all; they’re not fussed about some random fat man coming around once a year.”

Rudolph’s nose began to glow. Santa continued,

“When I first started out, a kid would be thrilled to get an orange or a balloon. I once turned up at one house having forgotten the present. So I just painted a great big lump of coal red and he was over the moon. Kids today? You can’t satisfy them.”

They stood in silence for a bit.

“What about Christmas?”, asked Rudolph.

“What of it?”, replied Santa.

“Well, I mean, the true spirit, apart from the cynical commercialism and all that”, said Rudolph

“Well, it’s a funny thing, Rudolph. It wasn’t mentioned when I applied for this job but I’ll let you into a secret. I’m a Buddhist.”

“How strange”, said Rudolph, becoming that excited, his nose seemed on the verge of meltdown, “me too!”

(171 words)

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Written for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers Photo Prompt – Week #196.

This week’s Flash Fiction story was inspired by the picture kindly provided by Akshata Ram.

Thanks Akshata!

In fact, I’m all for Christmas and have no issue with Santa being Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Sikh, Jain or whatever. I’m not religious but I’m not anti-religious. It’s all a fascinating aspect of being human.

The rules for FFFAW are all explained HERE or click on the black box right, or on the blue FROG button below to read other stories submitted.