The Redchester Family Christmas: Cookies For Santa (Patreon)

This 1,763 word story was inspired by patron Nate and his seasonal six-word suggestion of "don't touch Santa's cookies... or else" - many thanks for the suggestion!

While writing this and introducing the characters, I decided that there was some more fun to be had with the Redchesters, so they will be featuring in the remaining seasonal stories (aside from the one released on Christmas Day) as a mini-series of sorts. I hope you all enjoy!

Julia and Darren Redchester had raised their three sons with a family first mentality and as such, once the boys had all grown up and moved out, it had become a tradition for them all to gather back under one roof for the Christmas period. The couple loved all of their sons dearly and hoped that grandchildren would arrive in the near future. Their middle son, Greg, was already married, and he and his partner had been talking about adoption. Their youngest, Jonas, was a recent college graduate still dating his high school sweetheart, and it was an open secret that Jonas planned to propose to her before the year was out, and it wouldn’t be long until they sought to start their own family.

Indeed it was only their eldest son that gave them any sort of hesitation and that was because Benjamin Redchester was something of a serial dater. Even at thirty-one, they hadn’t known him to remain in a relationship any longer than five months. As such, Julia and Darren were rather surprised when the oldest brother announced that he would be bringing his girlfriend of nine months to the family home to introduce her to them all. They waited with baited breath to see what this Lila would be like, and much to their disappointment it was obvious from the moment the new couple had arrived that Lila was no better than the cheerleading bimbos Ben had dated back in high school. She was a pretty face with vacant eyes and an obnoxious valley girl voice. One-hundred percent Ben’s taste, but hardly a good fit for the family. Still, they loved their son, so they would tolerate his latest girlfriend and secretly pray that she wasn’t the one he decided to finally settle down with.

Truth be told, Ben wasn’t exactly thrilled to be back under his parents’ roof for the holidays. He’d wanted to spend it with his and Lila’s friends, but he knew that his brothers would insist he was being a self-centered asshole, his mother would probably cry and his father would call him the family disappointment - all things he’d been responsible for in the past, and didn’t overly feel like repeating. Of the Redchester clan he was easily the least family-orientated, but he was still something of a momma’s boy, so if she wanted him there for Christmas, he’d be there. Putting up with his dad’s constant chiding of how he worked for a “soulless entity” like Craftsworth Business LLC would definitely be a chore, but it was a sacrifice he’d have to make.

Ben and Lila arrived at the Redchester house early on Christmas Eve and he took his time showing her around his childhood home and recounting memories - all of which painted him as the alpha of the three brothers. He had been something of a terror towards Greg and particularly Jonas, who was six years younger than him, and he had never apologised for his behaviour. As he saw it, it was his job as the oldest brother to toughen his younger siblings up! Lila was impressed with the place but that was hardly a surprise; the Redchesters had always done well for themselves and their family home showed as much. After all, not many houses in their small town could boast five en-suite bedrooms and a pool, could they?

More socially observant people would have perhaps noticed that the Redchester parents had no great love for Lila, but she and Ben were not those people. As such, they failed to notice the uncomfortable atmosphere in the air as they lounged around the fireplace and bored the other members of the family with a long tale about how they’d met and the adventures they’d had together in the city. Lila was wrapped up in Ben’s arms and the two seemed to only see each other, so much so that both Greg and Jonas’ partners had been able to retreat to their bedrooms without the self-obsessed couple noticing.

Not long after they had finished their extended tale, the rest of the family retreated to their rooms to get some much-needed sleep. It was shortly before midnight and even Lila was getting tired, letting out soft yawning noises as she relaxed back against her boyfriend’s broad chest. Ben meanwhile was quite content with a beer in his hand and ESPN playing on the sixty-inch television screen. He merely grunted in response when Lila announced that she was off to their bed, ignoring the sultry tone in her voice that suggested she wanted to do more than just sleep. He was so wrapped up in the recent game highlights playing on the television that he didn’t notice his girlfriend roll her eyes or let out a sigh of disappointment.

It was a further hour before Ben finally started to feel the need to rest his eyes begin creeping up on him. As he left his armchair and stretched out his large frame, he took notice of a small plate that had been left beside the now empty fireplace. Upon the plate were three cookies and six carrots, and beside the plate was a glass of milk. He could only roll his eyes as he saw it. He’d always thought it was a dumb tradition and yet evidently his parents has persisted, even long after their three sons had all grown up. Now that he looked at the plate though, those cookies really did look rather enticing…

Not as if anybody else is going to be having them, he rationalised, approaching the plate with a devious grin spreading across his handsome face. Back when they were kids the cookies, carrots and milk were always gone by the time the morning came around, but Ben had always assumed that their parents had consumed them while the children had slept. After all, even as a young child he’d been incredibly skeptical about the concept of Father Christmas. It all sounded a little too fantastical to be believable. His brothers, however, were far more foolish than him, and in Ben’s most humble opinion, that hadn’t changed much over the years either.

Approaching the fireplace, the grown man lazily dropped back down to his knees and picked up the first of the cookies from the plate. He recognised them instantly as his mom’s famous homemade chocolate chip cookies and the last shred of doubt in his mind was instantly stripped away. Mama Redchester made the best chocolate chip cookies in the whole goddamn world, without question! These ones had sprinklings of green and red glitter upon them as decoration, matching the general theme that made up the Redchester family home in the holiday season. Opening his great maw, Ben deposited the first of the cookies into his mouth and chomped down upon it, relishing the delicious taste that brought back so many memories of his childhood. There was something a little extra to the flavour of these ones though, although he couldn’t quite place what it was. Perhaps he’d have a better idea if he had another…

Wolfing down his second cookie in just twenty seconds, Ben closed his eyes and let out a soft moan of delight. He could only hope that Mama Redchester had prepared more for them all to enjoy the following day, because these three simply wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him! He was so consumed by his greed though that he failed to notice the physical ramifications of his actions: although subtle, the shirt that had been skin-tight around his well-crafted muscles now hung a little loose, and the hard angles of his handsome face had softened somewhat.

It was with the consumption of the third cookie that those slow changes massively accelerated. Ben’s impressive muscles dwindled away completely to leave him with a slender frame, although he retained enough weight around his stomach to give him something of a paunch. His overall frame shrunk and as he cluelessly brought himself up to feet, he no longer soon at an impressive six-five. Indeed he had lost some ten inches of height, and that only continued further until he finally settled at precisely four feet tall, with the room suddenly appearing to him as cavernous and imposing. His healthy tan became a pale porcelain while he lost the heavy brow and the square jawline that had made so many women fall for him in the past. His head became rounder and his cheeks puffed out while his dark brown hair lightened to become a fiery red.

The last changes were not to Ben himself but rather to the clothes that hung off his body. He had a hand on the waistband of his pants to keep them up, as they would surely fall thanks to his massively reduced waist and pencil legs! Both his shirt and pants proceeded to tighten around his new frame, but as they did so they also warped to become entirely new garments. Within moments he had a pair of green tights wrapped around his skinny legs, and his shirt had been remodelled as a bright red tunic decorated with the image of a Christmas tree. A badge had even appeared over what would have once been his left pec and with some difficulty, he’d been able to read it: Benny the Elf.

A terrible anxiety gripped Benny as his brain was abruptly immersed within a cloud of fog. Thoughts and feelings were at war in his mind, but a single noise was able to sort them into what he could only assume was the correct order. That noise was the sound of something heavy on the roof of the family home. Benny remarked to himself that it was something of a miracle that such a noise hadn’t woken the whole slumbering clan, but such was the magic of Christmas night! It simply wouldn’t do for anyone to interrupt their important work, and Santa’s magic was unmatched by any other magical being in the universe on that night alone.

Hastily clearing the remains of the wooden logs from the fireplace as he heard the man in charge unload his sack from his sleigh, Benny then took a step back and waited. He was so happy to be helping his boss deliver presents to families all around the world, but given how long the night was going to be, he knew that he’d be thankful by the time they were back in the North Pole and enjoying another plate of cookies and a nice glass of eggnog with the rest of Santa’s Helpers!