The magic of a childhood Christmas

[Stephen Hunter King]

Jacob stayed behind to chat with his next-door neighbours, a kind elderly couple who had become fond of their children in the past six months. This had worked out nicely as the couple's children and grandchildren lived far away and theý didn't visit very often whilst all of Stephen and Freya's grandparents had passed away long ago. Of course they didn't leave their children alone in the care of any strangers but they had started to build a warm, friendly relationship as neighbours and friends pretty much from day one.

The rest of the family reached the tent, Freya and Carrie stopped at the door to pet the kitty and Stephen hurried in. He liked cats but was more of a dog person and right now makinghuman friends was more important to him.
"Sam?" he called out, looking around for a familiar face. He had spotted children outside too, playing games, but chose to check the tent first as it was where he'd met Sam yesterday. The tent was quite full of children playing indoor games like Christmas Carol Pictionary, Christmas movie trivia, and Pin the Nose on Rudolph, or decorading gingerbread biscuits and sugar biscuits which were collected into a little basket to be given to Father Christmas.