Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, but I do own Sophie, baby Lily, and Echo the puppy :)

AN: This is set somewhere in-between 'Willow's Child' and 'Dawn's Magical Mishaps'.

Summary: Willow and Tara want to create the best possible first Christmas/Hanukkah for Sophie, but the little girl isn't as excited as everyone expects her to be. She doesn't think Santa Claus is coming to her..

"You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town! He's making a list, and checking it twice. Gotta find out who's naughty and nice, Santa Claus is coming to town.."

Christmas carols emanated from the radio while Willow, Tara, Dawn, Faith, Buffy, and Xander decorated the Christmas tree. They were able to afford a really nice one this year. This year had brought with it a very special Christmas, as it was Sophie's first, and Tara's first since she'd been brought back to life.

"He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.."

Sophie, who had been watching while her mothers and aunties attempted to free Uncle Xander from the masses of tinsel and Christmas lights that he had managed to get himself tangled in, sighed and crept up to her bedroom, pausing along the way to have a look at the menorah that Willow had set up on the mantelpiece. While she didn't really follow the religion herself these days, Willow still thought it was important for Sophie to have some idea of her Jewish heritage.

--

A little later, the Scoobies had finished placing all the breakable, possibly dangerous decorations up the top of the tree out of reach of tiny hands, they began to place the kid-friendly decorations around the lower parts of the tree.

"Hey Little Red, you wanna come help?" Faith frowned when she turned to find her young niece absent. "Where'd she go?"

"Probably up in her room" Willow sighed. "She's not as excited about Christmas as I thought she'd be."

"She probably just doesn't understand it all yet Will" said Tara. "I doubt the demons ever explained Christmas to her. Or Santa Claus. When you think about it, an old man in a red suit coming down the chimney in the middle of the night could be a pretty scary idea for a little girl."

"Especially if you believe the stuff that Anya said about him" Xander added.

"Yeah. So" said Buffy, turning to Willow, "What's tiny Jewish Santa going to bring Sophie for her first Christmas slash Hanukkah?"

"Oh, a lot of things" Willow replied smiling. "She hasn't got a lot of toys yet, so we'll get her some toys, and a couple of picture books, and there was this pretty little dress at the store that she liked..."

"A dress?!" cried Xander, as if this was the greatest evil imaginable. "A dress is clothes! You can't give a kid clothes for Christmas!"

"Sophie likes clothes!" Willow argued. "And why wouldn't she? She has been dressed in rags for most of her life you know. I was going to just by her the dress when I saw that she liked it, but then I thought it might be a nice idea for a Christmas present. That was the first time I explained Santa to her.." While Willow continued to babble, Tara decided to head upstairs and check on Sophie. She had taken to the role of mother like she was made for it, and right now all her maternal instincts were telling her that something was not quite right with her little girl.

--

"Sophie?" said Tara, knocking on her daughter's door before entering. She frowned when she saw the little girl curled up on her bed, hugging her first and currently favourite toy, Tara Bear, to her chest. She had obviously been crying. "What's wrong sweetie?" she asked rushing over to comfort her.

"Nothing" said Sophie, rolling over so that she faced away from her mother.

"It's okay if you don't understand everything about Christmas yet" said Tara. "Most kids grow up with Christmas, but this is your first one. And its okay if you're a little bit scared of Santa Claus. My brother used to be afraid of Santa when he was little. One year he just wouldn't stop crying while we were getting our photo taken with him. It's actually the only time I remember my dad being mad at him and not me."

"I'm nots scared of Santa Mama Tara" Sophie sighed, sitting up. "I'm just a little bits sad 'cause I know he's not gonna come to me."

"Why do you think that?" Tara frowned.

"Because Santa only comes to good kids, but demons maked me, and demons are bad, and they maked me so that's they could do bad things to Mommy Willow, so I must be bad too."

"Oh baby no" said Tara, pulling her daughter into her arms and hugging her tight. "That's not true at all."

"But.."

"No buts" said Tara, moving the little girl so that she was looking her in the eye. "I don't care that demons created you, or what they created you to do, and neither does your Mommy Willow. Nothing could ever make us think you were bad. And you being so worried about being bad shows just how good you are. Okay?"

"Okay Mama Tara. So.. Santa Claus is gonna come? And gives me presents like he's 'sposed to do for all the good boys and girls?"

"Definitely" Tara smiled.