What Came Down the Chimney this Christmas

Discussion of the Story

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for reading this story. I hope this 5,000 word Christmas short was enjoyable for those wanting a little more horror in the holiday season. I came up with this story in less than a fortnight (two weeks - I seldom get the chance to use the word so of course I'm going to take this opportunity). With that said, this is certainly not a story I had on my mind for a while, but I had a lot of fun writing it. Christmas horror is not readily available, and so this is a story I wanted to provide for readers.

To me, this is more a cautionary tale than anything else. John and William continually screw around, misbehave, and often intentionally do bad things. None of the unfortunate events that happened would have transpired had the boys behaved and, as the phrase is seasonally appropriate, ended up on the "Nice List."

I do not think what happened to the boys was the result of fate, though I think one could make that argument. Everything that happens in the story occurs because it is the result of John and William's actions. If John had thrown the Christmas tree down the hill like Gran instructed them, I truly don't believe that the story would have ended the way it did. This reinforces the idea that this is a cautionary tale, and that everyone's actions come around full circle, one way or another.

To address the "demon" at the end of the story, the thing that came down the chimney, I intentionally didn't want to overly describe it. I also didn't want to overly describe the setting or time this story occurred. My hopes are that this story felt like both the modern day, or a Christmas long ago in the 18th century.

Maybe the creature that came down the chimney was a werewolf. It could have been one of the wolves that William heard howling in the fire earlier in the story, or perhaps it was one of the wolves that killed Gran's father and brother. Who's to say it wasn't Krampus? That is a genuine possibility. Or, maybe it was something else entirely, a totally unique supernatural entity. I hope that everyone who reads the story finds themselves conjuring up a unique demon this Christmas.