The magic of a childhood Christmas

[Stephen Hunter King]

"Hi. You're really great at climbing trees," Stephen greeted after he turned to look. His first impression of Sam, somehow, had been that he was more of a shy indoor kid and it made the achievement even more impressive. "I hope you didn't get in trouble." He added, worried that Sam's dad wouldn't let them be friends now. Stephen didn't remember very far back, but he did have a vague memory of someone's mother denying a play date because her son was hurt after something they'd done. Now all of his old playmates of course lived a long car drive away and he couldn't play with them much anyway, but it made all possible new friends that much more important.

[Samuel Connor Rees]

Sam laughed a bit. "Yeah, but not that great at falling from them." he waved his cast a little. He was happy that Stephen doesn't make a bit deal about the injury. It wasn't a big deal after all. Just like a bloody knee... kind of.
"Nah, it's nothing. Dad was really cool, I think he was more worried than angry. I probably scared him a lot..." he felt a bit bad about that. Sam never saw dad so worried before. "I... I am sorry that I tried that alone... we wanted to do that together." he said quietly. He felt bad about that too. He actually spent a lot of time in the hospital hoping, that Stephen won't be angry about that. Looking at the tree now the star was sitting really nice up there. And he was a bit proud he could put it there on his own. Also a bit ashamed that  so many people watched him fall. But this time he had completely different clothes (mostly because he tare his jumper in the fall) and most people wouldn't recognise him like this.

[Stephen Hunter King]

"It's okay, I'm glad you got to do it," Stephen said cheerfully, and was distracted by the scent of freshly baked sugar biscuits. He hurried over to the side table and snatched a few. There were gingerbread biscuits too but he'd had his fill of those in these weeks leading up to Christmas.
"What do you wish for Christmas?" the boy asked as he realized they hadn't really had any time to get to know each othet at all yesterday. "My number one wish is another video game system, but daddy said Father Christmas knows we have a lot of video games already and may think it's enough and maybe bring me many other things on my list. My second wish is Teddy Ruxpin."
Most kids had the talking teddy bear at the very top of their wish list, it being one of the first its kind and very exciting. But since discovering them two years ago at age three, on his father's Atari game console that he'd bought in the late '70s, Stephen had become just a little bit more into video games than soft toys no matter how new and cool concept one had with moving lips and stories to tell. Last spring the boy had played some Commodore 64 computer games at a friend's house on a play date and been asking for the computer ever since.

Though its extremely high price had come down quite a bit in the last couple of years--still remaining a wealthy person's item--and after checking out the computer and some of its games Jacob had concluded they were significantly different from the Atari games, but didn't want to raise the boy's hopes up. Unlike this generation likely would, he hadn't grown up with video games and thus if he couldn't find other uses for this computer besides gameplay he didn't see sense in purchasing it. At least not for another year or two until Stephen would be older and able to tackle more than a few games for it. But above all he wanted to encourage active and creative play rather than sitting in front of tv screen for any reason. Teddy Ruxpin however would be waiting for his new friend under the tree on Christmas morning.

[Samuel Connor Rees]

It was nice to see Stephen not bothered by the whole incident. Sam followed up his example and took some sweets. With his healthy hand he stuffed his mouth full of them. It was perhaps a bit uncouth but... he was a kid.
"Fow Chwistwmas?" he said with his mouth still full of biscuits. He listened to what Stephen wanted and yeah, he understood wanting more video games. He had some too, though he wasn't playing with them as often as one would expect. But for some reason he was afraid of Teddy Ruxpin. He would never ever admitted that to anyone, but the bear was just creepy in his eyes. There was something deeply unsettling about it and he was praying that he won't find that under his Christmas tree. He finally managed to swallow everything and could once again talk like a civilised person.
"I think I might finally finish my he-man collection..." he stated shortly. What was there to not like about a hero, who was punching evil doers in the face. He wasn't quite sure though what he might get. There was always something that surprised him under a Christmas tree. When he wished something he usually got it. At least some of it. Yet there was always something he didn't expect and usually he liked the surprise.
"But if you like video games you can drop by sometimes... " he hinted quite obviously...

[Stephen Hunter King]

Yes, Stephen couldn't have helped but laughed if he knew. Ruxpin wasn't even a monster but just a teddy toy. Most parents of course would understand, some even relate to Sam's feelings. Stephen was a rathef new fan of He-Man, not the character itself but his universe, for the last year or so. Before age four he hadn't really been into action stuff like that all that much, so there hadn't been much time to collect. Only one Christmas nd one birthday, and sometimes for good behaviour which indeed was not always rewarded with a new toy of any kind. And those were pretty much the only occasions mum or dad bought him new toys. Very rarelly they did so just because he wanted something. Of course there were some toys family and friends brought from their vacation travels but still, as the boy wasn't the 

But he did love playing with the action figures and was fortunate to join the fanbase just in time for the tv show's first season to air here in his home country and now enjoying the last episodes of the second season.
"Really? You have even the castle Greyskull? That's also on my wish list," Stephen said, very excited to have found someone with possibly a mountain of those toys as there were still several he was missing. For now he forgot about video games, though he did also want to see what of those Sam owned.

[Samuel Connor Rees]

Sam nodded without saying anything more. It felt like he was getting gifts every time, that dad didn't have time for him. It was nice for having a tun of He-man toys but he would rather spent more time with his dad. The toys were at least interesting even though he would swear that many of the toys weren't even in the show. Perhaps he missed an episode or two? Could've happened. The sad thing was, that it would be some time until he could play with them again. With the cast he couldn't really fight with the toys...
The thought hit him quite hard. He had no idea how long he will have to have the cast, but it would surely be a long time. He took another piece of candy just to do something. He didn't want to be look sad right now. Everything will be fine in the end. He would just have to wait. Sam was looking forward for today. Not only for the Christmas but his new friend was here. "The candy is good..." he said the first thing that came to mind, just wanting the awkward silence to be over.
"Sorry... I am just a bit... well I can't even open the gifts with this thing..." he waved the cast around.