Of course I'm not eligible to enter the Christmas Writers Contest, so I'll put my story here. Merry Christmas everyone.

Roger slipped into the one-piece jumpsuit typically worn while inside the deep space observation station. The jumpsuit wasn’t a required uniform, any clothing could be worn, but it was the only clean thing he had at the moment – he really needed to do laundry, but until they passed the ice belt again, there was a strict water rationing onboard. He left his quarters and walked out to the living space he shared with his parents, both of whom were curled up on the couch watching Frosty the Snowman. His parents were exoplanetary biologists, but even scientists needed a break, especially on Christmas Eve. “Roger, come watch Frosty with us,” says his mother. “Mom, you know we’ve had the scanners and deep-space telescope scheduled for months, I can’t skip out on the other kids,” replied Roger checking his watch. It was almost 2100, and they would only have the observation lab for 30 minutes. “Okay, dear, have fun,” replied his mother. “It’s a very serious experiment,” said Roger. “Space Command approved our hypothesis and the subsequent observational experiment.” “Some things should be taken on faith, son,” says Dad. Roger didn’t want to argue, but that just wasn’t true. A real scientist followed the data no matter where it went, and he might only be twelve, but he’d passed the intense Space Command testing, just as all the kids had, to earn their science badges and be permitted to come with their parents on the mission to observe possible new colony planets. “I’ll be back by 2200,” says Roger. “The Captain said we can drink our hot chocolate ration tonight after the experiment.” He opened the hatch and stepped out into the hall. The space station rotated at the end of a long tether attached to the main spaceship that had brought them here, which gave them artificial gravity. Peter was already in the hall and checking his tablet. “The Oron Cloud is going to block much of our visuals, but the scanners should work okay,” said Peter. “I did the calculations already,” replied Roger. “We should get a visual of Earth.” The other six kids on the space station were coming towards them. They ranged from seven years old to twelve years old, Roger being the oldest, and Peter just behind him by three weeks. Roger was the official Commander of the kids if they ever had to use an escape shuttle, and Peter would be the pilot. Roger rolled his eyes when he saw Bobby padding along behind the other kids in his one-piece rocket ship pajamas with feet and dragging his favorite Mylar space blanket behind him. Bobby was the seven year old, but a genius at math. “Hey, Bobby, did you figure out the parabola equation?” asked Roger. Bobby looked sleepy, it was already an hour past his bedtime. “Our parabolic curve will bring us within 14.4 billion miles from earth at 16 minutes into the experiment.” Roger led the kids through the space station, the cold sterile environment made a little more cheerful by the Christmas decorations the kids had made and hung on the walls; snowflake cutouts, loops of paper strung together in chains, and even some paper mistletoe made by Alisa and Jennifer, the two eleven year old girls. Roger always avoided the mistletoe, he knew a trap when he saw one, and Alisa always seemed to show up if he went anywhere near the mistletoe. The Captain was out in the hall speaking with a technician and saw them coming. “You kids ready to run your experiment?” asked the Captain. Roger saluted, even though this wasn’t a military ship. He just liked saluting. “Yes, Sir.” “Good luck,” said the Captain, saluting back. The kids filed into the observation lab and to their stations. Bobby climbed up to the powerful deep-space telescope station with Alisa. Peter sat at the computer terminal, Jennifer at astro-navigation, Mikey at communications, Tommy at the deep-space sensors, Jack at radio astronomy, and Roger at the Commander’s station. Roger pushed the record button on his control panel. “The time is now 2100, we are beginning experiment 00101. We will observe Earth and seek to prove that Santa does not exist.” “No we’re not,” shouted Bobby. “We’re going to prove Santa does exist.” Roger glanced up at Bobby, and then back at his control panel. “The hypothesis is that for Santa to deliver presents to every boy and girl, he would have to move at the speed of light. If such a thing is occurring, we will be able to measure multiple energy readings of a sled-sized mass traveling around the earth at the speed of light.” “I’ve got the earth at 14.4 billion miles,” said Jack. “I’m seeing sun flares, the northern hemisphere is probably experiencing an aurora borealis.” “I’m reading temperatures in the north hemisphere below freezing,” said Alisa. “It’s snowing there.” “I’ve got a ping,” said Tommy. “Verify it off the Jupiter station,” replied Roger. “It’s a false ping,” said Tommy. “Peter?” said Roger. “I got it,” said Peter. “We knew our parents were going to try to trick us. It’s a hidden sub-routine, I’m deleting it.” “Check for a backup,” said Roger. “Yep, you’re right, they knew we’d find the first sub-routine, there’s a hidden routine in the backup computer. I’m deleting it.” “Check the whole system, I want a clean observation,” said Roger. “It’s clean,” replied Peter. “I think it’s sweet that our parents love us enough to try,” said Jennifer. Roger turned his head and glared at Jennifer. “Science is the pursuit of truth, not fantasy.” Jennifer stuck her tongue out at Roger. “Did your parents drop you on your head when you were a baby?” “We have another ping,” said Tommy. “Verify it,” said Roger. “I have an image,” said Alisa. “On screen,” said Roger. The big screen displayed a black canvas with the smallest little dot of white in the center. “Zoom in.” The image zoomed in to show a slightly larger white dot with a yellow hazy glow around it. “I think we’re seeing electromagnetic particles circling the earth at the speed of light.” “Probably the sun flare,” said Roger. “Well that sun flare just left earth headed this way,” said Jack. “Yeah, that’s what sun flares do,” replied Roger. “It’ll take 21 days to arrive, and we’re shielded in the unlikely event it’s strong enough to do any damage.” Jennifer’s hands flew over her control panel while she ran calculations. “I don’t think it’s a sun flare, it’s traveling at 42 times the speed of light.” Roger glanced at Jennifer. “Oh come on, that’s impossible, nothing can go that fast.” “I’m talking with Jupiter station,” said Mikey. “They say the object just passed them, it’s being picked up by every station in the solar system. Hold on… it just stopped at Neptune station.” Roger stood and went over to Mikey’s station. “Why would whatever it is stop at Neptune?” Peter turned around in his chair. “I have a theory.” “Okay, let’s hear it,” said Roger. “You won’t like it,” said Peter, grinning broadly. “Neptune station and we are the only two private corporations out here, and the only stations with kids onboard.” Roger rolled his eyes. “Oh, I get it. You’re trying to say Santa is delivering presents to the kids. Seriously people, come on, let’s find a solution that doesn’t involve magic space sleds.” “The object just left Neptune,” reported Mikey. “It’s headed this way.” Roger turns and looks up at Alisa sitting with Bobby at the telescope. “Try to get a picture of it when it comes out of the Oron Cloud.” Roger looked at Peter next. “When will the object arrive?” “Eight minutes,” replied Peter. Roger shook his head. The object was going to make the journey that had taken them seven months in less than nine minutes. Still, the seven months hadn’t been too bad. The original Voyager spacecraft that had followed this route had taken 50 years to get to this spot. “It’s coming out of the Oron Cloud… okay, image coming up on main screen,” said Alisa. Peter got up and stood back from the main screen. Roger, Mikey, and Jennifer joined him and cocked their heads to the side trying to figure out what they were looking at. Mikey pointed. “Tell me that doesn’t look like a reindeer?” Roger squinted. “Looks like a big bunny rabbit to me, and over there is a turtle, and I think that other cloud is a puppy dog.” “I don’t know,” said Jennifer. “It kind of looks like a reindeer.” “Umm… shouldn’t we sound the collision alarm and evacuate?” asked Mikey. “It was too late from the moment it left Earth,” said Roger. “The object’s travel time will be nine minutes, but it takes twelve minutes to launch the escape pods. There’s no point in panicking everyone, we’ll either be vapor in two minutes, or not.” “Let’s turn on the external cameras,” suggested Peter. Roger sat back down at his control console and flipped the hull cameras on. The big screen separated into six sections, but only showed static. “Cameras are down,” said Roger. “Thirty seconds,” said Peter. The kids looked at each other and waited. Roger practically flew out of his chair as something hit the hull and made the loudest racket he’d ever heard coming from the hull. It sounded like… “Reindeer hooves,” shouted Mikey And then there was a sliding sound across the hull, and then everyone was shouting. “It’s Santa,” shouted Bobby, sliding down the ladder from the telescope station. Roger stared up at the ceiling with his mouth open. Bobby grabbed Roger’s hand; Bobby was almost in tears. “Santa doesn’t leave presents for naughty kids that aren’t in bed sleeping.” Roger looked at the kids, they were all waiting for him to say something. “You said you’d follow the facts, no matter where they went,” said Peter. “We have sensor data, visual proof… sort of…” Peter waved a hand at the reindeer/bunny/turtle/puppy cloud image. “And now we have audio proof.” Roger looked up at the ceiling one more time, then shouted. “Get to your bunks! Now!” The kids stampeded for the hatch and out into the hall. They ran past adults coming out of their quarters to find out what was happening. The Captain was frantically trying to get the external cameras to work. Roger saw static on all the camera displays as he ran past the Captain, and the entire time Bobby was shouting that Santa was coming. The kids disappeared into their individual quarters as the Captain gave up on the cameras. “I’m going to suit up for an EVA and find out what hit us,” said the Captain looking at one of the scientists now standing next to him. “Paul, you’re with me, suit up.” “Captain,” shouted a technician facing the cafeteria/multi-purpose room. “You need to come see this.” The Captain hurried down the hall to the cafeteria and looked inside. This was the room they had placed the small artificial tree they’d brought from Earth. There had only been enough weight tolerance to bring one present per child, and those were hidden in the Captain’s cabin; he was going to put them out later tonight after the kids were all asleep. But now, surrounding the small tree was a huge stack of colorfully wrapped gifts. The Captain’s head snapped up as he heard the same clattering and sliding sound across the hull outside. “Does anyone else hear bells jingling?” asked the technician. “I think Santa has entered the space age,” replied the Captain. “And he has a better spaceship than we do.”