In the run up to Christmas

You can usually tell how busy the group is, with writing, life and sometimes both, by how many blogs the ten of us manage to write for the website...Hmm...We haven't blogged since October...OK, well, I've been meaning to do this for the last few years and have always forgotten. Even this year I'm five days behind, but here we go - my plan is to publish one Christmas themed 75-worder every day. Some will have been seen on the Paragraph Planet website before, most will not. Many will eventually appear in my (very) short story collection 75-Squared at Christmas if I ever managed to pull my finger out and collate them all. Some I probably haven't even written yet (I tend to get quite inspired this time of year). Some will even feature illustrations by the talented artist Helen Withington.As I'm five days behind, rather than this being an advent event as I'd intended, I'm going to go right through until December 31st instead.So here we are - the first of my Christmas themed 75-worders:

Father Christmas Inc (FCI), a Division of Santa Claus Enterprises would like to make the following announcement: After the 15th consecutive year-on-year drop in the number of children classified as “Nice”, FCI hereby declare that the following behaviours will no longer be classed as “Naughty”: Not tidying your room, not doing your homework, breaking something (under $50 in value) and not owning up. However, after some boardroom discussion, outright lying will still be classed as “Naughty”.

As ever, thank-you for your time and, if it's not too early, Merry Christmas!John Hoggard