Diary of a 21st Century nobody - Good idea/ Bad idea?

As a child I loved the season of Christmas. It was a warming, fun, family celebration with the magical addition of Santa Claus for extra sparkle! I can recall the excitement building as we children wrote our 'Christmas List' - a neat letter requesting a number of gifts that we hoped he would leave for us in the dark of Christmas Eve whilst we slept in eager anticipation of what would await us when Christmas Day dawned.... The letters were posted to Santa at the North Pole, and as each day of December passed by, our excitement grew. The magic lasted year after year, until we began to question lots of aspects of the mystery that is Santa Claus: some schoolfriends told us that they sent their letters to the South Pole as that was where they were told Santa lived. How could he be in both places?

One friend commented on the fact that the designs on the wrapping paper on gifts from Santa matched that of the local supermarket- didn't he make his own? Another, at a family Christmas party, recalled asking Mummy why the Santa who was giving out gifts to the children attending the party was wearing Daddy's shoes?? He never received a satisfactory answer!

So, you see, the magic was reducing with the years, and so much so that one friend, at an age I can no longer recall now, decided to find out if the story she had been told - that her Christmas presents were kept in the wardrobe in Mum and Dad's bedroom and were NOT delivered by Santa at midnight in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer - was true or not.

The idea was simple- when her parents left her in the care of a babysitter and attended a neighbour's pre-Christmas party, she would go to bed, pretend to be asleep, and sneak into her parents' room to discover the truth! The following morning, at school, she would tell us all what she had found out...

The anticipation we felt was at least equal to that of Christmas Eve, and we hurried into the cloakroom on the appointed school morning with glee. However, Lucy did not appear at registration time, and at Morning Assembly we were asked to remember her and her family in our prayers as they had had a very sad incident at their home last night... Well, what were we to do? Had she 'unmasked' Santa, only to suffer a grievous punishment? Had the truth been too much to bear? Had her parents banished her from their home for ruining the magic of Christmas? Had she been snatched by a gathering of 'Santa's little helpers' and dragged off to the North (or South, depending on your belief!) Pole for serious questioning by the 'man in red'? - NO, NO, NO, and NO!!

In fact, what happened was this: Lucy, fearful of her parents seeing the light on in their bedroom whilst they were not in the house, had decided (rather wisely, we thought) not to switch on the room light but to light a candle instead - the softer light being far less likely to be seen from across the road where they were partying; it would also afford enough light for her to see by. Using a buffet to stand on, she carefully opened the door at the very top of the wardrobe and, leaning in with the candle in her hand, was amazed to find a huge heap of boxes and bags which she decided must contain gifts. She pushed a few aside to create a space on which to stand the candle, and began to rummage in the nearest bag. Sadly, her movement caused the candle to lean too close to a nearby plastic bag which then set alight, and promptly spread to the contents inside, the other boxes and bags and their contents, the wardrobe itself and finally, as she raced downstairs to alert the babysitter, to half of her parents' bedroom as well!!!.......... And it had seemed such a good idea to us at the time.