"The evening went well. Just as it should be. It was Christmas Eve after all.... That day I was given an important role. Perhaps the most important of all: that of Santa Claus" - so begins the story "The Wish Santa Claus Could Not Fulfil" by the Bulgarian writer Veselin - Veso - Portarsky. Any resemblance to real events or people is by no means coincidental. They are all experienced and then described by the author himself. The short story also titles Veselin's fifth book of Christmas stories, which is already available in Germany. In an interview with Radio Bulgaria, the author describes the texts as humorous tales poking fun at the cultural differences between nations. Differences of which he is well aware.

Born and raised in Sofia, Veso Portarski graduated from the Prof. Konstantin Gylybov German Language School. He continued his education in Berlin and Amsterdam, where he graduated with honours in economics.

"After graduating, my first job was in the sales department of the Burda publishing house in Moscow. Then I worked for FIFA for almost ten years, selling the boxes for the FIFA World Cups, and now for the last five years I have been "in service" to Bulgaria, helping Bulgarian organic producers to get their products into the big chains in Germany, Switzerland, German-speaking countries in general and some other international markets. Life is colourful. We try to see what we can do to help each other," says the Bulgarian with his characteristic smile.

In 2013, Portarsky moved back to Berlin and began to spend more and more time on his passion - writing. In Germany, he won a competition for promising young writers and became the first Bulgarian to be admitted to a creative writing course run by Nobel laureate Herta Müller. He admits that the source of his inspiration is radically different from that of the Nobel laureate. His stories are driven by joy and aim to bring joy, while hers are driven by the pain of oppression in her native Romania and the life of an immigrant. His first collection of short stories in German, Der größte Orgasmus der Balkan, was published in 2015. Veso's latest book takes us back to his student days in Berlin around Christmas.

"At the University of Berlin, you can work as a professional Santa Claus, i.e. the organisation hires you and assigns you 16 families. On Christmas Day, you have 30 minutes per family to deliver their presents, sing carols together and talk to the children about their good and not-so-good deeds during the year. It started as a joke, but I did it for six years, all through university. At first I was only assigned to families, but later I also visited hospitals, kindergartens and old people's homes. These meetings were the source of interesting situations," Veso recalls today.

And in no time at all, more than one or two humorous Christmas stories were born. They quickly became popular in German-speaking Europe after being published in Spiegel magazine and in two anthologies by the Swiss publisher Diogenes, alongside stories by Paulo Coelho, Anton Pawlowitsch Chekhov and Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. His humorous Santa Claus stories will be published in his native Bulgarian for the first time next Christmas, Veselin Portarov told Radio Bulgaria.

Until then, there will be more meetings with his audience. The next will be on December 14 at the Magdeburg City Library in Germany. The event is organised in cooperation with the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Berlin.

And the wish that Santa Claus failed to fulfil for Veselin and his family seems to be... life in Bulgaria. After trying it only a year ago, Veso realised that Berlin was the right place for him. The city that has brought the world together, with all its colour and respect for diversity. A place that fully justifies its motto "Live and let others live" - says Veselin, who has only one wish for Christmas:

"Personally, my greatest wish is to be guided by love in my actions, truth in my words and joy in my thoughts.