The Magic Santa Hat

Chapter 1
Chapter 1

Chapter Description: Paul and Laura James find a Santa hat under the tree.

The morning sky was just beginning to lighten as a red object streaked over the horizon accompanied by the faint sound of jingling bells. It was now Christmas morning, but something was a little different this Christmas morning. A very special and powerful gift had been left at many homes. A gift designed to give fun and pleasure to the giver and the receiver (and Santa himself, because he got to watch all the fun).

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Paul and Laura James were a thirty-something couple who had started trying to have a child but thus far had been unsuccessful. This Christmas morning they slept in a little and awoke when the sun was fully up. At a leisurely pace they brushed their teeth, made themselves presentable and put on nice bathrobes - Paul’s thick blue turkish robe over his flannel pajama bottoms and Laura’s filmy white robe over a white, spaghetti strap nightgown.

They made coffee and went into the living room to open the few small (but expensive) presents they had gotten each other. Laura curled her legs under herself on the couch while Paul turned on the Christmas tree lights and bent to retrieve the presents. He wasn’t all that enthused about Christmas but hoped that Laura would enjoy the jewelry he had picked out for her. Then a glint of red caught his eye as he scooped up the small boxes.

He reached under and pulled a classic Santa hat from under the tree. He put it on his head and adjusted it to a rakish angle. This didn’t feel like the cheap synthetic material hats you found at the store. The fluffy ball at the top of the hat and the fur around the bottom felt like, well, real fur - soft and comforting. Laura must have found this somewhere and bought it for him, he thought, she can still be impulsive and mischievous. Paul couldn’t help but smile.

"Hey look, I’m Santa Claus!" he said, "Ho, ho, ho!"

Laura had been distracted, staring out the window of their high rise apartment and kind of bored. She turned and saw her husband beaming at her and wearing a Santa hat, bearing the presents from under the tree to the couch. Her mood instantly lifted. She brushed some of her shoulder length brunette hair behind her ear, slid her hand to her soft cheek and smiled dreamily. Paul must have bought the hat to spice up their Christmas, she thought. She remembered he didn’t like to wear hats and appreciated the special effort on his part.

Paul placed the gifts into his and her piles on the coffee table. The first sign of trouble came when Laura opened one of her gifts. She opened the wrapping paper and pulled it off the jewelry box. She turned it around and opened it and was... disappointed as she caught a fleeting glance at the contents. Dammit, she thought, he got the wrong necklace. Rather than the elegant piece she had pointed out to him he had gotten a similar one from nearby in the display case. It was more expensive than the one she wanted but looked gaudy and pretentious to her. She wished he had gotten the right one.

Paul watched his wife open the box and suddenly felt his senses heighten. He knew instantly that she was disappointed and why. He also felt her "wish" for something else. He loved her and wanted her to have the gift she desired. Suddenly, there was an electric "twist" in his head. He was kind of dazed by the sensation and wondered what the deal was.

Laura opened the box all the way, preparing to fake her appreciation for the gift (and beginning to plan how she was going to get the receipt and exchange it for the one she wanted) when she took a better look. The necklace was exactly what she had wanted. It wasn’t even the one she had shown Paul. That one had a slightly different setting that she had been willing to settle for and she hadn’t liked the clasp. This one was the original necklace with all of the things she could desire. She lifted it to her neck and put it on.

"Oh, thank you honey," she exclaimed, leaning over and kissing her husband, "It’s perfect!"

Paul knew which necklace he had purchased and knew this wasn’t it. He rubbed the back of his head. "I’m glad you like it," he said.

He reached for the box that he hoped contained the gift he wanted. It was the right size and shape to be the iPod nano he had asked for. He tore the wrapping and saw that Laura had made the mistake he had worried about. It wasn’t the cool black one, it was a soft mint green and he hated it. He didn’t know that the store had been out of the black ones and Laura had bought the only option available.

Paul frowned momentarily and then composed himself to say something nice, but as he took in a breath to speak he felt the "twist" again and looking down at the box, goggled at the black iPod nano in his hands. He knew it had been crappy green just a second before. What the hell is going on, he wondered. The necklace had been wrong and now was right and the iPod was now what he wanted.

The rest of the presents went similarly, although the alterations as each gift was unwrapped were subtle if they happened at all. Paul was kind of distracted because he was more conscious of what was happening compared to Laura.

Finally, all of the presents were opened and Laura stood and stretched (which focused Paul’s attention on her figure. She was still in pretty good shape after 10 years of marriage. He didn’t like the way the nightgown went down past her knees. He remembered fondly the shorty , baby-doll style she had favored in the past. She didn’t like showing off that much of her legs any more. he wished she wasn’t so self-conscious about it and that she would wear the short lingerie every once in a while - like on Christmas day. The twist came again and Paul watched in amazement as the bottoms of his wife’s nightgown and robe inched higher up her legs, past her knees, up her thighs and stopped barely below her bottom.

"Eep!" she exclaimed as she noticed the breeze on her legs and tried to tug the hem down again.

Paul quickly wished she would be okay with it and leave it alone and she calmed, smoothing the short fabric.

"Do you want some coffee?" she asked, picking up her cup. Paul, still shocked, nodded. She grabbed his cup and walked towards the kitchen.

What else can I change? thought Paul. watching her hips swaying as she moved away. Somehow he knew that changes would not be harmful or permanent unless that is what the person truly wanted. She poured the 2 cups of coffee as Paul watched her, and pondered. When she stretched to get the sugar down from the high shelf, a thought entered Paul’s mind and he watched, entranced, as she reached higher and higher but the shelf rose out of her grasp. She was getting shorter! Paul appreciated how her extended stretching pulled her nightgown and robe (or is it a jacket now?) up and exposed her panty covered bottom.

"Honey, could you come and get the sugar down for me?" she asked, "Usually I can get it myself, but I must have had heels on last time and put it too far back."

Paul walked in and reached over her to hand down the sugar. Their heights were ordinarily fairly close, but now the top of her head barely came to his nose.

"Thanks," she said, setting the sugar tin down and quickly hugging him. Her diminished height made her look younger to him. Then she busied herself adding sugar and cream to the coffees and Paul, with a thought, restored her height. She didn’t seem to notice that she had been shorter or that she was now taller again. He took the cup she offered and followed her back to the couch. He realized why she didn’t like to wear short nighties when he saw how her thighs were thicker than they used to be - he still liked the way she looked and understood that time had acted on both of them. She was still very attractive to him and he savored all of the years they had spent together. Even though he wasn’t conscious of the wish, her legs firmed up and she had grown several years younger during the walk to the couch.

They sat on the couch sipping their coffee for a while and neither spoke. Paul was still processing the events of the morning and Laura was alone with her thoughts. Paul felt guilty about changing her without her realizing it. he wished you could figure it out (if he just told her, she’d never believe it!) and that the two of them could have fun with this magic for as long as it lasted.

Paul surveyed the expensive gifts laying on the coffee table. "Well, our gifts have gotten a lot fancier than they were back in the day," said Paul, grinning. When they had first gotten married and both were starting their careers, there had been some Christmases where the entire budget for the holiday was less than the cost of one of the presents from this year.

"You’ve done a marvelous job this year, Santa," purred Laura as she climbed into his lap. Sitting sideways, she leaned in close. "But I also remember that those days had some non-gift activities that we both enjoyed," she said softly and nibbled his ear.

Paul smiled, they had enjoyed themselves thoroughly on long Holiday weekends in the early days of their marriage, spending hours in bed together making love and then snuggling up and talking about life, their plans for the future and then going at it again until they were exhausted. He hadn’t really thought about those Christmases in years. He slid his one hand up his wife’s back while the other rested on her smoother, younger legs. During his reverie, the hands of time had turned back for both of them. The years had dropped away - moving thirtieth birthdays into the physical future, dissolving the extra pounds the years had brought on, and firming up their bodies. Paul was now a buff 25 year old with a sixpack, more muscular arms and legs, thicker hair and a relaxed. un-stressed expression on his face.

His lovely wife was radiant as she moved closer to the days when she had been a blushing bride. Her hair grew longer and more lustrous, her arms and legs were leaner and tauter. Her wist grew thinner and her breasts were firmer and slightly smaller than before. Their clothing had remained unchanged so Paul’s sleeping pants hung lower on his narrower hips and Laura’s gown was slightly oversized. The smooth young skin and oversized clothes rendered the scene even more exciting for Paul and Laura as each let their hands roamed over the familiar but electrically exciting contours of the other’s restored body. Laura loved the muscular firmness of Paul’s strong arms and back while he savored the softness of her skin, the narrow waist and the two firm, dark-capped peaks that pushed out the top of her nightgown. Their mouths devoured each other and the excitement built as Paul moved his hand up to her shoulder and began to slide the thin strap down her arm - and the phone rang.

"Damn," she mumbled, twisting out of the kiss and looking at the handset on the coffee table, "It’s my family." She slid off his lap and grabbed the phone, pacing the room while she talked with her mother about what she and Paul had gotten each other and catching up with events from around the family and frequently shooting apologetic looks towards Paul. Looks that got more pleading and apologetic when she dropped her glance down the gap where his robe had come open to his strong abs and the tented front of his flannel pajama bottoms where it stubbornly stuck up. After a few minutes of the conversation, he was sufficiently uninterested to safely stand up and walk to the kitchen for something to drink.

Paul returned to the couch with a cookie and a drink. He sat and watched his 25-year-old wife pace and talk. He absorbed the site of her long, lithe legs as she went back and forth, the rhythmic sway of the back of her robe as her lovely rear moved back and forth underneath it and finally, up her slim torso to the proud breasts that were more exposed than usual because of the mildly oversized gown. The straps were just slightly too long and the top was slightly too wide so there was more cleavage to be seen as they bounced lightly with each step. When she turned at the end of each run of her pace, the short nightie and robe would flare out and give a peek at her white panties. Paul could feel his ’interest" returning and his patience was beginning to thin when the call finally ended.

Laura set the phone down, returned to the couch and set next to Paul saying, "Now, where were we?" She ran her hand down his strong arm.

"You look so beautiful this way, I think this is the prettiest that I’ve ever seen you" he murmured. leaning in to kiss her gently.

She kissed him back, then playfully tossed her hair. "You should have seen me in high school,’ she breathed. Paul had met her towards the very end of College and they had grown up in different parts of the state. He had seen old photos and yearbooks and wished he could have seen the 16-year old Laura.

A sharp intake of breath and a soft "Ooh" claimed his attention. She sat up on her knees on the couch. "It’s happening again," she said, closing her eyes and savoring it.

Paul watched entranced, as time did its backwards dance, taking away the years form the 25-year old in front of him. She changed slightly to the look and hairstyle he remembered from college, but the changes kept going. She was slimmer and her face was changing. Her cheekbones were less prominent and her jaw line grew more rounded. Her shoulders got narrower and her arms slimmed further. Her breasts got perkier and moved from a round shape with nipples pointing roughly forward to a more conical shape with the nipple aimed more towards the ceiling. Her height dropped an inch or two as her expression grew wide-eyed and innocent. Her nose was shorter and her eyes looked farther apart. Her mouth had shrunk although the lips were still fairly full. Paul stared agape as his wife dwindled from a grown woman to a young woman to a girl. It was beyond amazing.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed in a high bright voice, excitedly jumping up from the couch and rushing to the bathroom to see herself in the mirror. Paul rose and followed her a a slower pace. He stepped into the bathroom next to where the pretty dark-haired teen was leaning toward the mirror studying her own face with deep fascination. Paul took a moment to savor the way the overlarge nightgown - her robe lay disgarded on the floor by her feet - hung out away from her chest exposing much more of the creamy flesh of her breasts than would ordinarily be on display. He could see almost the full profile of her right breast, with only the pointing, dusky pink end covered by a little of the material of her gown.

She turned to face him, looking up more than she was used to and was startled because he was still 25. He could see the reflections of the girl and the grown man in the mirror. She looked young enough to almost be the daughter of her older self.

"I thought we would be the same age?" she said questioningly, obviously disappointed. "Is that my voice?" she continued immediately, clutching her throat at the high girlish tone.

Paul felt the twitch at the moment he sensed her disappointment and then watched his own changes reflected in her expression. His muscles grew smaller and he felt the robe and pants growing looser on his thinning frame. She appeared to get grow as his height decreased to closer to her own. His face softened and the stubble along his jaw thinned. When it ended, the mirror reflected a rangy teenage boy standing by an innocent girl. Paul blinked a few times, letting the reality of things wash over him. Then he looked at his wife with new eyes. Holy shit, she is so incredibly beautiful! he thought. He couldn’t stop himself, he stepped forward and took her into his arms, kissing her passionately. She returned his kisses with a ferocity unseen in a girl so young.

After an eternity of several minutes they broke the kiss, both exclaiming "Wow" at the same time and then laughing. She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards their bedroom. The phone started to ring and she looked for a moment like she was going to change course to answer it when he said, "Don’t! We sound like kids."

She laughed, a high musical giggle and pulled him forward again. In the bedroom, her gown slithered to the floor and as he desperately tried to shed his overgrown robe, she grabbed the loose hanging waistband of his pajama pants and yanked it to the ground. Now the full length of their firm, young flesh was in contact with each other. He felt the hard points of her small, pink nipples against his chest and she felt the large hardness of his member against her stomach. They stumbled towards the bed and climbed up it to the pillows. He ran his hands over the small perky firmness of her breasts, savoring the smaller than usual pink nipples. He stroked the small tuft of hair above her sex before his expert fingers descended to pleasure her. She grabbed his rigid member - smaller than she remembered, but still substantial, and stroked it. As he rolled her to her back and lowered himself on her, they looked into each other’s eyes and enjoyed the connection - the flaming intensity of sudden teenage love mixed with depth and complexity of knowing this person is the one and has been for a long time.

What followed was a series of sexual experiences like neither had ever known. It had the overwhelming electric intensity of those first furtive times with the depth and meaning shared between 2 people well into a lifetime relationship. She experienced a little pain at first that quickly wore off and evolved in the pleasure of mature sex and he had the amazing recovery time of a teenage boy with the patience and control of a grown man.

In between bouts of lovemaking there were tickling matches, long heartfelt conversations with the earnestness of youth, messy snacks of cookies and chips and junk and planning for their real, adult future. At 11:59 PM, they both fell into a deep sleep and their bodies returned to their original ages - because that was the way they wanted it to be.

As Paul faded into slumber, he looked over at the Santa hat on the nightstand and wondered who else had gotten this magic gift? What did they do with it?

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This is an open story. You can do anything you like to add on to it. There are very few rules:

1) Someone has to find the Santa hat and use it. Others can use it as well (whether they wear it or not) but no one can be "stuck" because the hat is gone.

2) No punishment/humiliation themes. The magic of the Santa hat is always a gift. The receiver has to want what they get.

3) Changes made with the Santa hat can be permanent if the person transformed desires it. If they don’t specifically want it to be permanent, they are restored before midnight on Christmas day.