Original (2007/??/??)
Translation: y4nderenka, donamoeba
Christmas Game
Cast
Santa: A Finnish man with a boring receptionist job by day.
He’s one of the dispatched temporary Santa Clauses from a Santa corporation that has gone public recently.
The company president is God. He can earn wages by granting hopes and dreams.
Thanks to some mysterious magic that he can only use during Christmas, presents become easier to deliver.
Lately, he’s been very bitter about the increase in salaryman Santas.
Abbreviations
Graphic: C
Sound Effect: K
Music: M
Main theme song. If you wait, a button appears.
[Admin Note: There used to be a flash feature above that most likely played Christmas music.]
————————————————————
M: Christmas Song
” ‘Tis the season, it’s finally arrived!”
I am a Finn who lives in a cheap apartment in Queens, New York.
Normally I work in an interior design company in charge of telephone calls, but when this season arrives, every day comes to look like it’s sparkling the color of salmiakki.
That’s because I am the Santa in charge of Manhattan, New York!
When Christmas songs are heard, that’s my season!
C: Inside a shopping mall
“I wonder what would be good for this person…”
“Say, sir, you’ve been actin’ suspicious for a while, can I ask ya a couple of questions in the back?”
“Ah, I’m sorry!
I’m not a suspicious person!”
“If ya ain’t suspicious, I wouldn’t have to talk to ya.”
————————————————————
C: A neighborhood in New York
“Haah… that was terrible…
Seriously, by the latter half, it just turned into pointless life stories…”
Even though I love that shopping mall,
I can’t go back for a while now…
M: Christmas song
“Eh heh heh… it kind of makes me happy whenever I hear this song…”
This year will the fifth year since I became Santa.
Even though a dispatched temporary Santa really is the lowest of the low on the totem pole.
A true grunt Santa who can only get a contract during Christmas.
However, I still am proud that I’m given a job as Santa, where I can grant people’s dreams.
M: The sound of bells
C: A Santa acting as a barker for Christmas bargains, and a parent and child, in downtown
“Merry Christmaaas!”
“Happy Christmaaas!”
“Wow, Santa, Santa!”
“Yeah, it’s Santa, isn’t it?”
(Heehee… I’m the real Santa!)
“I, um—I, um—
I want a doll this year—”
“Really? Well, be a good girl, and if you wish on a star every day, Santa will surely give you one, okay?”
“Yeah!”
(A doll…? I’ll make note of that.)
“Will I be able to see Santa if I stay up?”
“Santa won’t be able to deliver your presents if you’re awake.”
(It kinda makes me happy to hear conversations like this.
Ah, but due to time constraint, the truth is even if the recipient’s still awake, I would just go in normally and hand the present over anyway.)
“Heehee… it’s sweet that you have a dream…”
C: The parent and child looking this way with disdain
“Wha… what’s with you…?”
“Eh, ah… No, that…”
“That person has been looking at me the whole time.”
“How dare you stare at my daughter like that…! Are you come kind of pervert? Please stop!”
“Ah, sorry… I’m not a suspicious pers…”
C: Santa running away
“S-Sooorry!”
————————————————————
Opening Movie
————————————————————
:Departure
And so, Christmas Day came.
C: The city with Christmas decorations
C: A room
I took a day off from work and slept all day today, so my physical condition is flawless!
There’s a chance that I’ll be fired from my job tomorrow, but it’s nothing compared to everyone’s dreams and happiness, right?
“It’s been a year… and these clothes, too.”
C: Santa costume
Um, the reason it’s a little different from the red Santa suit that everyone imagines is that even the Santas’ uniform changes with fashion. Nowadays, the only Santas who wear that red suit are all mid-level middle-aged men.
Personally, I prefer the old standard one too, but ever since my coworkers laughed at me for looking “outdated”, I kind of bought a brand-new one.
Ah, that’s right, about four years ago, the color blue was in style because it was pretty, but there were some complaints, so the next year everyone wore red ones.
C: Blue Santa outfit
That was the year after I was told I looked “outdated”, so I splurged on one as well, but I only got to wear it as Santa once. Since I don’t have any other choice, I wear it on Halloween with lingering regrets.
C: Wearing a Santa suit
When I put my arms through these sleeves, I really get a feeling like, “Yeah, I’m Santa.”
“I have to try my best this year, too!”
K: *tap tap* (Sound of knocking at the window)
“Here!”
C: Sleigh and reindeer outside the window
“Wow! It’s been a year! How have you been? Wait a minute, okay? I’m almost done with preparations!”
“……”
He’s a veteran Santa reindeer with 20 years under his belt.
I hear that in his younger years, he was a star who took the Santa world by storm, but these days, probably just due to his old age, he has that “old people smell” and is losing his speed, so he’s assigned to a grunt worker like me.
“Umm, socks, socks…
Gah! Crap! My coffee’s boiling!”
“Sooorry! Just one more sec!
I thought I’d bring some coffee, but it’s kind of turning into a disaster… Mind if I go buy coffee at Dunkin’ downstairs?”
K: Angry *tap tap*
“I said I’m sorry!”
On that note, it’s good that I got myself in tip-top shape, but I’m getting little hungry.
I ate the last of my frozen food yesterday though, so maybe I’ll get some donuts at Dunkin’ as well while I’m at it…
C: Donuts
By the way, my favorite is Boston Creme.
The one with cream in the middle and chocolate on top.
“Ooh… I’m hungry…”
C: Two wrapped items in the refrigerator
“Ah…”
“I wonder if this is for me?”
Well, normally people don’t divide the same food into two portions for no reason…
The person in the room next to mine occasionally shares food with me this way.
But since that person never says anything, I wasn’t sure what it was about and there were a few times where the food ended up spoiled, so now whenever I see food divided like this, I would gratefully take it.
“Ah, speaking of that person… I wonder if he’s here now.”
Because I’m poor, I’m sharing an apartment with a Swede.
In the past, I’ve shared flats with a Dane and also a Norwegian once, and while the rent was really cheap, the Dane was too noisy, so I ended up sharing with just one other person, like I do now.
The Swede next door is a very quiet person, but since I don’t have the slightest idea what he’s thinking, to put it bluntly, I think he’s scary.
Since our work schedules are different, we don’t see each other much; the only thing we do together is shopping every now and then.
Well, he’s always been so kind to me with food and stuff, I shall give my first present to him.
“Um, excuse meee! It’s me— Are you there-?”
It seems he’s not.
“Oh, well…”
I’ll just leave it here then.
Well, he’s scary, so I don’t particularly mind not seeing him.
C: Let’s start working.
(In this drawing, he’s holding one of the wrapped dishes from before.)
“Well, then! Off I go!”
My work as Santa begins!
————————————————————
: The First Magic Spell
C: Up in the sky
“To start with, I have to cast the first spell over Manhattan.”
We Santas make it easier to move around the regions we’re in charge of by using magic that only works on Christmas.
By the way, today is the only day I can use magic.
And the first spell is a snow spell.
In Santa tradition, we always cast this spell first.
A big shot once told me the reason we have to cast this spell, but it was too complicated, and I didn’t understand what he said.
It might look romantic to the viewers, but to the person casting the spell, it’s a desperate effort.
Come to think of it, I remember making a huge mistake with this snow spell last year…
I completely blew away all of the clouds…
Well, I guess it was good that we could see the stars so clearly?
C: Reindeer with a “hurry up” face
K: *tapping*
“……”
“Sorry! I’ll do it now!”
“Sure enough, Christmas brings snow to mind! All right then, off we go!”
“God! Give us the gift of snow on this wonderful holy night!”
C: After a short wait, snow begins to fall.
“I did it!! It worked! It worked~!! We have a white Christmas this year-!”
C: New York cityscape at night
“Ah, snow! It’s snowing!”
“It really is…”
“Snow… huh…?”
“All right! It looks like I can do good work tonight!
Let’s try our best, Mr. Gunshot Deerheadjirou!”
Gunshot Deerheadjirou is this reindeer’s name.
I have a feeling that he had another cool name, but it was hard to pronounce, so I call him this.
“Hi-ho-! Silver-!”
The rest are partial excerpts. This is the kind of ambiance it is.
: With an East German
“Ah, damn it, frickin’ showing off…”
Hmm, I wonder what to give that person.
“It’s even snowing…
Dammit! This is a totally awful Christmas.”
Please don’t say things like that
I’ll be so sad.
“That’s right… If I give him some kind of gag gift, something that’ll make him giggle…”
Hmm, hmm, do I have any good ones…
Ah!
All right! This is the one! Well then, right away…!
“Um… Excuse me… whoa!”
“What are you doing?”
A Russian showed up.
“Gah, why are you here?”
I’m not good with that Russian either.
This person is the manager of the Soviet Dormitory I visited just before.
A long time ago, I was almost made to stay in that dormitory, too.
It’s good that they offer meals, but it looks shabby so…
He’s kind of scary even though he smiles, and he says “kol kol,” and I get such chills when I go near him. And he kind of randomly barged into my house before…
Nevertheless, I’m Santa Claus, so even if I’m not good with him personally or whatever, he’s still an important person to give a present to!
Hmm… but he’s still scary.
“Are you alone now?”
“My girlfriend and my girlfriend’s friend’s friend are waiting for my return at home!”
“Huh…?”
(Excerpt)
: With the Russian
Ah, must I really give a present to that person…?
Just what the heck has he been doing behind the church anyway?
Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll give him the present right away and head to the next person!
“U-Um…”
“Ah, you’re…”
“Oh, wait, no! I’m Santa Claus!”
“Huh? No matter how you look at it, you look like an acquaintance of mine.”
Eeek… he’s giving off a kind of overpowering aura, this person…
He really is scary.
“Leaving that aside, I’m Santa, so I came to give you a present.”
“A present…? For me?”
“Yes, please use it if you like.”
C: A present and the Russian
“Hmm…”
“I’d rather have you than something like this.”
“Eh?”
“Hey, let’s live together.
It’s fun, the Soviet Dormitory.”
“Ah… no… I’m… so…”
“Shall we gather around the dining room table and sing songs together?
I’m sure we’ll be happy every day.
I like you a lot, so I think I can take good care of you.”
“B-But I’m Santa, and…”
“Eh? So you are. Then, I think I can be proud of myself. Having my own pet Santa and such.”
“Eeeek!”
“E-Excuse me-!!”
Ah, as expected, I’m not good with that person-!
C: Behind a church
“Aww, he’s gone…”
“I wonder what’s in the box.”
C: A scarf
“A… scarf…?”
“Ahaha… he has rather good taste, doesn’t he?”
C: In the sky
“Hey!”
“Ah, good evening…”
This person is the Santa Claus in charge of New Jersey.
He’s my junior, but he’s much better at this job than I am, so he’s a full-time employee now.
“You aren’t finished delivering yet?”
“Y-yeah… Some things sort of happened…”
“I checked on my phone just now, and New Jersey which I’m in charge of, and my pal’s Connecticut, and, um, what was it? Ah, right, and Virginia too, have all been done with their delivery for ages already.
The only district left is Manhattan, New York.”
“Are you serious!?”
Manhattan is densely populated, and there’s a lot of work to do, so it’s usually temporary workers like me who are responsible for it. The person responsible for Manhattan before me quit because it ruined his health.
“Pfft, you’re really such a slowpoke.”
“Sorry… I was choosing the presents, and before I knew it, it was quite late…”
“Eh, you don’t have to choose them!
Just give them all a cake or something, and they’d be like, ‘Thank you, Mr. Santa!'”
“Re-really…”
“Well yeah. After all, they’ll be grateful as long as Santa delivered something, no matter what.
My pals and I all made do by giving them cakes.
So we were able to quickly deliver them all, and we got a ton of thank you calls from the company.
I heard we’re gonna get great bonuses this year!”
“That’s nice…”
“You failed to deliver the presents properly and ended up working for free last year, right? You should do it this way this year!”
“I see…”
“Yeah! You should appreciate this advice from your senior! See ya!”
“Y-Yeah…”
Jingle jingle jingle jingle…
“Advice from my senior…?”
I kinda have been doing this job for longer, though, you know…
————————————————————
C: Inside a house
“Wow… Mr. Santa?”
“Y-Yes… I’m Santa.”
Give a cake and leave immediately… Give a cake and leave immediately…
“Ah… um, here’s a present…”
Give a cake and leave immediately… Give a cake and leave immediately…
Give a cake and leave immediately… Give a cake and leave immediately…
“Ah… thank you, Mr. Santa!”
Give a cake and leave immediately… Give a cake and leave immediately…
Give a cake and leave immediately… Give a cake and leave immediately…
Give a cake and leave immediately… Give a cake and leave immediately…
Give a cake and leave immediately… Give a cake and leave immediately…
“I’m so happy, Mr. Santa.”
“Ah… yeah…”
Ahahaha… look, this totally worked, right? Why was I acting so suspiciously!? I was a total fool to choose presents so deliberately!
“W-Well then… Goodbye…”
“I wanted a hair accessory…”
“Huh?”
“Thank you!”
“Ah… um…”
C: A piece of paper in a stocking (“Pretty hair accessory” is written on it)
He’s obviously a boy…
Could it be that he’s become aware at this age?
No, no, that’s a personal preference, it’s not something I should comment on…
“S-Sorry. I mixed up the presents.
Here… here’s the pretty hair accessory.”
“I see… So, Mr. Santa is a bit of a scatterbrain, huh?”
“Yeah, well, here you go.”
C: A boy handing the present over to a sleeping girl
“Wait…”
“A-Are you giving it to her?”
“Yeah.”
“But isn’t that your present?”
“Yeah.”
If I make it in time for this year’s Christmas, I’ll upload it once I’ve revised the script.