It’s December, and Santa prepares his sleigh and reindeer for intergalactic travel. He travels to a planet where many silver boys, the guards of inhabited space, used to live. But now there is only one silver boy. Next, Santa visits a carbon husk that used to be a star with six planets. All that remains is one little girl, who says she is very frightened of the Big Empty, which has been claiming all life-forms. The rest of the children on Santa’s list are nowhere to be found, gone, absorbed by the Big Empty. Santa resolves to track down the Big Empty and kill him, but his reindeer are largely pessimistic and don’t want to accompany Santa. The beacon, however, the head of the pack, chides the others and praises Santa. The beacon explains that every time Santa visits a child, he ensures that child is seen, and therefore the child exists. In this way, Santa is helping keep the universe in existence. The Big Empty arrives and absorbs all of Santa’s reindeer except the beacon, who runs off. The Big Empty takes Santa’s sleigh, shrinks his belly, thins his beard, and reminds Santa of the time he was forced to give up his wife. The two struggle, and when Santa starts to lose strength, the beacon returns, having merged consciousness with the silver boy. Santa thinks of the details that make up his life—how he applies talcum powder to his hands before putting on his mittens, his scratchy mittens, the mittens made by his wife. He assures himself that he is coherent, and this affirmation is enough to stave off the Big Empty...for now. Santa and the beacon head back to the little girl—the only other known life-form in the universe. While Christmas may no longer exist, something does—and for that they are grateful.