The Great Santa Showdown

By Glenn Quigley

It's two weeks before Christmas, and the official Santa Claus of the small town of Yuleboro is retiring. The town takes Christmas seriously, with year-round celebrations, themed diners and guesthouses, and a Santa Claus who makes regular public appearances.

Fifty-something bookstore owner Gregory has long dreamed of taking over the role. However, he's far from the only one. Grandfather and tree farmer John has been waiting his whole life for this opportunity and plans to seize it with both hands, despite objections from his daughter.

Alongside a host of other competitors, they’ll battle their way through a tournament designed to test the skills of any would-be Kris Kringles, and find it takes more than a belly and a beard to wear the red suit. As Gregory and John go head to head in the town’s first-ever Great Santa Showdown, will it be more than just the competition that heats up?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Dec 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685502843

Glenn Quigley

Glenn Quigley is a graphic designer originally from Dublin and now living in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. He creates bear designs for www.themoodybear.com. He has been interested in writing since he was a child, as essay writing was the one and only thing he was ever any good at in school. When not writing or designing, he enjoys photography and has recently taken up watercolour painting.

Book preview

The Great Santa Showdown

By Glenn Quigley

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2022 Glenn Quigley

ISBN 9781685502843

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Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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Dedication: For the love we found.

Thanks to Tony Teehan and Christian Smith for their invaluable feedback.

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The Great Santa Showdown

By Glenn Quigley

Beneath the mistletoe-laden porch of the Four O’clock Bookstore, Gregory stamped his feet, trying to keep them warm. Dressed in his favorite holiday sweater—which featured a red-nosed Darth Vader holding a candy cane—he hugged himself as his breath turned to fog.

From the back of the store’s tiny delivery truck, his friend and co-worker, Floyd, heaved out yet another heavy box and handed it over to him. Santa’s retiring.

Gregory let the box fall onto the wet pavement. The cardboard immediately sucked up some of that morning’s snow. What do you mean? Santa can’t retire. It’s two weeks before Christmas.

Well, he is. Floyd put his own hands under his armpits and rocked from side to side. And you know what that means.

Gregory raised his salt and pepper eyebrows. There’s a job opening.

Floyd nodded. There’s a job opening.

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In his little office above his spacious and noisy workshop, John opened yet another logbook and flicked through the pages. Outside, a light dusting of snow covered his tree farm and boot prints crisscrossed the yard below his window. He squinted through the gold, half-moon glasses perched on the bulbous end of his short nose. The numbers weren’t making sense. They rarely did these days. He’d expected work to slow down, but, if anything, he was getting busier. Not usually a bad thing in business but he’d been hoping for some breathing room. On the workshop floor, chainsaws buzzed to life as they bit into felled tree trunks.

Dad, have you heard? His daughter, Tilly, rushed up the stairwell and into his office, smiling and shaking the snow from her knitted cap. Santa’s retiring!

John dropped his logbook, almost fell out of his chair, kissed her on the cheek, and rushed out.

Take a jacket! she called after him.

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By the time Gregory shook the snow from his coat at the Yuleboro town hall, the lobby had already filled with gentlemen of a certain age, all talking over one another. Everywhere he looked, men with big bellies and white beards chatted and jostled, trying to get to the head of the line. Almost everyone wore something red, be it a pair of pants, a shirt, or a festive tie. Gregory smoothed down the front of his Darth Vader sweater. At least it was the right color. He slipped through the crowd as best he could—though at six-foot-two, slipping wasn’t really an option and so he pretty much barged through, apologizing all the while.