"What are we supposed to do now?" Neptune, the God of freshwater and sea, asked in a panicked voice.

"Do we have an option? We'll have to replace him this year." Thanatos, the God of death, replied, a little calmer than everyone else.

This was the urgent meeting being held in Mount Olympus between Gods and Goddesses. Everyone was sickly tired about what was going to be done this Christmas. A grave issue had arisen after all. And Christmas was no joke for humans.

Christmas was important to many because it reminded them that: Jesus, the Son of God, came to Earth for all people, symbolised through the visits of the wise men and the shepherds. In a way, this festival taught humans the message that 'where there is hope, love, light and life, the plan and purpose of God will reach'. The fact couldn't be ignored that Christmas was such a wonderful holiday because it brought together family and friends, there is great food and music, and it's centered around the spirit of giving.

But who was supposed to give, now that Santa was sick?

Everything started when Gods decided to send Santa on surprise vacation to some warm and beautiful place for holiday. Normally, he'd spent all his time in his hut, wearing warm clothes, making notes about present delivery and being surrounded by elves making presents. It was also noticable that he had to live in the coldest mountains for the ideal environment of gift making. So, the Gods decided this for him, obviously, thinking about everyone's welfare. The issue?

Santa went on the beach and... For some beach may be a paradise but, for some it can be bad and Santa became one of them. The things in the beach environment caused an allergic reaction in his body. This included exposure to the sun (solar urticaria), to water (swimmer's itch, seabather's eruption), and to barbecue smoke (which can disperse allergy triggers into the air). Long story short... He became extremely sick and now, was unable to move. This meeting was therefore conducted to take care of this matter.

"But who'll take his place? He has been doing this for years and right now..." Apollo, the God of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, the Sun and light, poetry, and more, said.

"I think we should split his work between ourselves." Aphrodite, the Goddess of beauty and love, suggested.

"We can't do that... It'd be a disaster if we all meddle in this situation. We've so many preferences after all." Athena, the Goddess of reason, wisdom, and war reasoned.

"She's right..." Hades, the supreme God of the underworld agreed.

"Then... What do we do?" Neptune asked.

"I think we should consider doing a poll to decide about that one God who would take care of this matter." Zeus, the God of the sky, suggested.

"What should be the basis of this poll? And who'd vote?" Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night, asked.

"This should be a popularity poll. We'd count the times of prayers done by humans and see which God is the most popular between them. Whoever wins, will handle the present delivery in stead of Santa this time." Hestia, the virgin goddess of the hearth, suggested.

"That'd be the best solution. Let's let Themis handle it. She'll never be biased after all." Ares, the God of war, suggested and everyone agreed on it.
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Few days later, the meeting was held again. Themis, the Goddess of justice, had completed her work and collected the popularity poll results from the mortal realm. She made the results in a poster form and hung it in between everyone.

The results were shocking. Cupid or Eros, the God of love, had won the poll by getting good majority. He was obviously the most popular between humans so, he was entrusted with Santa's work.

"Santa Claus has the reputation for secret gift giving. However, this year, Cupid is in charge of delivering the presents." Themis declared.

"Now, it's sorted. What could possibly go wrong?" Thanatos asked Neptune after hearing the results.

"Umm... Everything?" Aphrodite vaguely replied from behind.
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Cupid visited Santa's place where he asked for head Reindeer's help as he was Santa's closest partner. They found Santa's unfinished dairy where he wrote the list of all the presents to be delivered. Together, they went to Earth to complete their list.

The problem?

Everywhere Cupid went, he found someone wishing if only Cupid listened to their prayers and make the other party fall in love with them... Hearing their heartfelt prayers from close, Cupid couldn't control his urge to help them. He took out his magical bow and started shooting arrows accordingly. In a single day, almost a million people found their crush reciprocating their love. Earth went in chaos.

He was watching the couples interact, when Moirai, the three weaving Goddesses of Destiny, descended before him to warn him of his wrongdoings. Cupid carries two kinds of arrows, or darts, one with a sharp golden point, and the other with a blunt tip of lead. His iconography acquired the bow and arrow that represent his source of power: a person, or even a deity, who is shot by Cupid's arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire to either love or hate. No-one is entirely immune to Cupid's arrow.

The way he was making people fall in love played with destiny's design thus, changing future unnecessarily. The Goddesses were highly irritated because of the mess he created. Saddened with himself, Cupid locked himself in his palace.

"Don't you have something to complete before Christmas?" He heard the much longed voice of his beloved, Psyche, who had walked to sit beside him. Her voice already doing it's magic and erasing his grief.

"I'm afraid... I messed up really bad."

"By making people fall for their wished ones?" Psyche guessed.

"Yes. Even if I use the blunt end of my arrow now... This won't be reversible. How do I fix this?"

"We can seek for Chronos' help and ask him to turn back human realm' time." Psyche suggested.

"But... Is it wrong to spread love? Isn't love everything? The biggest gift one could ever achieve?" Cupid sighed.

"Nothing is solely everything. Little of everything makes something!"

"Then... Is love nothing nowadays?" Cupid was disheartened with the way things had turned out.

"Indeed love is not "everything" but without love life is nearly nothing. Love is an extremely beautiful emotion. If we talk of love then self love is another form of love, in my opinion being loved by someone is not an essential requirement for being alive but at the same time there must be love in life as love makes things beautiful. So, what you did wasn't entirely wrong... But we have to fix things before Santa comes back to see this state of his festival." Psyche explained.

And once again, the love of his life made him see what's new in love itself. Strange... How he, who was the God of love, was learning about love from his love.
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Together they went to Chronos and pleaded to help. Of course, he agreed. Then, with the help of Psyche and head Reindeer, Cupid was able to make the list and submit it to elves, who were in charge of gift making.
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On the day of Christmas, Cupid woke up from the loud noises coming from his garden. The Gods and Goddesses, pleased with his efforts had arranged a large poster with appropriate sign. It was their way to celebrate this success.

"Merry Cupid'sMas..." Psyche came from behind and wished him with the sign.

What more could he ask for? He had now successfully completed this festival and he was now ready for Valentine's...
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Number of words : 1298
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