A belated Christmas story that I really hope you enjoy. If you want a reference then you can look up a Christmas Story under my pen name. I did make a mistake there. In the third chapter I named him Jon but I had already named him Noel in the second.

Disclaimer: I don't own them I just have fun writing them.

Under the Mistletoe

Noel sat in his room waiting to hear the bells that he had been told would come when Santa arrived to deliver his toys. Sure his Mom had told him that Santa was once a real person turned to legend but his little boy mind hadn't grasped the concept that Santa was just that; a legend. He was actually supposed to be asleep and he was half afraid that he was going to get coal in his stocking because he had misbehaved at his Aunt Bess's house earlier.

The door opened to the jingling bells ringing and he heard the, "Ho ho ho ho..." from the famed Santa clause that he was looking to see tonight. Why was he coming though the door though? That didn't make sense. His parents had a chimney that he hoped wasn't going because he didn't want Santa to get burned. Just out of curiosity he followed to the head of the stairs and looked down to see his mom kissing Santa! Noel felt his whole world fall beneath him. His mom didn't love Daddy anymore. He could feel tears starting to come but remembered one of his school friend's words. "Big boys don't cry."

"All right, if big boys don't cry then I'll do something about it." Noel looked down again. His mother was giving Santa the same look that she sometimes gave Daddy when she thought that he wasn't watching. His heart wrenched out of him. 'Mommy and Daddy were getting a divorce!' His head screamed. 'No I can't let that happen!' He had seen a lot of his friends really, really sad about their parents doing it. Each one of them had felt that it was their fault. Mommy and Daddy had promised that they wouldn't ever get a divorce.

He looked around the hall to see what he had but none of it was adequate enough. Noel went to his room and found his slingshot that Uncle Joe had given for his birthday earlier in the month. The stones that were in the satchel by it would suffice. When he returned to the stairs he saw that they were getting ready to leave the door area. He took quick aim and hit Santa on the back of his head. "Ow…" Santa rubbed the back of his head. "Is Noel still up?"

"He was supposed to be sleeping." Mom had answered. "I'll go look." Noel quickly ran to his room and shut his eyes really tight. "Noel, baby, are you awake?" She kept the room dark so as not to wake him up. The little boy could feel her shift the bed as she sat down, "I know you're not sweetie but you have to go to sleep. The sooner you do, the sooner it will be morning."

"Mom, do you still love Dad?" His blue eyes looked at her with all the intensity that an eight year old boy could muster.

"I've always loved your dad baby. I always will." She promised.

"Nancy?" He heard his Dad's voice, but he saw Santa standing in the hall coming up and he fell down the stairs.

Noel's Mom ran down the stairs, "Dear are you alright?" He grimaced. "Yeah, I'm fine." When he tried to stand up though he slipped again; this time with Nancy. There were several rolling marbles coming down the stairs. Nancy was pushing the marbles aside when she heard a whizzing rock pass her. "Noel Daniel hardy what are you doing?" She was greeted by a little boy that had tears running down his face and snot coming out his nose.

"You promised! You promised that you loved Daddy! That you would never love anyone else. Santa is not Daddy!" He cried throwing the slingshot and attacking Santa.

"You're not my daddy! You're not supposed to touch my mommy." Noel had a hard right punch. Santa noticed as he was being punched by the child. He didn't hear his mother laughing in the background at him and Santa. Poor Santa was a having a hard time trying not to do anything to the child while he glared at the woman that was laughing harder with each passing moment. Noel turned his fiery blue eyes to his mother. "It's not funny."

"It's okay, son, I'm not trying to hurt Mommy."

"You have no right to call her that! She's my Mommy!" Noel pulled at the man's beard. "Daddy!" He let go of the beard that snapped back into place.

"Oww..." His Daddy lowered the beard down. "Yeah, it's me. You have a mean right hook. I'm glad that I had pillow on."

"I thought that you were Santa Claus and that you were trying to take Mommy away!" The boy threw himself in his Dad's arms.

"Noel, I was kissing Mommy because I love her and... well because there is mistletoe on the door."

The boy gave owl eyes to his father. "Daddy, what's mistletoe?"

"It's alright Frank; I'll protect you from him." Frank laughed at that.

Frank led them to the door and pointed up. "It's this right here. You see there is a Christmas tradition that if tow people stand under mistletoe then they are supposed to kiss each other."

"Oh…" understanding dawned in his eyes. "But why are you supposed to kiss?"

"You're turn Nancy."

"Well, we'll have to look it up won't we?" She paused, "but before we do that since you're both under the mistletoe I get to kiss both of my men."

-

-

The group laughed around the fire at the story that Noel had been telling to his friends. They had all grown up together as did their parents before them and it was Christmas Eve. "Hey anyone want some more hot cocoa?" Noel asked.

"I'll help," the fifteen year old Beth said jumping up.

"Ooohhhh," someone in the room started followed by everyone else.

"Why do they put mistletoe up? We don't need it in the least."

Beth was embarrassed to be standing under there with him. Noel smiled and gave her a quiet peck on the cheek.

-

-

-

Bess and Joe watched the group from the very same stares that had been there eight years ago when the story that had been told took place. Well it looks like it's going to be close knit family all around eventually. She smiled at her daughter and Nancy's son jumping away from each other.

"Well they certainly act like Nan and Frank did before they ever got together. Why did you put the mistletoe there Bess?"

"I wanted to see who would be the first to get under it." She held the little tiny hand held recording camera.

Joe grinned, "Don't have too much fun, yet. They all still think about themselves as really close friends."

-

-

-

A very belated Christmas story I know but I've been itching to right it since I heard the "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus" one of the many times that I heard it. My internet has been acting up so I haven't been able to do anything with it until now. Anyways it was supposed to be funny. I'm not sure that I succeeded in doing that but a great look at an eight year old who still believes that Santa exists.