Holly started at the TV screen, transfixed. How could Santa look exactly the same 20 years ago as he did now? Neither older nor younger, no changes whatsoever. Even that twinkle in his eyes, the one she knew now she had been right not to trust, was identical.

As she watched her younger self talk eagerly to him about all her Christmas wants and needs, she felt dizzy with shock. And, as he bade young Holly a farewell and watched her run back excitedly to her friends, holding a brightly wrapped gift in her hands, he seemed to look up at the camera. As if he was looking directly into Holly's eyes.

He winked, and Holly shrank back against the chair.

"This can't be happening," she muttered. "I need to wake up already."

"It's crazy to think you actually were into Christmas once upon a time," Noel commented from beside her. She'd temporarily forgotten he was there and jumped in shock, nearly dropping her mug of wine. "So . . . what changed?"

"I was a kid," Holly shrugged. "I grew up. I wised up."

"You don't seem much wiser to me." Noel put his mug down and turned to face her, a glimmer of a smile twitching at his lips. "After all, you just had a one night stand with a snowman."

She blushed, embarrassed. But she was also eager to distract herself, so she reached over and placed a hand on his leg. "You know, it doesn't have to be just one night. We could . . ."

He shook his head, and somehow, she wasn't surprised. "You know, deep down, I'm not here for that. I'm not some sort of . . . snow-up doll for you to get your Jolly Holly Christmas with." He placed a hand briefly on top of hers and squeezed it.

The rejection stung, of course, but only briefly. Holly did know that Noel was right. She needed to focus on whatever this was . . . This strange little Sprigg-stick of memories.

Noel was scrolling through the Friends' homescreen again now, studying it intently. "Oh, look, this clip is from just a few weeks ago," he pointed out, pressing the play button. "Who's that?" He pointed to the girl lugging a big box into the same house they were currently sitting in.

"That's Ciara. She lives here too, but she's away for Christmas. She just moved in a couple of months ago." Holly watched uncomfortably. She knew what was coming. This one was pretty fresh in her head, after all.

Onscreen Holly appeared in the hallway. Her lower lip curled up petulantly. "What have you got there?" She asked, although it was evident she already knew.

"Well, there's absolutely nothing festive about this house, so I thought we could use a Christmas tree for the living room," Ciara laughed, dropping the box on the ground and pushing her reddish-brown hair off her face. She looked far happier than Holly did at that moment.

Not for long, Holly thought grimly.

Past Holly shook her head. "I don't do Christmas," she said. That was actually one of the first times she'd been forced to say it out loud, she remembered. She'd mostly got away with it until then.

Ciara's smile had faded. "What?" She asked quietly. "At all?"

"I'll go and celebrate with my family on the day, of course," Holly said. "But I don't like other reminders of it around."

Present Holly was cringing at this memory. Why hadn't she just let Ciara put the tree in the living room? She should have just kept mouth shut and suffered in silence. Would it really have been that bad? It was just a tree, for goodness sake!

"Um - okay." Ciara nodded. "I'll just put it up in my room, in that case." She picked the box up again and walked away.

"Probably for the best," Holly called after her, sounding relieved.

The clip didn't end there, though. Instead, the camera followed Ciara into her room, showing Holly what had happened after their encounter.

They say eavesdroppers rarely hear good about themselves, and Holly feared that may indeed be true in this case. And yet she couldn't stop watching. Her eyes were glued to the screen, and her heart was pounding.

Ciara closed her bedroom door behind her and huffed out a disgruntled sigh as she placed the box on the bed. "What a Scrooge," she muttered under her breath.

It hurt hearing someone else say it. More than Holly had expected. Yet she continued to stare at the scene as Ciara started setting the tree up. She produced a box full of brightly coloured baubles and started to decorate it as she quietly hummed Christmas songs to herself. Holly almost found herself hypnotised by the quiet joy emanating from Ciara in this setting.

Then Ciara's phone rang, somewhat ruining the festive tranquillity. The phone was buried somewhere underneath all the packaging on the floor, and the previous relaxing Christmas soundtrack was replaced by Ciara muttering many swear words under her breath as she tried to track it down.

"Hey, mum!" She shouted when she finally located it. "Yeah, I miss you too," she said, after listening for a few moments. "Remember I said I was thinking about staying in Glasgow for Christmas this year?" Her eyes drifted to the tree, and her face screwed up in a grimace. "Well, I'm going to come home after all. My landlady is . . . Well, it turns out she hates Christmas." A brief pause, then she laughed. "Yeah, I know. I thought she seemed nice, as well."

Holly's heart sank. She couldn't bring herself to hear any more of that conversation, and Noel must have sensed this as he flipped back to the homescreen. "You okay?" He asked softly.

"I'm fine," Holly sighed. "That was probably just the reminder I needed of why I hide my hatred of Christmas." She winced. "I should just have let her put the tree in the living room, shouldn't I?"

"I can't tell you the right answer to that," Noel said, shrugging and picking his drink up again. "Shall we watch another clip?"

"I'd happily watch 20 Hallmark Christmas movies in a row right now over this shitshow," Holly sighed, staring miserably at the Sprigg-stick.

"Well, you don't have the Hallmark channel, so you'll have to settle for this," Noel chuckled. "What about this one, from 2004? What age would you have been then?"

"Um . . . Seven, I think? I was about to turn eight?" Holly pondered, trying to work out the maths. And then her face fell. "No. Absolutely not. We're not watching that one."

"Why not?" Noel watched her, puzzled.

Holly put her head in her hands, mortified at her sudden recollection.

"Because that's the year I told all my friends and classmates that Santa wasn't real . . . In the form of a presentation!"

Crap, this really is a pile of nonsense, but I'm determined I'm going to finish it! I'm committed to seeing it through.

I hope you're still at least kind of enjoying it, though! 🤷‍♀️