"Jack's Gift"

Jason Stoddard explains the origins of Christmas, in "Jack's Gift"…

He still remembered. He was nine when Dark Christmas came. He knew there were lots of different kinds of Santas. But when the first robotic Santa went rushing from tree to tree in his front yard like a soldier in a wargame, he knew something was wrong. When two more Santas, shiny with human sweat, appeared from the street and chased the robot down, David knew that something had changed forever. He watched as they bore the heavy robot to the earth and beat it with a aluminum baseball bat until its skin tore and shiny metal parts showed. Then they went into David’s own yard, jumping on the small machines that bore his own gifts. He saw clockwork fly, and heard tiny metal screams. One of the human Santas passed by his window, and for a moment David saw a terrible sneer, as if to say, This is what you get, did you expect anything else?