"Of course he's real," said Wicke. "I don't know how long he's been around, but he's been bringing Christmas Presents to me for years."

She smiled and picked up a clock on the nearby table which was designed like a delicate pair of bird pokemon. "He brought me this when I was ten. My mother was sick that year, and my father was out of town. So I wrote him for a present that would let my mother hear birds in winter. I had no allowance."

She touched the head of the bird and it started to chirp. "It still works, twenty years later..." she said fondly. "It's never broken down, or ran out of batteries. A true Christmas miracle."