CHRISTMAS EVE AT NAKATOMI TOWER

Who didn't love the game Pass the Parcel as a kid; that tingling anticipation as the parcel was passed to you and you'd try to pass it along as slowly as possible to the next person, hoping that the music would stop while you were holding it.

Christmas Pass the Parcel stories are a fun idea to introduce to your Christmas party. The game involves someone reading a story while everyone else passes the parcel around following the directions read out in the story. There are a few different ways you can use this idea, so you can choose whichever way will work best for your situation. For example, why not use it to bring a bit of fun and mystery to the Secret Santa idea?

Secret Santa works for any occasion and is a great way to cut down on the costs of gift buying - especially if you have a large family, a lot of friends, or work in a place with lots of coworkers! Usually it involves drawing names out of a hat to determine who gets who for Secret Santa, but how about instead, have everyone buy a gender neutral gift and then play Christmas Pass the Parcel to find out who gets what present!

I actually hadn't heard about this Christmas Pass the Parcel concept until my partner's Auntie introduced it to the family a couple of years ago. The way she did it was a bit more traditional. She bought a small gift, then while she read her story, the rest of us passed the parcel around following the directions in the story. The person who ended up with the present at the end then became the person who would find the story and provide the gift next time. Naturally, it was my partner who won - which I immediately knew meant that I would be providing the story. Not that I minded seeing as I'm a writer and all. But I'm just not a Christmas person, so I had no idea how to come up with a Christmas story. Then, inspiration struck.

Possibly the ONLY thing I enjoy about the Christmas period is my tradition of watching Die Hard on Christmas Eve because, DIE HARD IS ABSOLUTELY A CHRISTMAS MOVIE SO FIGHT ME! ... ahem... now that I've made that clear... I present to you my Die Hard inspired Christmas Pass the Parcel story! Enjoy!

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CHRISTMAS EVE AT NAKATOMI TOWER

It was the night before Christmas and all was not well at Nakatomi Tower. In fact, RIGHT when everyone was gearing up to enjoy the Christmas party, terrorists took over the building and LEFT the party plans in ruins. Santa, who just happened to be passing RIGHT over the building at the time, decided he couldn’t let those poor people’s Christmas Eve be ruined. So, he LEFT his reindeer and sleigh on the roof and slipped RIGHT through the vents and into the building. He slid his way along, turning RIGHT, and then RIGHT, and yet another RIGHT. All the RIGHT turns felt like he was going RIGHT around in circles and he started to get dizzy, so he decided to try turning LEFT.

The vents were very small for a man with a belly like a bowl full of jelly, and he was huffing and puffing. He wished he hadn’t LEFT the bottle of ice-cold water that Mrs Clause had LEFT for him in the sleigh. On and on Santa crawled through the vents, turning LEFT, then LEFT and another LEFT, and another LEFT. RIGHT as he decided to turn RIGHT again, he suddenly came ACROSS a man RIGHT in front of him!

“Ho ho ho, what’s this?”

The man turned in surprise and tried to look over his RIGHT shoulder to see who was behind him.

“What in the… Santa?” said the man. “Well, this can’t be RIGHT!”

“Indeed, tis I!” boomed Santa.

“Hey, quiet down. We got a hostage situation here,” whispered the man.

“RIGHT, RIGHT,” agreed Santa. “So, who are you?”

“Call me Roy,” answered the man.

“Well, Roy, how can I help?” asked Santa, eyes sparkling in amusement. He knew what the man said wasn’t RIGHT. He knew that the man’s real name was John McClane.

“Look, if it was LEFT up to me, I’d do this on my own, but since you are RIGHT here…”

So together, Santa and the man who called himself Roy began to plan and plot, RIGHT there in the air vents.

“The guy in charge is named Hans, RIGHT?” Roy told Santa. “They want to steal a bunch of money RIGHT out of the vault. But I just happened to find a bag of C4 they LEFT lying around.”

“We can’t blow up the building!” exclaimed Santa. “I’ve LEFT my reindeer on the roof!”

Roy’s face lit RIGHT up. He now had a plan. He sent Santa back to his sleigh, told him to wait for the signal – which would be a window shattering. “Now, have you got that RIGHT?” he asked Santa. “A window shattering.”

“RIGHT, RIGHT, I’ve got it,” Santa assured, and off he went.

Meanwhile, Roy managed to take out several of the terrorists with the C4, until there were only a few of them LEFT. He took out a few more and soon it was only the guy in charge LEFT; Mr Hans Gruber, the biggest baddie of them all.

Roy lured him RIGHT up to one of the highest floors. Hans, who was very angry at this point, stepped out to find the room seemingly empty. But it wasn’t empty. Roy was hiding RIGHT there behind some old filing cabinets. Hans walked ACROSS the room and RIGHT as he stepped RIGHT up to the window, Roy snuck up behind him and pushed him… and Hans fell, RIGHT out the window!

Santa, who had rejoined his reindeer that he’d LEFT up the on the roof, was taking a large drink from the bottle Mrs Clause had LEFT for him when he heard the loud crashing of glass. “RIGHT!” he called to his reindeer, “that’s our cue!” He jiggled the reins and the reindeer leapt RIGHT off the roof, pulling the sleigh behind them. That’s when Santa saw the man falling down the side of the building. “RIGHT! Wasn’t expecting that!”

With great precision, Santa steered his reindeer around and caught the man, who landed with a thump RIGHT on the floor of the sleigh.

“I think I LEFT my stomach behind,” mumbled the man, and proceeded to vomit over the side of the sleigh. It LEFT stains on the bright red paint.

“Ho ho ho, you’ve been a very bad boy, Hans,” said Santa with a frown. “But you can still make things RIGHT! I’ve still got all these presents LEFT to deliver to all the boys, and girls and you are going to help me!”

Hans smiled weakly. “Well, I’ve got nothing LEFT… Oh, fine. Whatever.”

Santa smiled a jolly smile and looked up at the window. Roy was there, cheering and jumping for joy. His plan had worked.

“Hey, Roy,” called Santa, “I’ve LEFT you a little something on the roof!”

Roy grinned. “Hey, thanks a lot Santa! And thanks for helping me put things RIGHT! Have fun, Hans…” he added with a comical little wave of his fingers. He was so relieved it was all over. The only thing he had LEFT to do now, was to go and find out what Santa had LEFT him on the roof.

The End.

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Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this fun little story! If you did, and if you found it and used it for your own Christmas party, I encourage you to please show your support by leaving a tip to let me know! Of course, you don't have to, but any and all support is greatly appreciated as it helps me to keep being able to do what I love... entertain you with words!

Stay safe over the Christmas break, my loves, and I'll see you all again soon!

Cheers,

Chan xx