It was that time of year again – Christmas. Sarah Calvin, sixteen, hated this time of year. To say she was Scrooge and the Grinch pre-redemption would be relatively accurate, but she had her reason – A reason that she never wanted to think about but this time of year always reminded her of.

Sarah rolled her eyes at the sight of the decorated tree in the living room and went back to her reading of Dracula. Before she let her eyes go back to her book she looked at the clock. Uncle Scott wouldn't be home for a couple of hours yet and then Charlie would be there to spend Christmas Eve with them. Sarah was pretty familiar with the routine by now since she'd been living with her uncle for the past few years since the death of her parents. They willed him full custody of her if anything ever happened to them…and it did.

Sarah let out a deep breath and went back to her reading. It seemed she was sleepier than she thought she was because she barely made it a few sentences in before resting her head on the arm of the sofa and falling asleep.

Sarah awoke a few hours later and looked at the clock – an hour part when Scott was supposed to be home. "Uncle Scott?" she called out but heard nothing in reply.

She threw the blanket off her and got off the sofa to look for him. "Uncle Scott?" she called up the stairs but still nothing. Now she was really starting to worry.

Sarah ran to the phone and started to dial a number frantically but the front door opening with Scott, Charlie, and Charlie's mom coming into the house stopped her. She practically slammed the phone down and shouted at her uncle, "Where were you?! You're late!" Sarah didn't realize her voice was shaking as she addressed him. "You should have called."

Scott didn't think she'd be home so he didn't call to leave her a message that he was late. Yeah, he told Laura that there was traffic but really he stayed late at his job's Christmas party. "I thought you were going caroling with Naomi," he explained. "I would have called if I knew you'd be home."

Sarah completely forgot that she didn't tell Scott that she wasn't going out with her friend and her family to sing Christmas carols. At the time she agreed to it because Naomi wouldn't stop pestering her about going but the last second she cancelled. "I changed my mind," she muttered, feeling embarrassed from her outburst.

Charlie took his cousin's hand and smiled at her, saying, "Come on, let's go check out the presents."

Sarah, never one to deny her little cousin anything – even if it was Christmas related, allowed herself to be pulled along after giving Charlie's mom a quick hello.

Charlie went right to the tree and didn't see many packages there. "There aren't many presents under there," he said to both Sarah and his dad.

"Well, that's because Santa isn't here yet," Scott replied.

Sarah rolled her eyes at that and went into the kitchen to leave Scott to converse with Charlie and Laura. After popping on her headphones, she tuned out what everyone was saying around her and plucked the cookbook from the cupboard. She knew Scott was planning on doing an actual Christmas dinner but she wasn't a good cook and neither was he. Her eyes widened when she saw the turkey cook time and when Scott came over she slid over the book then went over to see what Charlie was up to.

Even through her music, Sarah heard her uncle exclaim, "Four hours?!" and that was the moment she knew they'd be going out for dinner.

Scott tried his best but the meal did not come out like anything he had planned. In fact, it didn't even come out edible. When he finally admitted to this failure of a meal, he packed up Charlie and Sarah in the car and went in search of a place to eat. The go-to restaurant where he and Sarah would eat whenever he was late home from work was closed for the holiday and so was the backup restaurant. This led them to Denny's.

"I don't want to eat here," Charlie said from his slouched sitting position in the front seat.

Sarah didn't particularly want to eat there either but she kept her comments to herself. Her hunger was overshadowing her snark.

Scott, hearing what Charlie said and seeing Sarah's expression, said, "Who doesn't like Denny's? It's an American institution!"

"'American institution'," Sarah scoffed with laughter at the sight of an almost filled dining area filled with Japanese businessmen, "right."

Scott shot her a 'hush up' look before turning his attention to the waitress who came to seat them.

"Are you with Hatsutashi?" the waitress asked the trio.

"Uh, no," Scott answered and Charlie added in, "Dad burnt the turkey."

The waitress did not look surprised to hear this. "Oh, yes, follow me." She led them through the restaurant to a far less crowded area whose patrons appeared to be solo adults with their kids.

Once they were all seated, the waitress asked Scott, "Coffee?"

"No thank you…." Scott took a look at her nametag, "Judy." Turning to the kids, he picked up the advertisement, saying, "How about we start off with nice cold glasses of egg nog."

"I don't like eggnog," Sarah and Charlie answered in almost perfect unison.

"We're out," Judy informed them, making Scott say, "Coffee. Decaf."

"I'll have chocolate milk, please," Charlie ordered only to be told they were out. With a sigh of disappointment, he said, "Plain milk's fine."

"Same," Sarah added in, not wanting to play another round of 'we're out'.

Judy finished writing it down and went off to get their drinks. When she heard Scott say to the kids, "At least they've got hot apple pie," she instantly told them, "We did," in a sing-songy tone.

"Of course." Sarah crossed her arms and slumped down in her seat a bit. All Sarah wanted to do was go home and go to bed just to get this holiday over with.

Scott saw the look on her face and the look on his son's and tried to smile, saying, "Well, this is nice." Just as Sarah was about to open her mouth to speak, he pleaded, "Don't say it."

Sarah just slumped down even further to make it clear she was not enjoying herself. Whether or not her sixteen year old self was acting immature or not, she didn't care. She hated Christmas and this whole situation and was going to make damn sure her uncle knew it.

Finally back home and ready for bed, Sarah walked down the hall to her room but stopped when she heard Scott read 'The Night Before Christmas' to Charlie for a bed time story. Sarah slowly moved to the wall next to the door and sat down to listen in.

Sarah could quote the entire book from memory if she wanted to because of her parents. Sarah's parents were the most Christmasy people you'd have ever met. They did everything one could think of over the holiday season and on Christmas Eve they used to act out the same story Scott was reading to Charlie right then. Even Sarah's middle name was Noel because they loved the holiday so much.

Her thoughts were pulled back to the present when she heard Scott rush to the end – Charlie must have fallen asleep. Sarah quickly and quietly got to her feet and went down to her room, closing the door behind her.

"I hate Christmas," she said to herself as she climbed into bed and pulled the blankets over her head. Sarah only pulled them down because she heard the door open and saw her uncle open the door just enough to stick his head through.

"Can I come in?" Scott asked in a quiet voice in case Charlie was asleep.

Sarah nodded, bringing herself into a sitting position.

Scott came in and sat down on the edge of her bed. "I know how hard this time of year is for you and I…" he sighed a bit before adding in, "I want to thank you for sticking it out for Charlie's sake. It means a lot to him and to me."

Sarah didn't say anything in response to that and Scott wasn't going to make her. He simply said what she was thinking, "I miss them, too." Scott gave his niece's hand a squeeze then got to his feet with a, "Goodnight, Sarah."

"Goodnight, Uncle Scott." When he closed the door Sarah slouched back down and covered her head with her blankets once again before crying herself to sleep.

Sarah jolted awake with a gasp some time later when she heard a loud thud on the roof. "What the Dickens?" she exclaimed – something her mother used t say. She got out of bed and went out into the hall to find Charlie rushing out of his room saying, "It's a clatter!", before darting to his dad's room.

Sarah rubbed her eyes because she had no idea if she was dreaming or not but the sounds were definitely coming from the roof. A moment later Scott came down the hall and she asked him, "What's going on?"

"There's someone on the roof," he replied. "Stay in your room."

Sarah held up her hands in a 'whatever' fashion before getting back to bed but she wasn't there for long before Charlie came in and jumped on her.

"It could be Santa!" he exclaimed. "Don't you want to see?"

Sarah was about to tell to just go back to bed but one look at the hopeful and slightly excited look on his face made her change her mind. "Alright," she groaned. "I'll change."

"I'll go get my coat!" Charlie darted back down to his room to put something warmer on along with his coat and boots.

Sarah rolled her eyes as she pulled a pair of sweat pants over her pajamas and a long sleeved shirt over the tee shirt she was wearing before getting into her coat and boots as well.

She met up with Charlie downstairs wanting nothing more than to get back into bed but she couldn't disappoint him, so she went along with what he wanted to do – see if it was actually Santa on the roof. Sarah had to practically jump off the stairs to catch up with Charlie on the front lawn and laughed incredulously at the sight in front of their eyes – Santa.

There was a guy in a Santa suit in the snow in front of their house. "Some lunatic was on our roof?" Sarah couldn't believe how crazy some people could get at Christmas…then again…yes she could. It's not like her father didn't do something similar for her one year. Only at the time she didn't know it was him and he didn't fall off the roof.

"It's not a lunatic," Charlie countered. "It's Santa!" He then spoke to his father, "And you killed him."

"I did not kill him," Scott defended. "And he's not Santa."

"Well, he was." Charlie sounded so utterly and completely disappointed that it almost broke Sarah's heart. Charlie's love of Christmas was one of the things that reminded Sarah about her father the most. They both shared such a strong belief in things – even if they never laid eyes upon it themselves.

"Let's see if he's got some ID on him before we jump to any conclusions, okay?" Sarah spoke softly to her cousin, not wanting to burst his 'Santa bubble', then she swatted Scott's arm to get him going in the looking for the ID department.

Scott took the cue and crouched next to the guy in the Santa suit. "Fella, if you can hear me, I'm just looking for some kind of identification. Once I figure out who you are, I'll give you a lift back to the mall." He found a card in the guy's pocket that read 'Santa Claus, North Pole' on the front and turned it around to read with both Charlie and Sarah looking over his shoulder. "If something should happen to me, put on my suit. The reindeer will know what to do." He chuckled incredulously, "Yeah right," at that.

All three of them heard bells after that and once looks were exchanged, they raced to the street in order to get a better look at the roof. What was up there shocked them all – a team of reindeer attached to a sleigh. Sarah looked right at her uncle and said as quiet as she could while still sounding firm, "Uncle Scott, if this is some elaborate thing to get me back into Christmas you better tell me right now."

Scott, with his eyes wide and mouth hanging open, shook his head. This was not his doing and he had no idea how they got up there.

Sarah saw the genuine shock in his eyes and her own were once more filled with the same. "Then how…what…" Her eyes returned to where the Santa guy was and found he wasn't there anymore. "He's gone!"

Charlie looked over there as well. "Dad! He's disappeared—Whoa!"

Scott pulled himself out of his 'wtf is going on' mode and followed the kids over to the abandoned Santa Suit. "He's naked somewhere."

"You gonna put on the suit like the card said?" Charlie instantly asked, hoping that he would. "Are you?"

"No," Scott instantly answered, still trying to make sense of all this. "No."

"Come on, Dad," Charlie pleaded with a bit of a whine. "I wanna go too!"

"Charlie, stop it," Scott firmly replied. "We're not going anywhere."

"Come on, Uncle Scott," Sarah interjected as she pulled on her blue knit hat and mittens of her own making because she was cold. "Be a good sport."

"Why don't you put on the suit then?" he countered with a 'what are you gonna do about that' kind of attitude.

"And wake up with a white beard on my face one day?" Sarah laughed, going along with this like it was actually happening even though she thought it was a dream. "I'll pass."

"Will you both please be quiet for a minute while I figure this out?" Scott asked of them and started to pace in an attempt to do just that.

Sarah nudged the suit with her foot just to be sure that there was no one in there. It didn't look like it but hey, she had to be sure. This night was already filled with weird abnormalities, what was one more?

"Sarah, look," Charlie said to her as he pulled on her coat sleeve and pointed in awe. "It's the ladder."

Sarah turned just in time to see Scott walk right into it. She laughed as he shouted, "Where the hell did this come from?!"

Charlie grabbed Sarah's hand and pulled her along over to the ladder. After climbing a few rungs, he read off, "Look. The Rose Suchak Ladder Company." At his dad's 'huh?' he added in, "Out by the roof there's a Rose Suchak Ladder. Like the poem."

As Scott was trying to figure that one out, Charlie and Sarah both climbed the ladder to the roof. Charlie wanted to see the reindeer for himself up close and Sarah wasn't going to let him go up there alone.

"What was in that milk at Denny's?" Sarah thought aloud as she walked closer to the reindeer with Charlie. "This can't be happening. There's no way this is real."

"Don't you believe in Santa?" Charlie asked his cousin, hoping she still did.

Sarah didn't answer that and went over to the sleigh to see if there was anything in there that could explain what the hell was going on. By this point, Scott was on the roof with them, the Santa Suit in hand, telling Charlie to stay away from the reindeer.

"Uncle Scott, this is just getting weirder by the second," Sarah wasn't sure how much longer she could put the act for Charlie. All this Christmas stuff was getting under her skin and sooner or later she was going to scream.

Charlie climbed into the seat beside Sarah and said, "It's not weird, it's great!" He took the reins happily. "Come on, Dad. Come check out Santa's Sleigh."

"There's no such thing as Satan's Sleigh," Scott countered as he joined them.

"Sure there is," Charlie retorted. "You said you believed in Santa. Right?"

Scott was quick to change his tune. "I did? I do."

"How you gonna explain there reindeer, Unc?" Sarah asked with crossed arms as she settled into the seat.

"They're Santa's reindeer, aren't they?" Charlie inquired, figuring that had to be it.

"I hope not." Scott went over to one of them and said the first thing that came to his mind. "These are…a gift. Probably from the cable company. We're getting the Disney Channel now. Merry Christmas."

Sarah's snicker at that quickly turned into a cough to mask it.

Scott shot her a bit of a look before saying, "Now, how about you two hop out of there, please."

Charlie held onto the reins tighter as he looked at Sarah who started to lean forward to get up and his Dad who clearly wanted them to get out. "I don't want to go."

Scott wasn't in the mood for this and climbed into the Sleigh a bit to make himself more clear. "I'm not playing around, Charlie. Let's go!"

That was apparently all the reindeer needed to hear because once those words came out of Scott's mouth they took off running off the roof before flying in the sky. Sarah screamed while Charlie took the reins and enjoyed the ride and Scott fell into the back of the sleigh with his feet sticking up in the air.

"I want to wake up now!" Sarah shouted as she held on for dear life – no pun intended.

The reindeer were flying above the ground but down upon the street, right next to a delivery truck. Scott climbed in front and took the reins from Charlie who was now sitting between Sarah and himself. With reins in hand, he looked at the driver in the truck beside them and tried to be all casual by asking for directions, "So, if we go straight on this road and we hit I-94…" He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence because the reindeer pulled up and took off towards the roof of another house well across town.

Sarah – who hated heights among other things – screamed out, "I hate Christmas!" just before they landed on the roof. Once landed, she got out of the sleigh as quickly as she could and found she was shaking like a leaf. "I don't know what's going on here but I don't want anything to do with it!"

Charlie looked upset at her words. "I thought you loved Christmas…"

"I hate it!" Sarah shouted back. "I'm sorry, Charlie, but I hate Christmas even more than I hate heights. I've tried to keep face for you but after all this…I'm done!" She walked away as far as she could without getting too close to the edge of this flat roofed house.

Scott asked Charlie to stay in the Sleigh before going over to Sarah. "Sarah…"

She cut him off before he could say anything else to her. "There's nothing you can say to change how I feel, Uncle Scott. So I'm going back into the Sleigh only to be taken home and then I'm done with Christmas forever. I can't take this anymore."

Scott didn't try stopping her when she climbed into the back of the Sleigh without saying a word.

Charlie looked so sad as he turned back to face her and said, "I'm sorry you don't like Christmas anymore."

Scott got back into the Sleigh with a sigh. "How do we get this thing moving? What's next?"

"Get the bag of toys," Charlie instantly answered.

"You want your dad to deliver toys in a stranger person's house? Wouldn't that break like a dozen laws?" Sarah still couldn't believe this was happening.

Charlie turned right around to face her. "The toys need to get delivered before we can go home. Are you going to help or not?"

Sarah let out a deep exhale and tossed the bag beside her into the front of the Sleigh. "It's empty. Can we go home now?"

"No," Charlie countered. "Dad needs to put on the suit and go down the chimney."

Sarah held up her hands in an 'I'm out' way and slumped into the seat, completely ignoring the verbal game of catch between Scott and Charlie about putting on the suit and going into the house. Scott finally caved though and did it. She shook her head at this and said again, "The bag's empty. Can we go home now?"

Scott, now wearing the Santa Suit picked up the bag to show Charlie it was indeed empty only to find that it wasn't. "Okay…this is weird…"

Sarah stood up and gasped as the Bag started to rise into the air, taking Scott along with him. "What the what?!"

"Looking good, Dad," Charlie laughed and watched with a pleasing eye as his father got sucked down into the chimney.

Sarah saw this with her own eyes but holy crap she just couldn't believe it. "I'm going insane. I need a CAT scan or something…"

"This wouldn't be so weird if you still believed in Santa," Charlie told her before looking back to the chimney, waiting for his father to come out.

Sarah thought Charlie would probably be right about that but she didn't believe in Santa or Christmas anymore and doubted she ever would again because of what this holiday took away from her.

This went on all night Scott went from house to house getting pulled up into the air and getting sucked into chimneys of various sizes – many of them never should have been able to be accessed by a human of any size. It got to the point where Sarah stopped trying to figure it out and chalked it up to this being an elaborate dream that she just couldn't seem to wake herself up from.

Finally the last of the toys were delivered and Scott called out cheerfully to the reindeer that they could go home and when he woke up he was gonna get a CAT scan. Sarah chuckled at that, "I said the same thing."

"Maybe we'll get a two for one special," Scott laughed then called out "Ho! Ho! Ho!"

Sarah rolled her eyes, saying, "Oh, don't you start. I'd move out if you started being all Christmasy 24-7."

Scott looked at her over a sleeping Charlie and assured, "Don't worry, Sarah. That's never going to happen."

End Part 1