The ways in which the students of Hogwarts could exercise their Christmas Cheer were innumerable, and yet there were many who kept to their traditions.
Remus Lupin, for instance, used December (perhaps as an excuse) to grow some form of facial 'hair'. Although, in the harsh light of ongoing puberty, this usually resulted in a small cluster of dirty blonde fluff on his chin. At the most.
Bertram Aubrey made a habit of adding to the festivities by bursting into spontaneous dance whenever he heard a Christmas carol.
Sirius Black celebrated by hexing Bertram Aubrey so that he would burst into spontaneous dance at the slightest whisper of a Christmas carol.
Lily Evans wore a holly wreath.
Every year, without fail, the week before the end of term, Lily would adorn her pretty head in a wreath made entirely from holly. Real holly.
And every year, once the holly made its annual emergence, the same questions were asked:
"How does she wear that?"
"Doesn't it hurt?"
And, sometimes:
"Doesn't she realise she looks ridiculous?"
If Lily had answers ready for these, she never voiced them. She simply sported the wreath with pride, and hummed Christmas carols under her breath whenever anybody questioned her.
For this reason, Bertram Aubrey avoided Lily Evans as if she were a troll during the Christmas season.
After the first few years, interest in Lily's bizarre ability to not be injured by the prick of holly leaves faded. By fourth year, nobody so much as blinked at the sight of the wreath. It became part of the scenery. Nobody questioned it again. Well, except for one. Which brings us to James Potter's Christmas tradition: to unravel The Mystery of Lily Evans' Holly Wreath.
"It must be some sort of charm," said James.
Sirius groaned, knowing exactly what James was referring to.
He, James, Remus, and Peter were lounging by the fire in the Gryffindor common room. It was their last night at Hogwarts until after Christmas: they would all be getting the train home in the morning. That meant that Lily had been wearing her wreath for approximately a week, exactly the same length of time James had been talking about it.
"Why is nobody else curious!" he cried, leaping to his feet.
"Can you not?" said Remus.
James looked down and noticed his feet had landed on a piece of parchment that Remus had been scribbling all over.
"Moony," said James, not moving his feet, "for the last time, it is weird to start Christmas homework before the Christmas holidays officially begin."
"But if I get it done now I don't have to take it home," said Remus.
"How about this, Prongs," said Peter from his chair. "You could just go and ask Lily how she does it."
James narrowed his eyes at Peter. "That is a terrible idea. That is the worst idea in the universe."
"On the contrary," said Remus, "the worst idea in the universe was when Sirius thought you could summon girls' knickers with the power of the mind."
"Yeah, that was a terrible idea," Sirius agreed. "It worked so much better when I just summoned them with my wand."
"The fact that you are all being so unhelpful is offensive," said James. With that, he abandoned them for the redhead across the room. She was wearing her holly.
"Evening, Evans," he greeted.
"Hullo, James," she said, not looking up from the parchment in front of her. "Can this wait? I'm rather busy."
"No, it can't wait. This is our last Christmas at Hogwarts, which means this is the last year I'll ever see you wear that bloody holly wreath, which means if I don't find out how you manage to not get pricked now I'll never know."
"That does sound urgent," said Lily, no urgency evident in her voice. Still, she pushed the parchment an inch (roughly) away from her, and looked up at James. "I've told you before that it's a secret."
James was already distracted from the topic of holly. "What are you writing?" he asked, pulling the parchment towards him.
"A to-do list," she said, snatching it back.
"Am I on it?"
"Item forty-five. After 'skin my own face' and 'ride a dragon naked'."
"Could you move me up to before the face skinning?"
Lily shook her head as she chuckled, the ginger locks that were not pinned down by holly swung as she did so.
"How about this," she said. "If you help me do everything on my list, which has to be completed before I leave for home tomorrow, then I'll tell you my secret."
"That sounds fair enough to me," he conceded. "What's on the bloody list?"
Christmas To-Do List
Pack socksFind black glovesLeave Mary's present on her bed for herPut a bow on Petunia's chocolate cauldrons
James scoffed. "You call that a to-do list? These aren't activities, they're-"
"Things I need to do," Lily finished for him.
"Alright, let's get started then."
"Well you can't help me pack or leave Mary her present," she mused, scrunching up her nose. "You can't come into our room. I think I know where my gloves are as well."
"This to-do list seems more and more pointless, Evans. I mean, you could've done all of this by now if you hadn't wasted all this time writing a list!"
She smiled at him.
"What?" he asked defensively, rubbing his mouth, suddenly wary he might have something on his face.
"Nothing," she said. "I'll go and get Petunia's present for you to wrap."
He did rather enjoy watching her jog up the stairs to her dormitory. Twice. The first time, to bring him the present. The second, to finish the rest of her tasks (which required her to be in her room).
James was left alone with a ribbon and a box wrapped in pink paper. For years he had been a proud member of the sort of person who most certainly does not tie bows from ribbons, but he needed to know Lily's holly wreath secret more than anything. Besides, how different from shoelaces could a ribbon be?"
Lily returned ten minutes later.
"What on earth is this?" She all but turned up her nose at his bow-tying.
"It's a bow," said James.
"It looks so sad," she said, tilting her head as though that might help the aesthetics of the thing. It did not.
"It looks majestic!"
The bow was completely limp and lopsided.
"Oh, well," said Lily, sitting down opposite James and pushing the box aside. "It's only for Petunia. She's going to hate it anyway."
"Who hates chocolate cauldrons?" asked James.
"People who hate magic."
James nodded; forcing his eyes into what he hoped was a comforting gaze. "Ah," was all he could muster verbally.
Lily shrugged. "I'm used to it by now. A couple of years ago I started trying to buy her things she would hate."
"I could still fix the bow though!" he said. "I mean, probably."
He pulled the box before him once more, and began fiddling with the knot of the bow.
"James, just leave it. I really don't care," said Lily.
James raised an eyebrow as if to say, "I'm going to try no matter what you do."
She tried to pull the box from him.
"Excuse me!" he cried, pulling it closer to himself. "Never interrupt a genius when he's working."
When he pushed it to the centre of the table again (for a better view of the bow), Lily tried to grab it again. James tapped her hand. She tapped back. A total of fifteen taps were exchanged before James gave up and threw the box to the side.
"James!" Lily cried.
"What?"
"You probably smashed them!"
"You said you didn't care about the present," he said.
She stuck her tongue out.
"So," prompted James.
"What?" she asked, knowing perfectly well what he was prompting.
"What's the secret?"
At this point the entire Gryffindor common room burst into various different songs. Bertram Aubrey had entered.
He danced his way up to his dormitory, cursing all the way, and to much applause.
When this small distraction had vanished, James turned all of his attention back to Lily.
"Secret," he said.
James could see she was trying her hardest not to smile.
"If I tell you, you have to promise not to shout it to the room," she warned him.
"Why would I shout it to the room?"
"Because you're you."
"Fair enough."
Lily grinned. "Good!" The holly wreath radiated more mystery than ever.
"What's the secret?" he practically begged of her.
She seemed to be having trouble finding her words, biting her lip and shaking her legs. Restless from both the desire to tell him her secret, and the stress of telling it properly. In the end, she blurted it out.
"I fancy James Potter," said Lily.
"I'm sorry, what?"
She had promised to tell him her secret, James just didn't realise what secret she was referring to. He never did find out how she wore the wreath, but after that he found he didn't care as much.
Merry Christmas!