The Laws of Christmas

"Jennu come on, it's bed time."

"But I wanna stay up!" Jennu was sat in front of the fireplace, armed with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk. He had been sat there since the end of dinner and hadn't moved. It had been the longest he had sat still of his own accord without a book.

Nariko had joined him for all of fifteen minutes, but she had been too excited to stay still for long enough. It was only after telling her that the sooner she went to bed the sooner Santa would visit that they had managed to get her to settle down for the night. Jennu was insisting on staying up, probably because he wanted to make sure the jolly man delivered everything that he had written on his Christmas list (which had been much longer than Spyro had been expecting).

"Well, tough, I will not have you up all night," Spyro said firmly, crossing the room in two strides and lifting his son from the floor; he wasn't having any nonsense tonight.

"But I have to!" Jennu insisted, "I have to make sure I get everything on my list! And I want to ask Santa how he gets to every house in one night!"

"We went to see Santa a couple of days ago at the shopping centre, why didn't you ask him then?"

Jennu pulled a face, "That wasn't Santa," he said, as if it was obvious (even though it was), "That was just some  guy in a suit. The real Santa was in the North Pole, doing all the checks for tonight, he has to, or he won't be ready. I worked it out."

Most kids didn't apply maths to Christmas, not unless it was counting the number of presents they got, but Jennu was not like most kids.

Spyro was stunned for a moment, but recovered quickly. "Well, he won't come round at all if you don't go to bed."

"...Really?"

"Oh yeah, one of the Laws of Christmas, y'know."

"The Laws of Christmas?"

"You've never heard of the Laws of Christmas?"

Jennu shook his head.

"Well, you know how Santa watches every child to make sure they behave?"

Jennu nodded.

"He has a list of rules and if he finds any children breaking these rules... do you know what happens?"

Another shake of the head.

Spyro leaned in and lowered his voice, for better effect. "They get no presents, ever again."

Jennu let out a horrified gasp. He swung round to look at the clock and gasped again. "I have to go to bed!" he cried, wriggling out of his father's grasp and bolting up the stairs, "He'll be here in ten minutes!"

Spyro could not hold back a quiet chuckle. It was probably a little mean, but at least it got him to bed.