Drabble: A Real Christmas

by Clonesgirl

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Written for the Life on Mars Christmas-tide Unofficial Drabble Challenge on Lifein1973 Friday 25 December 2009.  Prompts: Christmas Eve and It's got too commercialised.

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It was a chilly twilight and the streetlights were already on as, bag of last-minute Christmas shopping in hand, Sam Tyler reached Gene Hunt's house.  Christmas in the future was far too commercialised, he thought morosely, but at least in 1973 it was still real. 

In the window was the Christmas tree - a real tree, not one of those fake plastic ones - that they'd decorated together, its old multicolour lights shining warmly onto the poorly lit street.

Inside, as he placed his packages under it, a Santa-hatted Gene greeted him with a boyishly enthusiastic hug which could never be faked.

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