“‘Tis the season for giving,” they say. They also say, “The best gifts are ones you make yourself.” Well, how about a gift that actually comes from yourself? The Gift Stick lets you give anything about yourself to someone else. You can give weight, muscle mass, height, size, and even years of your life to friends and family with The Gift Stick, but that’s not all. The Gift Stick allows you to both give and receive. You could simply receive a “thank you” or you could receive another gift in return. It’s so simple to operate, even a child could use it. Simply hold one end of the stick and have another person hold the other end. Say out loud what you want to give, and the other person will say what they will give in return. The confirmation buttons will light up when your gifts are entered into The Gift Stick. Press the buttons to agree, and the gifts will be transferred. It’s that easy! (Warning: Gifts of actions or a spoken replies will be performed involuntarily once the confirmation buttons are pressed. Be careful what gifts you give or receive.)

***

It had been a long night, very long actually. I had been handing out an assortment of toys to thousands of homes with only an occasional rest stop. I will admit I skipped the milk and cookies to pull out leftovers and eggnog from some fridges along the way. Eventually, after getting a bit tipsy, I decided it was time to test out The Gift Stick for the first time.

The Gift Stick was a toy that my supervisors rejected even before I finished the prototype. That was kind of the last straw for me. I mean, it’s a brilliant idea. It melds together many of the functions of my other toys into one simple, easy-to-use device. Because it can’t be used alone, it naturally brings people together. Plus, it’s entirely voluntary (at least until you press the button). Again, I got accused of creating something “dangerous.” The magic was too powerful, they said. So what? I say, if people are always looking for magical solutions to problems, why not give them some magic?

Where’s the harm in giving people a little magic?

Actually, don’t answer that question.

So, anyway, I was drunk, and I felt like trying out a new, untested magical device with possibly life changing capabilities. I found a good subject, Amy, a naughty teenage girl, and I came to a halt over her house and teleported myself down, straight into her room.

I took a minute to look at Amy lying on her bed. She was simply gorgeous. She had a pretty face and an amazing figure: large breasts, curvy hips, slim waist, etcetera. Naturally, our records showed her to be a total bitch. She would do nicely.

Amy had a full body mirror in her room, in which I caught my own reflection. I barely filled up half of the mirror, I was so small, and I looked so annoyingly childish. It was the glamor our people had accepted to gain the big man’s favor way back when. We cast a permanent spell on ourselves to appear as eternal children no matter how old we got. I was an adult, but I had only the faintest hints of female curves, and my face was as innocent looking as an 8-year-old girl’s. Fortunately for me, if The Gift Stick worked properly, I might be able to change my appearance at last.

I let time run again and gave the teen a gentle nudge.

“Wake up, Amy,” I said. “It’s time for your special Christmas Present.”

She groggily replied, “What? Whoisit?”

“It’s Mary. I’m one of Santa’s Elves here with a special delivery just for you.”

Once her eyes had opened and she noticed me, she let out a quick shriek and sat up on her bed. “W-What are you doing in my room?”

“I have a present from Santa just for you,” I said.

“I don’t know who or what you are, but you need to get out of here right now.”

I sighed. In my drunken state, I may have overestimated how quickly Amy would accept me for what I was. “Fine,” I said. “Watch this.” I teleported myself across the room. “Over here,” I said. Then, I teleported myself onto the foot of her bed. “Here too,” I said as I sat down, cross-legged on her bed. I felt my stomach heave a little from all the flying around, but I maintained my composure. “I’m an Elf,” I explained. “I do magic. I have a magic gift for you tonight.” The girl looked at me in shock. “Believe me now?”

“I-I guess so,” she said. “So, Santa is real, and you’re one of his Elves?”

“Correct.”

“Did you say your name was Mary?”

I sighed. “Yes.”

“Like Mary Christmas?”

I gave her a fake laugh. “Ha, ha! That’s a good one,” I said. “Never heard that one before.”

“This is so cool.”

“Indeed I am quite cool.”

“And, you have a gift for me?”

“You got it,” I said. “Check this out.” I pulled it out of my bag. “This is The Magic Gift stick, and you have the honor of being the first person to try it out. Lucky you!”

She looked at it curiously. “What does it do?”

“It lets you give something about yourself to someone else,” I explained. “For instance, you might give someone your hair color or an inch of your height or a few pounds of extra weight. Pretty much anything about you can be magically transferred to someone else.”

“That’s… amazing, I guess.”

“Is there something you might like to give away? I would be happy to take it from you if you would take something from me,” I said as innocently as I could. I sure hoped that this would work.

She rubbed her chin and looked at the ceiling. Apparently, it was hard for her to think of anything about her body that she might want to get rid of. How infuriating. Any doubts or reservations I had about what I was about to do to her faded away. “I can’t think of anything,” she said.

“Nothing at all?”

“Well, I guess I wouldn’t mind losing a few pounds.”

I smiled. “That’s perfect. I’m a bit too skinny as it is. Here,” I said as I held out the stick to her. “I’ll hold this end, and you hold the other end.”

“Oh, all right,” she said as she gripped her end. “What now?”

“I’ll say what my gift is, and you say what your gift is.”

“What is your gift?” she asked me.

“I give to you a magic spell that can change your appearance,” I said, being very careful with my wording. Please, let this work, I thought.

“You’re giving me a spell?” she said with a hint of excitement. “And, it can change how I look.” I could just see her imagining changing herself into the most gorgeous woman in the world.

“It certainly can.”

“Cool. Oh, and I give to you 3 pounds of weight from my body,” she said. The buttons near each of our thumbs lit up. “What does that mean?” she asked.

“It means the spell is ready,” I said. “All you have to do is say you agree to the conditions. I get 3 pounds of your weight, and you get a spell from me. Do you agree?” I waited anxiously for her reply.

She took a moment to think about it. “I agree,” she said at last.

“I agree as well,” I said. “Now, press on the light.”

We pressed our buttons, and a surge of magic power flowed through the stick. My whole body tingled as I felt the glamor spell lifting from me. Amy must have felt the same tingle as the spell passed to her. We dropped the stick and started to change in symmetry. I began to grow larger as Amy began to shrink. While Amy’s breasts deflated and her hips slimmed down, my own chest expanded, popping buttons off of my shirt, as my ass swelled, tearing the seams of my outfit. Amy became shorter as I grew taller and taller. I slid off the bed so that I might enjoy the sensation of rising into the air on my growing legs. My feet slipped out of my shoes as my clothes burst and tore. Amy noticed her clothes getting looser, and looked down at herself in surprise.

“What’s happening to me?” she said. “I’m shrinking!”

“No,” I said as I felt my voice grow deeper. “You are looking younger because you are getting your present.”

“The spell?” she said as her voice grew squeakier. “Why is it making me younger?”

At that moment, the transfer completed. I walked over to the full body mirror again. My new reflection made me smile. Under my tattered, torn, and stretched out clothes was the body of a mature woman. I had a nice pair of breasts and curvy hips at last, and my face was much more angular and dramatic. Besides the somewhat pointy ears, I could pass for an above-average human adult now. “Perfect!” I said.

“What did you do to me?” Amy whined.

I looked over at the girl on the bed. She appeared to be about 8 years old now, and she looked positively adorable, but I doubted she would be happy about that.

“I gave you my glamor spell,” I said relishing in the power of my adult voice. “It was a curse we Elves put on ourselves, a disguise. With that spell, we would always appear to be children, no matter how old we were.”

“So, you’re saying you cursed me to look like a child?” she said.

“Exactly.”

“When does this wear off?”

“It doesn’t wear off,” I explained. “In fact, I have been looking for a way to remove that spell for years. I hated feeling so small for so long, especially when I could see what real adult humans looked like.” I picked up the prototype Gift Stick. “This little toy turned out to be just what I needed. You see, I couldn’t break the spell, but I could transfer it to someone else. Of course, I could only do that if they willingly accepted the spell. Thank you again, for doing that.”

“B-but I didn’t want this,” she said gesturing to her tiny body. “You just said the spell could change what I looked like.”

“Well, it did. Didn’t it?”

“You…” she said, petulantly. “You tricked me!”

“I did.”

“Change me back, now!” she said, sounding like a child having a tantrum.

“No.”

“B-but, you can’t leave me like this.”

“Sure I can.”

She was on the verge of tears. “Won’t I grow out of this eventually? I mean, I’ll just grow up again, right?”

“I’m afraid not,” I said. “You’re actually the same age as you were before. You only look younger. Unfortunately for you, because of the glamor, you will always look much as you do now. You might change a little as time goes by, but you will never appear to be an adult.”

The tears started flowing at last as she was hit by the realization of what she had lost. “No!” she moaned. “Please, no!”

I let her cry as I started digging around in her dresser and her closet for clothes that might fit me. Thankfully, I appeared to be just about the same size now as she had been. It must have been fate that I chose her. In just a few minutes, I managed to put together a basic outfit.

“You’re leaving?” she asked me between sobs.

“Yes,” I said as I slipped on a pair of her shoes. “It’s not a good idea to hang around the scene of the crime. Plus, I have many more toys to deliver.”

“Wait,” she said in a final desperate attempt at changing my mind. “Couldn’t you just leave that stick with me? Please? Give me a chance to give the spell to someone who might want it.”

“You know,” I said. “That is not a bad request, and I might actually have agreed to it if I didn’t need this prototype to start producing duplicates of it.”

“Oh,” she said, and that was the end of her hope.

“Yeah, it’s tough luck, but you’ll get used to it in time… probably… possibly. Anyway, you have a very merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Ho, ho, ho, and all that shit. Peace! I’m out!” I teleported myself back to the sled and began cackling hysterically. I paused time again, stuck The Gift Stick in my Magic Toy Factory, and flew off to cause more mayhem.

***

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by all of the creative ways people found to use The Gift Stick. After realizing that it was actually magic, people tended to experiment a bit. They tried to do stuff that I never expected they would do.

***

One pair of old friends thought they might help each other out with guys. They made a pact. They would lend each other some of their best and worst attributes before a date to give the woman on the date a better shot with the guy. Kelly gave away 15 pounds to her friend Rachel, who gave her 5 inches of her height in return. Kelly now looked tall and fit, while Rachel now looked short and chubby.

“Good luck,” Rachel said.

“I won’t need luck with a body like this,” Kelly said.

“Well, don’t forget it’s my turn to look good tomorrow. That’s the deal.”

“Of course,” Kelly said as she fixed her hair in front of a mirror. “See you later tonight.”

Rachel waved to Kelly as she was picked up for her date, then she settled in for an evening in front of the TV in Kelly’s apartment. Hours passed, but Kelly did not call or come home. Rachel started to worry that something had happened to Kelly. She texted Kelly, but there was no reply. She even called Kelly, but Kelly did not answer. Eventually, she fell asleep on the sofa waiting for her friend to come home.

Kelly was nowhere to be seen the next morning, and Rachel was getting very worried. Not only was Kelly missing, but Rachel needed to go to work soon. She couldn’t go to work looking all short and fat as she did now. She needed her inches back from Kelly. Rachel ended up calling in sick. After a while, she left Kelly a note and went back to her own apartment.

Finally, Kelly called her in the middle of the day.

“Where were you?” Rachel said. “I’ve been so worried. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Kelly said. “Actually, I’m perfect. The date last night was the best night of my life. Kevin was amazing. We talked for hours, and he has the most amazing personality.”

“Well, that’s great,” Rachel said. “But, what about me? You know I needed to swap back with you again. I missed work today.”

“I ended up spending the night at his apartment,” Kelly said. “It’s huge. I mean, the guy is totally rich, but he’s not snobby or anything… I slept with him.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” Kelly said. “I’ve never done that before on a first date, but it was such a perfect night. It was like a dream, a fairytale.”

“Well,” Rachel said. “I’m happy for you, but I still need to see you so that we can trade back the weight and inches.”

Kelly was quiet for a few seconds. “I’ve been thinking,” she said.

“About what?” Rachel asked, feeling increasingly concerned now.

“Oh, God!’ Kelly said. “I can’t believe I’m even thinking this.”

“No,” Rachel said. “You can’t. You wouldn’t.”

“He’s not going to want me if I’m short and fat.”

“You can’t do this to me,” Rachel said. “We’re friends. You can’t screw me over like this.”

“I can’t give up this body, or I’ll lose him. He’s my dream guy. He’s perfect for me.”

“That’s not your body. That body is part mine.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I promise I’ll make it up to you somehow.”

“Just trade back the weight and inches, and you’ll have made it up to me.”

“I can’t,” Kelly said. “I won’t.”

“You unbelievable bitch!”

“Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”

“I’m going to get you for this.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Kelly!”

At that point, Kelly hung up. Rachel swore and pulled out The Gift Stick. Then, she began plotting her revenge.

I can only imagine what horrible things Rachel might do to get back at Kelly.

***

Then, there was the group of teen girls who came up with a novel way of getting party supplies. There were four of them. All of which were 16 years old to start with. After experimenting with The Gift Stick one girl had an idea for getting some adult drinks. Although two of them could not trade off enough years to make one of them old enough to buy liquor without being carded, the whole group of them could give one girl 10 years each. That would make her 46, which should be obviously old enough to buy drinks, they reasoned.

They all made the trade, leaving three of them as 6 year olds and one of them in middle age. The older one went off to get drinks. She had to walk as they had no car to drive. The three little girls sat around uncomfortably in their oversized clothes as they waited anxiously for their friend to return. After a while, they quietly started to worry that something might have happened to her. What if she never came back with their missing years? What if they had to grow up again?

Eventually, their friend returned, but she was empty-handed. It turned out that 46 was still too young to avoid being carded. They would need to give her more years. They each decided to give 4 more years this time, making their older friend 58. They made the trade and found themselves to be little more than three babies now. Meanwhile, their older friend was grey-haired and feeling a bit tired.

Again, the older one went out to buy drinks. The three left behind started to get restless and worried again as they waited. Then, one of them needed to use the toilet. Unfortunately, she found that she was too short to climb up onto it easily. As the other girls looked for a small stool, the one trying to climb the toilet had an accident, making a mess on the floor and getting herself covered in her own piss and shit. The other girls returned and accidentally slipped in the piss as well. They all started crying as they lay in filth together.

At that moment, their older friend arrived back with a single bottle of rum. She found her friends weeping in the bathroom and realized she would need to clean them up and clean up the mess in the bathroom.

She put aside the rum, set her friends in the tub, and got to mopping up the mess on the floor.

Unfortunately, none of them had much of a party that night although the girls did enjoy splashing around in their bubble bath together.

***

Another group of girls, started to have a lot of fun trading little things around with each other. The three of them swapped eye colors, hair colors, noses, eyebrows, chins, cheekbones, breasts, hips, legs, freckles, and even their ears. They took pictures together in front of the mirror, admiring the collage that their bodies had become.

Then, it came time to turn back to normal. They examined their new photos one last time on one of their phones.

“I like how my chin looks on you, Tammy,” Trisha said, pointing at the photo.

“I think that was Tina that had your chin,” Tammy said.

“Isn’t that you on the left,” Tina said, pointing at the photo.

“No, that was you,” Tammy said. “I was in the middle.”

“Wait,” Trisha said. “That’s me there? I thought I was the one on the other side.”

“It’s a mirror. Everything is backwards,” Tina said.

“Whoa,” Tammy said. “Hold on a second. Which one are you?” she said pointing at her friend.

“I’m Tina.”

“I thought you were Trisha.”

“Wait,” said Tina. “I thought you were Trisha.”

“Guys,” Trisha said, sounding worried now. “Do you remember exactly what we swapped with each other?”

They ran to the bathroom mirror, and found three girls looking back at them that they did not recognize at all.

“Whose nose is this?”

“That’s mine.”

“Is this your chin, Trisha?”

“I’m Tina!”

“Sorry, whose chin is this?”

“Whose breasts are these?”

The other two said, “Mine.”

“They’re mine!”

“No, they’re mine!”

“Give me back my face! Where is my face?”

“Where’s my face?”

“What do we do now?”

They all burst into tears as they realized that they had become a jumbled pile of puzzle pieces that they might never unsort.