* Santa's New Year *

"Santa, dear," called Mrs Claus. "There's someone here to see you."
Santa groaned. It was New Years Day and he still hadn't recovered from his rapid journey around the world a week ago. "If it's someone from the International Labour Organisation, tell them I'm busy." They were always coming round, the interfering busybodies, complaining about the terrible working conditions of elves.
"No, it's someone from UNICEF. And I've already let them in." Oh no, not them, Santa thought. They were visiting increasingly frequently too. Mrs Claus brought the visitor into the sitting room. He was a nervous looking weed of a man, in his forties. "Sit down," Mrs Claus said, indicating an arm chair. Dutifully, she left the room to go and check up on the elves. The man's face shrivelled into a look of distaste as he observed the clutter of bottles and beer cans on the coffee table. He picked up the indecent magazines on the chair by their edges, worried that they would bite him, and dropped them on the floor. He sat down, not sinking back fully into the chair, thinking that it was dirty.
"Firstly," he said, "let me ask you a question. Have you made any New Year's Resolutions this year?"
Santa considered. "Yes. This year I refuse point blank to go down people's chimneys. It's extremely dirty. I'll make the elves go down for me."
"Well, let me make a resolution for you," said the man.
"This year you will deliver an equal amount of presents to every single boy and girl throughout the world. Unless they've been bad of course."
"But I always do that," Santa protested.
"Oh no you don't. What about all the kids in Africa and places that don't get any presents at all?"
"They're all bad," Santa said. Seeing the man didn't believe it, he tried again. "Well, they don't believe in me. That's why they don't get presents."
"Neither do half the kids who DO get presents," the man pointed out.
"Ok, ok." After a few seconds he said, "Got it! See, my reindeer don't really like hot countries. It's them that won't take me there."
"Then you will have to get animals that do like hot places. Such as...camels."
Santa laughed. "I don't think so. Camels can't fly."
"Neither can reindeer."
"Well, at least reindeer gallop. Camels just go plod plod plod. Anyway, it would completely wreck my image. You can't have Santa in his sleigh being pulled by camels. And what would you call them? Dasher and Basher hardly apply. And you expect me to find a camel with a red nose?"
"Well..." said the man, slowly. "A blue nosed one would do. And as for an image, well you need to change it anyway. You certainly ought to lose some weight."
"Oh, don't you get on to me about that," Santa moaned. "My wife's bad enough. And those cheeky little elves. Anyway, you can't have an anorexic Santa Claus."
"There's a difference between big and enormous," said the man. "So, will you think about it? Camels, that is."
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Santa said. Like, not. Now go away.
"That's very good of you," said the man, standing up. "Happy
new year, by the way."
Santa did not return the sentiment. Happy new year. Ha! Every year was worse than the last. The man waited for a few seconds, then scuttled out of the room, realising he would get no response.
Good, he's gone. Santa picked up the remote control and flicked on the television. That's better, he thought. That's what everyone else gets to do on New Years Day. His happiness was short lived. "Santa!" called a voice, a few seconds later. "You've got a visitor. Physicist saying you ought to state more clearly which North Pole you live it, since the magnetic north and true north are drifting further and further apart."
Santa cursed under his breath. All these clever people coming to see him questioning the physics behind traditions. And physicists, UNICEF people and ILO people weren't the only unwelcome visitors. There were the religious people who said he was a sinner by commercialising Christmas. There were the police
telling him off for dangerous sleigh-riding. There were the Equality of the Southern Hemisphere organisation saying that he should move to the south pole... It's New Years Day : everyone else has the day off, but I'm left dealing with this lot, he thought. How unfair is that?

* The New Year *

Deryn knelt in the crisp snow and felt it against his nearly bare knees, a shiver ran over him. A sensation only available for a high cost in this day and age.. He ordered the simulation to end as he felt the tap on his shoulder
and stood up with a sad look on his face.
"So, Deryn... How'd you like it?" Jan, the lab specialist, asked.
"It.. it was amazing, there must have never been anything like that,
I mean, I know what snow was and felt the synthetic stuff, but the power of SR is amazing." He rambled a bit, but got through it..
"Yes, suspended reality is a marvel. We wanted to give every person on this station a feeling of REAL snow, a fitting New Years present, don't you think?" He simply nodded and then left..

~~~~~~

Kari knocked on the door and heard a quick 'Come In' from the other side, she walked into Deryn's room..
"I heard you tested out Jan's SR simulation.. Real snow, I read the descriptions from so many different authors from so long ago, but now we'll all get a chance.." He smiled up at her and took her arm and gave her a tight hug..
"Kari.." He said as he looked at her..
"Hmm?"
"Happy New Year" He kissed her cheek and sat..
She smiled and left..

~~~~~~

Jan pulled the SR helmet over her head and hooked in the electrodes to their respective points on the suit that allowed feeling while in the SR world.. She HAD to feel it, just one more time.. A sensation tugged at her stomach and she felt something hit the back of her head, she turned to see children playing in the snow, one looked up at the target she had just hit and gasped..
"Where'd she come from?" The girl pointed at Jan.
"I don't know" The boy nearest her replied.
"Who.. what are you.. you just came out of nowhere.."
"I.. I don't know anymore, I was in my lab in space, and I was
working with my SR unit, and.. and I.. I got here somehow..
Where am I?" She asked, and the kids eyes went wider, if that was
at all possible.
"Y-Y-you're in Arizona, it's December thirty first, and it's gonna
be 2005 in about four hours.."
2005, 2005. It was only six years ago, it had begun to get colder at that time, and they were forced to evacuate as much of earth onto the stations as they could, it had been an accident in Washington, an experimental new form of cold fusion, did a similar thing to the Earth as when the dinosaurs had roamed the earth, it effectively
blocked the sun. It happened in April of that year, she could remember the voice on the Vid-Com so clearly, superimposed in every major language of the day. 'People of the Earth, this is not a joke, there has been an accident in Washington, it is creating a similar condition as existed when the Terrible Lizard walked the ground.. We must evacuate Earth..' People hadn't believed, and then it had begun to get colder near the end of April, and people started off. She had been one of the first to leave, saying goodbye to a world that her people had inhabited for millenia on end, and were now abandoning until they were able to go back.
"Miss? Miss?" One of the kids snapped her to attention and she looked back..
"Hmm?"
"Who are you?"
"My name.. Jan, Jan Heartleigh.."
"You.. You can't be her, she's my aunt. Lives in Michigan, but you
do look an awful lot like her.."
"I am her. Listen, I need to talk to your father.."
"What's his name?" The girl asked..
"Jonas Heartleigh, I've never been married, you see, so I still hold
that name.."
A short moment later Jonas came out into the night air and saw Jan
standing there..
"Jan? What in the world are you doing here?"
She held back tears, remembering the report to her office on the station that Jonas had been trapped in his home with his family, he had frozen to death for all they knew..
"I'm here to make the world better, Jo.."
"Huh? Whaddaya mean 'better'?"
"Listen, just do this.. Call me in the morning and tell me this.."
She told him about the fusion reactor in Washington, and with a little skepticism he nodded and kissed her cheek, then walked inside. She ordered the simulation to end as she felt a tap on her shoulder, she pulled off the helmet and stood..
"Happy New Years, Jan.."
"Happy New Years, Jonas.."
Deryn walked into the room and smiled at Jan.
"Hey Doc, Happy New Years.."
Kari walked in and said the same thing..

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should all acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne? For auld lang syne. My dear, for auld lang syne, We'll tak' A cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne." They all sang a very old song and spent the holiday together, and Jan was happy, because she was going to take leave to go to her home in Michigan.

* I Thought It was Lost *

I thought last New Year would be lost. And in a way, it was lost. But not in the way I thought it would be. On December 29, 1996, my Grandmother died. She was my last grandparent, for all my other grandparents had died before I was born. We were all packing our bags and getting ready to leave for the airport when the phone rang. Since we were already in the car, we thought we would let it go. But it didn't stop ringing, so we thought it must be important. So my Mother went inside to answer it, grumbling all the way. After awhile, when we could no longer hear her talking, we went inside to see what was happening. My mother was out cold, and her skin was as pale as the snow that fell outside. When she came to, she told us in between sobs in a shaky voice that we weren't going to see my Grandmother for New Year's. When we asked her why, she told us that she was dead. Then I couldn't stand it. I broke out in sobs along with my little sister. My Dad was the only one that stayed calm. He walked outside and began taking our bags out of the car. My mother finally got hold of herself and she came outside also. She told my Father not to. We would be going to the funeral. I cried the whole plane ride. That New Year's was a New Year's of grieving in a way. But at the funeral, I felt I was wrong. There, with all my friends and family, I felt secure, a security I'll always feel when I think of my Grand mother.

* Trapped....... *

I knew something strange was going on when I recieved an annoymous invitation for a 'special' New Year's party. First of all, all my friends were away skiing or visiting realitive in Florida. And I was never very popular, who besides my friends would invite me to a  party?
Nevertheless, I had no plans for New Year's Eve and decided to go to the party anyway. I left early to carefully follow the directions on the back of the invitation. They led me to the old part of the neighboorhood where houses from a by-gone era still stand. There it was 343 Palmer Lane. Nervously, I rang the doorbell A man in a suit that looked like something out of the early 1900s came to the door, smoking a cigar. His face brigtened when he saw me. "You must be Kira!" he exclaimed, taking my hand and leading me in through the foyer. "Everyone, Kira is here!"
Out of the living room came another man, dressed just as strangly as the man who had opened the door, and two women dressed in pouffed out dresses and hats- all very early 1900s.
"Thank goodness you're here," the blond woman said, smiling at me gracefully.
"We've been waiting for someone like you to come along"
I was kind of nervous now, who were these people. I quickly scanned my surrondings for a way to escape. Nothing. The whole house looked old fashion. Even the calender on the wall say 'December 31 1904"
"Is this some kind of a joke?" I asked.
"A joke?" the other man asked. "Oh how I wish it was! You see today is December 31, 1904"
"No it's not," I said. "It's 1997!"
"Is that what year it is outside?" the other woman asked. "I lost track of the year a long time ago!"
"Let me introduce myself child," the first man said. "I'm Michael Fisher, and this is my wife, Nellie" He gestured towards the blond woman, she nodded politely.
"And I'm Danielle McFadden, and this is my husband, Steven," the other woman said.
"I'm Kira," I said. "And I'm..."
"We know who you are," Mr. McFadden interupted me. "And we want you to help us"
"How?"
"Well dear, it's really quite complicated," Mrs. Fisher began.
"In 1904 we were all gathered at this house for a party when suddenly, right before midnight, all the lights went out!"
"So?" I asked, I didn't see why they were telling me this.
"So," Mr. Fisher continued. "We were spoken to that night by a ghost. He told us that we would be trapped in 1904 until eternity!"
"Oh please," I said rolling my eyes. "This has to be a joke! Come on you guys, you can all come out now, I know this is a stupid plan to scare me!"
Mrs. McFadden shot me a dirty look. "It's all true child, don't you understand? Every year on December 31, a minute before midnight four people try to break the curse"
"Yes," her husband continued. "And we are the last four left"
"So what do you have to do to break this curse," I asked, I was still skeptical.
"Well we have a little unfinished poem that we have to finish in order to break the curse," Mr. Fisher said.
"And since we know you are a talented poet Kira, we picked you,"
Mrs. Fisher finished the story.
"Well, I'm touched, I really am," I said. "But I can't do that, I can't be responsible for all of you disapeering.
"It's the only hope, after the four of us are gone," Mrs. McFadden said softly. She glanced at the clock. "Almost midnight, are you ready?"
The other three nodded, and then looked at me expectantly.
"Oh fine," I said.
"I'll start," Mr. Fisher said nervously.
"Christmas comes but once a year
We have much merriment and cheer
But each new year we throw out worries" he paused. "Umm..
We like to eat Christmas berries?" he said unsurely.
A flash of light and he disapeered in a puff of smoke.
"Now do you believe us?" Mrs. Fisher, asked sobbing.
"Don't worry Nellie, we will get out, don't worry," Mrs. McFadden said, trying to comfort her.
"I'll go next," Mr. McFadden said.
"Christmas comes but once a year
We have much merriment and cheer
But each new year we throw out worries
And eat some more of those good cherries!"
"You idiot!" Mrs. Fisher said. "That was what my husband said.
Well almost. A flash of light and he disapeered too.
"I will go next," Mrs. McFadden said. Same process,I thought.
"Christmas comes but once a year
We celebrate much merriment and cheer
But each year we throw our worries
uh....
I used to have a cat named Murray!"
I rolled my eyes. These people were ridiculous! Mrs. Fisher
was sobbing. "I guess it's my turn."
"No, no," I said getting up. "I'll go, you don't have too."
"Thank you dear," she said.
"Christmas comes but once a year," I began
We celebrate much merriment and cheer
But each new year we throw out worries." I stopped, stuck
for a moment. "Uh, And move on in to January!"
There were several flashes of light, and it felt like the
room was spinning. I fell to the floor and must of been knocked unconsious.
"Wake up Kira,"
Mr. Fisher was standing over me. "You did it," he said. "You broke the curse, and now everyone has reappered."
Before me was a room of people. The calender read January 1, 1998. I smiled, as I pulled myself to a sitting position. I knew what my resolution was going to be this year!!!!

* Struggle for life *

Hello. My name is Neisha. I live in Semalia an unfortunate country located in Africa. I look around. The sight is so familiar. Everyone here is starving. I myself will not last much longer. But we try. We try. New year means nothing to us. Nothing but another year of pain, hunger, hell. Another year that we strive our hardest. All we want is love, food and drink. Next year please make a difference.

P.S.I am not really Neisha. I live in Australia I am writing this from many unfortunate peoples veiw. I enjoy the new year but I always think about how much stuff we throw away.