𝙄'𝙢 𝙎𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙘, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜...

      Do you believe in Santa Claus and Christmas? I personally have always believed and known that the magic of Christmas and Grandfather himself, who comes from the chimney and brings gifts, exist. I was even one hundred percent convinced that this really existed when I saw it with my own eyes. You know how it happens! They say that if you don't see it yourself, you'll never believe it. However, it happens that if you don’t believe, then you will never see it. After all, in order for a couple to see something, they must believe it! And I was lucky when I saw the real Santa Claus, especially when I decided to replace him, not even knowing that he would actually fly to us.

***

      It was the first of December outside, the first day of winter, and I joyfully ran out into the street, greeting the first snowfall. Snow! So white, fluffy, cold and beautiful. I liked the winter that came at the end of every year. I was so happy about this that I went out into the street and sang to the whole village: ♪ Mobius is shining brightly. ♪ ♪ A hundred gates open. ♪ ♪ And I know that for sure. ♪ ♪ Our new year will be successful. ♪ I go out into the street and meet everyone I meet on the way, I sing about each of them: ♪ Here is our mayor going to work. ♪ ♪ Amy Rose is chasing me as always. ♪ ♪ My village, it’s cozy and sweet. ♪ ♪ She will always be like this when the holiday comes here. ♪ After a pause in the chorus, I danced on my red sneakers on the table of one of the restaurants, and behind me, one of the waiters also danced on the table in support. Until the rest of the waiters and clients joined him. I move on and continue to sing: ♪ The clear morning has arrived. ♪ ♪ Hundreds of rays sparkle. ♪ ♪ And I know that for sure. ♪ ♪ Our new girl will be successful. ♪ Suddenly cold and icy water splashed on me. I felt so cold and I saw Shadow standing next to me, who poured it out of that bucket on me. I was so angry and grumbled through my teeth: — Shadow, this is not funny at all! Do you want me to get sick from the cold? — Come to your senses and stop acting like you're in some kind of musical! We have a lot to do. — he answers me and leaves to the side. I had to quickly return home, warm myself near an oil radiator running on electricity, dip my bare feet in warm water in the bathroom, and drink hot tea to warm up. In my soul I hated Shadow for such a stupid joke and almost cursed him. He ruined such a wonderful moment with a good mood for me. By the way, I decided to do it like that cat from the children's book. I took a piece of cake, poured some more hot tea, ran a full bath and decided to eat the cake in the bath with tea, washed my face and tried to calm down, so as to forget about what this bastard had done. I decided to calm down, so to speak, and try to forget this moment that this nit ruined. About a week later, namely the tenth of December, I kind of forgot about this moment and went outside, and it became even more beautiful there than then. There was even more snow that the wipers began to remove and sweep it away, working diligently. And the sun with the blue sky above was beautiful. Even Silver admired both the sky and the snow on the ground. He was sitting on a bench next to my house. Amy made this bench herself. She wanted to give me a surprise and save it until the New Year, but she decided not to delay and gave it to me in advance, in case she suddenly forgot. In this regard, she is even great. In addition, not only me, but also neighbors or guests who come to my home can sit and relax. — Hello, Sonic. — he says to me, noticing me. I greeted him too: — Hello, Silver. — What a beautiful day today, Sonic. Is not it? — Well, of course. — I agreed with him. — I hope you behaved well this year? I'm just making a reference to Santa Claus. — Of course. What are you... No? — he asks me, a little perplexed. — Why? I was also obedient, but Shadow, apparently, was not. He even ruined one wonderful moment for me. He definitely doesn't deserve gifts, in my opinion. — You can’t be so rude to others, Sonic. — Silver assured me. — After all, New Year is a holiday when everything and everyone deserves a holiday. And it doesn’t matter who behaved in something. Santa probably doesn't care what Shadow did to you. Sonic, give him a chance. Surely he has already corrected himself, realizing the conditions of the holiday and what he had done. — No. You know Shadow himself, how gloomy and stubborn he is. — I answer him. — He will never change or improve. I already know him. — Well, don’t think so badly of him. If you call a person a pig, then of course he will grunt. — Silver tells me the opposite. — Give him a chance! I grumbled through pouting lips. I wanted to believe Silver, but I didn’t seem to want to. I didn't even know what to do. Silver just grabbed me by the shoulder and added: — Everything will be okay. Everything will be alright. Afterwards he got up and went about his business, and I remained on my bench and sat alone, thinking about the upcoming holiday, which was still far away. About another week passed and by this time I had managed to buy myself a lot of food and extra things. I myself didn’t understand why I bought so much if I didn’t need all this. He was just very good and earned too much, but had nowhere to put the money. But I came up with something better. I will give all the extra things and food as gifts to all my friends at the holiday. This afternoon I decided to stop by Amy's house in advance to not only visit her, but also to find out what she would like for Christmas. I ran to her house and she, as always, greeted me with her hugs. I also returned her hug and said: — Why did I come to you? I want to know what you want from Santa for Christmas? Well, or from me. I just want to know in advance and prepare so I don’t forget. She looked at me slyly and scratched her chin, after which she told me: — I don’t need anything from Santa. But if you are going to give me a gift, then I don’t even know what I want from you. Either a kiss on the lips, or some beautiful ring with a diamond, or a night in bed together, and even in an embrace. No, if you don't want this or that or the other, then fine. You can think of what to give me. In any case, I will be glad to see your gift and will accept it from you. You know me. — Yes, Amy. — I answer her briefly, smiling and nodding. Then I leave, and she waves at me. Oddly enough, I decided to please Amy herself with the gift she wanted. Overall, I still had a little extra money at home. Therefore, I decided to run to some jewelry store and buy a small ring for my finger with a large and beautiful red diamond. This diamond was so wonderful and so red, like Amy’s own clothes, like the eyes of that ugly Shadow, like blood and like the ripest apples. Although my favorite color was blue, I also liked red a little. I'm sure even Amy herself likes it too. And again about another week has passed. Approximately, because it was already December thirty-first. When midnight comes, twelve o'clock strikes and the first of January arrives, then the New Year itself will begin. I was looking forward to this moment and was already prepared for it in advance. My mood was still good until he came to visit me. Shadow knocked on my door and when I opened the door, seeing him, my happy face with a good mood changed to a stern one. Shadow himself had a sad look and his eyes clearly felt some kind of shame. I said grumblingly: — You again? Have you come to spoil my good mood, just like you did on the first of December? Do you want to ruin my holiday? He shook his head in response and said: — I came to apologize. Silver told me about how you sang then and what you felt at that moment. I didn't think about such a consequence and decided to apologize. I widened my eyes with indignation and answered with a question: — Apologize?... You, Shadow, always, as at the beginning of this place, mocked me, on the first of December you didn’t even apologize right away, but only now came to me on the thirty-first of December and only now decided to apologize to me? He looked away for a couple of seconds, clearly out of shame, fussed a little and answered me: — Yes. I was outraged to the point of anger. He slapped himself on the forehead with his right palm and started a scandal: — You know what, Shadow, you are incorrigible! You will never change. You have always been boastful and proud, telling everyone left and right that you are supposedly the perfect form of life. And besides, you constantly mocked me, insulted me and spoiled my good mood. Do you even want to ruin the New Year for me so that I celebrate it poorly and spend the next year poorly? If you're hoping that you'll only apologize for this thing that you did almost a month ago and didn't really apologize for anything else. And just now, just to receive a gift, you will never receive it. Because you don't deserve any gifts for the New Year. And you know what! From this day until next year, I never want to see or hear from you again. After I expressed all this to him, I hit him with my left palm on his right cheek, like a wife hitting her husband. Shadow didn't even have time to think to dodge or grab my hand. Having received a slap from me, he hissed through his teeth so as not to cry out in pain and grabbed his cheek. I looked at him menacingly out of resentment, and then loudly slammed the door in his face. I was so angry with him that day that I didn’t even really want to see or hear him. True, I stood still for now and decided to listen to the steps as he left. He hasn't left for a long time yet. I only heard the sounds of him clearly sighing heavily either from despair or shame. And only then did he slowly leave the porch of my house. From what I heard, I myself felt a little ashamed of what I had done and said to him. I even thought: — “Has he really realized everything, and I shouldn’t be treating him like that? Now he himself is probably offended by me?... No. He himself is to blame. And suddenly he somehow found out that I was standing outside the door, listening to him, and he deliberately sighed and pretended to do so, just so that I could hear it? It may very well be!” With these thoughts, I waved my hand towards the door and decided to drink a hot hour with Masao tea leaves from India itself. They say it helps. True, when I poured myself one cup, it was as if, due to hallucinations, I saw the reflection of Shadow’s head, who was looking at me sadly and almost crying. I quickly shook my head and patted my cheeks. The reflection of Shadow's head was still displayed. He lowered his gaze and shook his head. Then his reflection changed to Silver's head, who looked at me with shame and said: — Eh, Sonic-Sonic! Afterwards, his reflection disappears, replaced by my face with the same state that I now had — Surprised and sad. For the first time in my life I was ashamed of what I had done. Throughout the day, I received a lot of SMS on my mobile phone from all my friends and even enemies, who congratulated me in advance on the upcoming day. Some wished me all the best, and some of my enemies even wished for me to die. Phew, this will come back to haunt them in the future sooner or later. Interestingly, among those who congratulated him with kindness and good wishes was Shadow himself. Or it was a trick with his next pretense so that I would believe him and he again ruined everything for me... Or he really realized everything only after I yelled at him. I decided to write answers with worldly gratitude to everyone who congratulated me. Everyone except Shadow himself. I understand that New Year is when everyone should forgive everyone, not hold a grudge against anyone and always be friendly with each other. Even when we are enemies. But still resentment towards Shadow for what he did then. How I hated him then and wanted to forget about him. That's what I thought about him then. Then midnight came and everyone welcomed the New One. Even Eggman was happy to meet him. At super speed, I very quickly ran to everyone’s house, visited them in turn and even talked to them. I myself dressed up as Santa and even powdered all my blue colors, needles and fur with peach color so that no one would recognize me. Even Silver. Everyone, friends and enemies alike, were surprised to see me and decided that I was not only the real Santa, but even Father Frost. I chose Santa Claus because I like him better and he is known all over the world much more than some Slavic grandfather from Veliky Ustyug. Even kids like Cream and Charmy were happy to see me like this and didn't recognize me, which was good for me. In addition to the powder, I also put a large and long red nose on my nose, similar to Eggman’s own nose. Only the mustache was smaller and the beard was still large. The mustache and beard were gray, and I also specially glued them to my lips so that they could not remove it. Some incredulous people even tried to remove my beard from cotton wool, and when I groaned slightly in pain, they also believed that the beard was real and that I, like Santa, was real. I gave out my pre-purchased gifts to everyone as planned. They were all happy with my gifts and thanked me. Some even asked me to take a photo with them as a souvenir. Well, will you really be one? I ran around our entire village, visited everyone and gave gifts to everyone. Last on the list were Shadow and Amy. I didn’t really want to go to Shadow and congratulate him, because I was offended by him. True, I noticed by chance in the window how sad he was sitting by the fireplace and crying. And he also constantly said to himself about me: — It looks like he will never forgive me for this incident in early December?... What did I do? Now I'm definitely convinced. He really realized everything and really came to apologize then. While I was thinking about this, I didn’t notice how Shadow opened the window in front of me, frightening me and sternly asked: — Grandfather, who are you? And why are you spying on me? Thank Chaos, he didn’t recognize me at first either. But still, a holiday is a holiday. I decided to forgive him anyway and answered: — Didn't recognize me? — No... Do we know each other? — Well, of course. It's me... Everyone's favorite and world-famous Santa Claus. — I introduced myself to him, stretching my arms to the sides. I didn’t know about it at first, but judging by his sly look, he guessed from my boastful presentation that I was Sonic. But he didn’t let on that he understood this and pretended that he saw Santa in front of him and not me. — Are you really real? — What about it? I even brought you a well-deserved gift, because you behaved well all year, and even realized your mistakes and tried to correct them. With these words of mine, he became even more convinced that it was me. I didn't think about it then. I took out the last gift for Shadow himself, which I initially wanted to keep only for myself. However, now I wanted to give it to him. It was a new electronic wristwatch that was canceled up to twenty-four hours. He accepted my gift, thanked me and I got ready to leave. — Wait! — He extended his hand from the window and I turned to him in the window. — Don't forget about Sonic! — he answers me. I was even more surprised. Although I didn’t even suspect then that he said it that way on purpose, knowing that it was me. — I know he will never forgive me for what I did then. But then I thought that I did the right thing. I thought he was just sick or crazy. That's why I wanted to pour it on him as a joke so that he would come to his senses. I didn't think he would be so angry. But now I’m really ashamed of it, it’s not funny at all anymore, and yet I don’t have anything negative against him. And I was never against friendship with him. Of course, he sometimes annoyed me with how overly positive he was and how he tried to prove to me that he was cooler than me. And yet... I like him. If you come to congratulate him as well, then tell him that I am to blame for everything and... I want him to forgive me and talk to me again. I give my word that from now on I will never mock him like that again. After all this speech of his, I thought about it and answered him: — I’ll do everything I can, Shadow. — I take your word for it! Then he smiled at me and said: — Thank you, Sonic. — he said and closed the window. I bulged my eyes and opened my mouth, not understanding how he guessed right? In any case, I'm already done here and have already gone to give the last gift for Amy. Before that, I returned home, washed my face, poured water on my lips to wash off the glue and remove my beard, changed my clothes and ran to the hedgehog. Amy had already gone to bed by this time and then, unexpectedly for her, I came running. — Sonic? — This is for you! — I tell her, showing the box and showing the same ring with a red diamond. She opened her mouth and pressed her palms to her cheeks. She really liked my gift. But that is not all. The second gift was a kiss on the lips for one second, which I gave her when she took the ring itself and began to try it on. Two gifts were ready. — Happy New Year, Amy. Afterwards, I pretended that I was about to leave and expected that she would grab me by the hand and offer to stay with her in such cold weather for the night. She eventually did it, and I pretended to think about it at first, and then immediately agreed. After that, she took me to her bed and we slept together in an embrace. This was already the third gift. And the next day, when I returned home, I saw a letter above my door from Santa himself and his own gift for me. It was the hottest chili dog ever, and the letter said: — Dear Sonic, you behaved very well tonight and did a very good job, replacing me while I was busy in other cities, and also raising faith in me in this village so that everyone believed that I really exist. For this, I gave you in advance as a gift what you love more than anything in the world. With love, Santa Claus. I even heard him sing from above: “Ho-ho-ho.” I raised my head above me and saw him, him - a real and living Santa on reindeer and a sleigh with a team. He even waved goodbye to me. I couldn’t believe my eyes then. Does the real Santa really exist? So, trying to raise everyone in the village’s faith in him, I literally helped Santa? For me, this was a real New Year's gift. Having completely digested everything in my head, I smiled and also waved goodbye to him.

***

      Are you ready to forgive your enemies during the holidays? And have you always believed that Santa Claus really exists?