At last, the long-awaited winter holidays have arrived. And in two days comes the main event of winter — Christmas. How long we've all been waiting for it.
The town has been transformed for the celebration, with decorated Christmas trees in almost every garden. Countless strings of lights shine with colourful glow. There's no denying it — Christmas is the most thrilling holiday for all of us. After all, even adults believe that on this magical Christmas Eve night, all our most cherished dreams can come true.
In our garden there's a small slope where lots of children are always sledging: some on sleds, some on toboggans. And some are building snowmen, having snowball fights — in short, it's the school holidays!
On weekends or in my free time after finishing my homework, I really love playing computer games. The virtual world draws me in so much that everything around becomes completely uninteresting. My parents complain and make me read books, but what books could there be — it's the 21st century!
Christmas Eve was approaching, Mum had decorated the Christmas tree and was preparing treats for the festive table. And I, as always, was absorbed in another computer game. There was a knock at the door.
Dad called his son to open the door, but the boy was so engrossed in the game that he didn't even react straight away.
Andrew reluctantly tore himself away from the computer and went into the hallway. The boy was very surprised indeed, because standing in the doorway was a real Father Christmas with a full sack of presents. Usually Dad would dress up as Father Christmas himself and give out the presents.
Father Christmas was tall and his beard looked quite real. What a beautiful coat he had, all patterned with real snowflakes that didn't even melt, and a little squirrel was perched on his shoulder.
After greeting Father Christmas, Andrew looked with interest at his large sack.
Father Christmas announced in a loud voice that on the eve of Christmas, he wanted to give him an unusual present — three magic acorns that would grant any wish. One acorn needed to be thrown on the floor and the wish spoken aloud, then clap hands three times!
While Andrew felt the acorns he'd been given and examined them, Father Christmas disappeared without a trace.
After examining the gift, the boy was convinced that these were just ordinary forest acorns and there was nothing mysterious or unusual about them. Except perhaps you could feed them to the squirrels.
Losing interest in the present, Andrew hurried back to his favourite activity. But a little later he took one acorn out of his pocket and placed it on the table beside him. At that moment Mum strictly asked him to stop playing — guests would be arriving soon and she needed help setting the table.
But how the boy didn't want to tear himself away from the game, nothing interested him except reaching the final level and defeating the boss.
Taking the acorn, Andrew threw it on the floor and wished for the most important thing in his life at that moment — to play the game endlessly and for no one to bother him!
All that was left was to clap his hands three times.
One! Two! Three!
Suddenly all the lights around disappeared, he found himself inside the monitor, and became one of the characters in the game.
The boy's joy knew no bounds, he had become part of the game, now no one would stop him from reaching the end. The game completely consumed him. The first level was passed, then the second, then the third. Even if something went wrong, the game would start again.
However, gradually Andrew grew tired, as there was no time to rest at all. Everything turned into real torture.
In the virtual world he was alone, with no one to talk to, time seemed to have stopped, and the game just kept going. What could he do? How could he escape? The boy was trapped in the game. Despair completely overwhelmed him.
And then he remembered that the remaining magic acorns were in his pocket, which meant he could make two more wishes.
Andrew now had only one wish — to get home as quickly as possible and forget it all like a bad dream. He took out the second acorn and threw it with all his might at the virtual surface and cried out that he wanted to be at home, to talk with his friends and parents.
And he clapped his hands hard three times.
One! Two! Three!
In an instant he was sitting on the chair in front of the monitor, and from the next room came the voices of his parents.
How happy Andrew was about that! The boy quickly switched off the computer and decided for himself that he had said goodbye to the virtual world for good.
He called out loudly to Mum and volunteered to help her, as she was tired from preparing for the celebration.
Mum was very pleased about this.
Andrew fully realised that playing games was very harmful.
After helping out, he asked if he could go and play with his friends outside. To which Mum, of course, agreed.
The guests arrived, everyone gathered around the festive table. They joked, chatted, and reminisced about interesting events from the past years. And Andrew decided for himself that he wouldn't go near the computer for the whole of the school holidays. It would be better to go for walks with his friends and read some books.
The last acorn the boy placed on a shelf. Next time he would definitely make a well-thought-out wish that was sure to come true…
