The idea of waiting to open a Christmas present feeling like an eternity - but it actually being an eternity (well, weeks in this case), is not only inspired but the perfect tale for the audience of this magazine.

This is certainly one of the more memorable DWA strips. As the target age group at the time, this is a one I specifically remember reading in 2011 and the concept capturing my imagination.

Looking back on this as an adult though, it is a shame this isn't longer and stuck in a magazine designed for children. Presented for a different audience this could be a genuinely scary story. An alien feeding off of that moment on Christmas morning as a kid is genius because it's thrilling, but also incredibly vulnerable. Quite often as a kid you can't sleep because it's so exciting!  And because your parents are asleep, you're also alone. It's an isolating moment as a child, actually, one that I think most can identify with. But that moment of isolation is largely forgotten afterwards because it ends - and Christmas Day is amazing! But imagine if that isolated time is drawn out, so that you're alone for weeks? So that your parents never wake up? That's terrifying!

Of course, it doesn't go that deep with it because its a children's magazine strip. The story reaches a head when it turns out inside the present is a big red monster called the Stromini feeding off of anticipation. It is then easily defeated and goes green with the child, Gabriel's, disappointment (you'd think he'd be scared??) of an alien in the present and not what he wanted. There is a nice homage to The Feast of Steven in the last panel though.

Nevertheless, there's a concept here that I think genuinely had potential for something much darker and mature if it was in a different medium. I feel like this is begging to be more mature - the Doctor even says to Gabriel at the end that he lied to make him less scared and that the creature was going to hurt them had it not been stopped. Like many of his DWA strips actually, I admire Robson's imagination for ideas and I wish I could have seen this one explored so much further.

If only this fairy tale was a Grimm's one.

6/10