Peeking at Santa Through the Blinds

It was obvious how special the day was by the fact that Jack woke up without any encouragement from his mum.

After all, it was the 24^th of December, meaning Santa would soon be on his way to visit Jack and Emma, with his younger sister already awake and scoffing down a bowl of cereal as she watched cartoons.

Before Jack walked into the kitchen to grab some breakfast, he had a quick peek through the blinds. You see, Jack had never had a white Christmas before, and judging by the light spatter of rain from outside, that wasn’t going to change this year.

After breakfast, he and Emma had another nosy around the tree. The presents there weren’t for them of course – Santa has them – but they still got excited looking at all the amazing gifts that were so beautifully wrapped.

They enjoyed some snowman juice before sticking on some Christmas movies. Even though his favourite film was on, Jack couldn’t stop looking at the window.

After lunch, he got up again and took another peak. It was a little cloudier, which probably meant more rain was on the way. His sister got up to look alongside him.

“Do you think Santa is already in the sky?” she asked him curiously.

“Not yet, he waits until we all go to bed” he reminded her.

They sat back down and tried to watch another movie, but the excitement was getting too much to handle. Jack knew Santa wasn’t coming until bedtime, but his sister seemed to think she might catch a glimpse, so kept peeking through the blinds.

This annoyed Mum, who decided to open the blinds so that his sister would stop playing with them. It had stopped raining, but the clouds still looked menacing.

Emma worryingly asked him if Santa could fly safely when it was so cloudy, but her fears were gone after Jack reminded her that Rudolph and his red nose would be lighting the way.

Night-time arrived so the blinds were shut again. Jack knew he didn’t want to look again at the fear of seeing rainfall, ruining his last hope of a white Christmas. Emma was still desperate to catch a glimpse of Santa and his sleigh in the sky, getting up again to peek through the blinds.

Jack told her he wouldn’t be there yet, but she insisted on peering through the gaps for a while longer. Then it was time for dinner and some games, and before long they were almost ready for bed.

Even though they had separate rooms, Jack and Emma would always sleep in the same place on Christmas Eve. This is so they can work together to keep each other up as late as possible, just to try and get a glimpse of Santa as he travelled across the sky.

It was a plan that had yet to work.

Emma fell asleep first, like she always did, but Jack was made of tougher stuff. He jumped up to have a look through his bedroom window – nothing at all.

What felt like hours passed, so Jack got back up, lifted his blinds and peeked out again. Nothing but the clouds in the sky.

He decided that his bed was getting too comfortable, so he opted to sit on chair facing the window, raising his blinds so he had a clear view from his position.

“Jack! Wake up! Wake up!”

Rubbing his eyes, Jack realised he was back in bed. How he got there, he had no idea. All he did know was that the room was light, which meant one thing – it was Christmas Day.

Emma was looking out the window and turned around with a big grin on her face.

“Santa’s been!” she squealed with excitement.

Jack jumped up out of his bed, raced over to the window, and looked outside.

He couldn’t believe it. The outside world was covered in a blanket of white.

They raced downstairs to get a better look from the living room, completely bypassing the mountain of presents Santa had left. They stared wide-eyed outside, taking in the winter wonderland that was once just their boring garden.

It was their first white Christmas, and it was the best gift Jack could have hoped for.