After having judged this competition for several years in a row, I’ve come to the conclusion that Santa Claus and I have a lot in common. On an annual basis we both have to go through hundreds of essays and stories to figure out who has been naughty and who has written something nice. This year, we had around 160 entries, down from last year.Choosing the winners is often an agonising decision. This year, we had many wonderful entries, particularly in the 13 & Under category. Unfortunately, only so many people can get a prize.One source of disappointment for me, as a judge, are the number of older young people who just don’t enter anymore. This year we had a few more 18 & Under entries than last year, but still not many at all. “Story Competition Winner” surely isn’t a bad thing to put on a college application?An annual source of frustration, are the people who can’t follow the simple rules. Santa can’t bring you presents if he doesn’t know where you live, and I can’t hand out an award if there is no telephone number, address, age or even in some cases, a name. Me and Santa need to sit down one day and commiserate with one another.Santa probably asks himself every year why he doesn’t retire and go to Bermuda for a vacation (as is suggested in so many Christmas short stories). But then when the goodies are handed out, there’s the joy on big and little faces. Sometimes there is a deafening scream on the end of the phone. Some people enter the competition year after year and never win anything, or consistently place everywhere but first place. Then finally one year they hit the jackpot and all that perseverance has paid off. Or, sometimes it’s the first time any writing talent was ever recognised. One year a parent told us she couldn’t produce an electronic version of the child’s story because as soon as the child wrote and e-mailed it, she pressed the delete button.“I just never thought he’d win anything,” she said.One of the nice things about the competition is that some of our young winners have grown up to become our colleagues at The Royal Gazette. We’re always on the look out for budding talent. When I was a teenager, my Christmas story was printed, although I didn’t win anything. I was so proud of that, I walked around with that copy of the newspaper under my arm for days. It gave me a tremendous sense of validation.Entering the Christmas Short Story Contest is actually a good taste of what writers go through when trying to publish their work in the real world. Many world-famous writers had to shop their books from publisher to publisher, experiencing rejection after rejection. Some writers have famously papered their bathroom with rejection slips. John Grisham, author of bestseller ‘The Firm’ struggled to sell his first book ‘A Time To Kill’. He eventually sold it to a small publisher who printed only a small run. Eventually, in desperation, he brought back his unsold books from the publisher and sold them himself.So to take some advice from our many Christmas stories, if you have a dream, say to yourself: “I do believe; I do believe” over and over and over again, and keep at it.