He was short, a little stocky, but short nonetheless. He had a thick beard, a small hat and a defiant look on his face. But what was worse, he didn't flinch a wee bit as he coldly returned my stare.
He was Claud, one of my famed little helpers, and he had just sabotaged eleven months of tedious work.
I could have shouted angrily at this little arrogant fellow, or probably hauled him around a bit just for the sake of it, but those were not part of my attributes. I possessed neither of the character traits necessary for such actions. So I decided to calmly tell him off instead...
"Ho ho ho..."
No.. That didn't come out as expected. Another problem to deal with; I only possessed the ability to utter two sentences.. that, and Merry Christmas. Definitely useless in this strange scenario which I somehow found myself facing.
"That's enough now Claud.."
One of the other same looking, short, almost identical little helpers of mine seemed to have had enough of the whole charade.
In my head I prepared to ask Claud to please listen to his fellow, but again as I spoke...
"Ho ho ho..."
I put my hands to my head, it was useless. Alas, Santa would not be making the rounds this year...
To all my little expectants, please do accept my words of apology...
"Ho ho ho... Merry Christmas..."
For that is all Santa can say...
Written for 
This one was written in quite a bit of a hurry... Just happened to see the contest post earlier today, and I have been a bit down with malaria recently.
Already getting a bit better now though. But Jeez... would I love to regain my taste of food right now.