Dear awesome readers, as a little thank you for your nice feedback these last few months, I thought, as a present for you, I would write several Christmas one-shots. I hope you enjoy them.
I also started the #GilmoreGirlsChristmasChallenge and I hope other authors will join and write Christmas one-shots too. You should find all the stories on FB, following the hashtag or in my reading list on Wattpad (named like the hashtag. I already added some awesome stories).
I named all my one shots after famous Christmas movies, because I love watching cheesy movies in December. Merry Christmas, ClaudiaCleland
Disclaimer: Most characters, settings and some dialogues are property of the creators of Gilmore Girls (GG). This story is not written to make money. I own nothing, just borrowing a bit for this fanfiction and adding my own ideas. The perhaps familiar quotes are mostly borrowed from the movie "The Grinch" and some from Gilmore Girls. I am not a native English speaker and I will try to do my best and have the best beta who helps me (thanks again for that Linda).
As another Christmas present for myself I wrote a little Life and Death Brigade story. No pairing, only the LDB boys celebrating the best time of the year.
…..
One-shot
In the middle of a Nor'easter Storm that Connecticut is all too familiar with, you hear the wind howling and the snowflakes swirling on the Yale Campus. The lights on campus are shining bright especially the blinking lights that appear from Durphee Hall, the building where Colin and Finn shared their small room. The preferred hall of the brigadiers the music was blaring, classes and exams were finished, and the Life and Death Brigadiers were tipsy as they kept the bar tenders busy. "There is no place like Connecticut around Christmas Time."
Every window was decorated and, every lamppost was dressed in garland on the Yale Campus. You could hear the Yale A Cappella groups singing the beautiful Christmas songs in the arches around the campus. Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! But every brigadier knew, from their ten toes to their mouth they loved Christmas the most, without one doubt. But there would be no story without the man who hated it all.
Colin opened the door to his shared suite with Finn and he was immediately blinded by the lights on the gargantuan tree that Finn and Logan had cut down earlier today. It was covered entirely in twinkle lights. Logan dress in an ugly Christmas sweater that said, "On the Naughty list", was standing on a ladder trying to place a large twinkling Santa Claus who has dropped his pants with his bare bottom exposed on the top of the tree. Finn dressed in a neon green suit with Candy Canes, and wearing a red Fedora, is standing with his one eye closed giving directions to a drunk Logan.
"Mate, move him over to the right a bit, no my right not your right, your left, right, no your left, right. I can't see his Tushie, Logan. Ok, now that's blinking awesome."
Logan shakily climbs down the ladder and standing with their arms on each other's shoulder they admire the tree.
"What the f… ! Finn!?" Colin shouted angrily.
Robert wearing an ugly Christmas sweater with Santa doing a keg stander with three elves holding his feet, walked from Colin's bedroom into the common room. "Yeah, Colin, isn't it amazing?"
"I think the word you want is repulsive! Have you bought every ugly Christmas decoration in New Haven? And all the glitter and sparkles that you have around the room it is like a pixie or a fairy farted!" Colin replied annoyed.
"I thought it would be a nice surprise to decorate our rooms while you were in your lecture, it will put us all in the Christmas Spirit." Finn pouted.
"Okay, I'm surprised and now you can remove the stuff," Colin grumbled and tried to find his way to his room.
Robert and Logan were doubled over in laughter. At the foot of Colin's bed, they put a naked female Mannequin that they had spray painted in red and spray-painted glitter all over her naked body. They then wrapped silver and gold garland around the bottom half of mannequin so that it looked like she was wearing a mini skirt. They found gold stilettos left in Logan's room after a party, and placed it on her feet. They added gold beaded garland around her neck with a name tag that said Merry the Fairy and on her back they placed Fairy wings that they bought from a Halloween costume store online. They added a top hat on her head. Hanging from the ceiling above his bed they had hung mistletoe.
Finn scratched his head. Today Colin's behavior left Finn a bit stunned. This was their first year at Yale and they learned quickly that is was a tradition to celebrate all Holidays with outlandish parties and pranks, especially Christmas. Colin happily joined in both the Halloween Party and the Thanksgivingfun. He couldn't understand why he wasn't enjoying this one.
Robert was now filling the glass ornaments with the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Whisky he brought with him and Logan was hanging them on the tree. As Robert filled each ornament the three boys each took a drink from the Johnnie Walker Whiskey bottle. Finn then found the gorilla ornament and hung that front and center. He picked up the beer can ornament wreath that Logan and Robert had spent the last two days making. He hung it up on their door. They also had collected all the empty wine bottles from the parties on campus and planned to stack them in the shape of a tree with twinkling lights in side to put in front of their window.
Yes, every brigadier at Yale liked Christmas, but the one who lived with Finn certainly did not.
While Finn wondered why Colin was so annoyed about Christmas he heard Colin scream, "Finn! Are you kidding me, Finn?"
Colin seemed to be even angrier than before. Finn guessed he knew what made Colin madder. He carefully opened his roommate's door and tiptoed into Colin's room.
"Can I help you, mate?" Finn tried to enlighten his friend's mood.
"My whole room is filled with fake snow! What do you have at the end of my bed? Looked what is hanging over my bed. A parasite?! I hate, hate, hate. Double hate Christmas!" Colin then began to curse.
He had become accustomed to the craziness of his Australian friend in the last few months since their first day at Yale when they became roommates, but this was a whole new level of absurdity.
"You know, Christmas is my favorite time of year. I just love the colors. The red and the green, and I love the fluffy snow, and ice. I never had snow in Australia and I thought since it is the first of December we need snow in here," Finn explained.
Colin shook his head, he couldn't believe that of all the students in Yale, he had to share his dorm suite with the biggest Christmas nerd of all.
He hated Christmas, the whole Christmas season. Now, please, don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason. It could be that his head wasn't screwed on just right, or perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all, may have been that his heart was two sizes too small.
Leaving Colin's room Finn, Logan and Robert left the suite and went out to the corridor and banged the drum. The rest of the Brigadiers that lived in that dorm came out of their rooms and met Finn when they heard the drum roll. Finn had a clear mission in mind, to bring the Christmas spirit back into Colin's life.
He explained his plan to the others and they shouted dramatically, "It is nearly Christmas! It's practically here!"
Logan joked," We should make him the cheer-meister, because Colin sounds like the Grinch."
The brigadiers laughed when Finn replied, "Oh, yes, and it goes to the soul at Christmas who needs it most."
But Robert interrupted, "However, the Grinch hated to be the cheer-meister. We should do something more risky and adventurous."
All the LDB members nodded and they shared their different ideas till they finally found the perfect one.
The day before Christmas Colin received an invitation. He curiously opened the envelope and read that he was invited to join the LDB event on Christmas morning to be the holiday cheer-meister.
Colin wondered what a cheer-meister could be, because he had never heard of such a thing. Of course, he was not familiar with the children story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"
Throughout his childhood, his father and his newest wives went to a very expensive Holiday Resort for Christmas and left small Colin with Nannies. At first Mr. McCrae left lots of presents for his son, but later he even forgot that.
Convinced that their plan would work, Finn asked Colin what was in the envelope. When Colin told him what it said, Finn excitedly replied. "Holiday cheer-meister? What an honor! Please, please. You have to do it. You will receive a reward."
"Reward? Nobody mentioned a reward in here!" Colin said, looking again at the invitation and into the envelope.
"Yeah, with a trophy and everything. I heard about it at one of the last LDB gatherings," Finn replied excitedly. It appeared that Colin believed him.
"And I won?" Colin wondered why he had never heard about winning this reward at the Life and Death Brigade.
"You won!" Finn shouted, happily jumping. He was delighted that the Christmas idea the brigadiers had planned would work.
"That means there were losers," Colin smirked.
"I guess," Finn answered.
"A lot of losers! I like it," Colin said. Collin was very competitive and always liked it to be one of the best in everything he did.
At dawn on Christmas morning the brigadiers met outside the city of Hartford to fulfill their mission.
Robert growled, "I was a fan of this idea, but I look ridiculous. Could anyone remind me why we're doing this?
An exuberantly happy Finn quoted again his favorite American Christmas movie, "All right. You're a reindeer. Here's your motivation."
"But I'm an elf, Finn," Robert murmured. He thought the costume was stupid, but none of the brigadiers were able to argue with Finn about the silly elf costumes.
Logan, who stood next to Robert, conspiratorially whispered, "I think it could be worse. Think of all the costumes the people of Whoville wore. Nobody remembers another elf, but everybody would remember us wearing silly costumes and crazy hairstyles."
Once he heard the alternative, Robert chuckled, "Whereas it would have been fun to watch Finn trying to get the booze out of his cup on his head."
At that moment Colin arrived and was shocked seeing his three best friends; Finn, Robert and Logan all wearing elf costumes.
"Oh, no, I will never ever wear that…over my dead body," Colin grumbled.
"No worries, mate. The cheer-meister gets another costume," Finn assured him.
Knowing his roommate, Colin should be afraid, however he followed Finn in the building where someone blindfolded him.
"Okay, guys. This is not funny," Colin started ranting again.
Logan told him, "Colin, remember it is a LDB event you must follow the rules. In Omnia Paratus."
Logan and Robert helped Colin into his costume while Finn was organizing everything else.
After they finished dressing him, Robert, Logan and Finn helped Colin into a big red sleigh.
Logan removed the blindfold and Finn shouted, "Surprise."
Colin opened his eyes, which immediately widened in shock, "Oh, my God, I'm sitting in Santa Clause's sleigh! And I'm wearing a Santa Clause costume!"
Finn grinned, Colin wore a red coat with white fur collar and cuffs, white-fur-cuffed red trousers, and a black leather belt and boots.
"Santa Clause should be named the cheer-meister, such a great word," Finn chuckled.
Before Colin could continue ranting, Finn added the long white beard to his face, a white wig on his head and the red cap. The costume was now complete.
Finn shouted, "Ready."
Colin looked around he saw that the sleigh was hanging high up in a huge tree. He was sitting in the front of the sleigh next to Finn. In the back seat were Robert and Logan. In the front of the sleigh were eight replicas of reindeer that people used to decorate their yards. At first, they looked like real ones. In the back was an extremely large sack filled with gifts.
"What are we doing?" Colin asked stunned.
"We're flying with the sleigh and it is on the zipline. When we arrive on the other side, you will give the children their presents," Finn replied smiling.
"Flying? Are you serious? Has anybody tried this before?" Colin wondered nervously.
Logan chuckled, "It's very safe. Seth did a dozen successful test flights; every potato came through without a scratch."
"Potatoes? Are you serious?" Colin screamed, however, before anyone could answer the sleigh started its flight.
Finn, Robert and Logan shouted, "In Omnia Paratus."
Colin was too scared to say anything.
The sleigh was decorated with twinkling lights and it made quite a sight as it appeared to be flying through the city that morning
Logan whispered, "I really should have confirmed that those potatoes were okay."
While flying, Finn shouted again and again, as loudly as he was able to, "Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas."
The adrenaline ran through the veins of the boys and even Colin had to admit that the ride was fun and adventurous, a typical Life and Death Brigade stunt.
Once they arrived at the end, Finn helped the still stunned Colin to his throne in front of a long line of children. Finn whispered into Colin's ear. "Now you need to say ho, ho, ho and you belly needs to shake when you laugh, like a bowl full of jelly. "
Colin looked annoyed at his Australian friend. He was sure he repeatedly told him that he hated Christmas and now he should bring joy to the poor children. What a mess!
Despite his obviously annoyance at Finn, Robert and Finn escorted Colin to Santa's Workshop. He sat down, and the first little girl happily came to him and sat down on his lap.
Finn told the girl, "Santa will ask you if you were brave and then his little helpers will hand him your gift so that he can give it to you."
Colin knew the explanation was for him. He spotted the name tag on her jacket and he asked the little girl, "Clare, are you on the naughty or nice list?"
"I was very nice," Clare replied excitedly and clapped her hands.
Finn handed over a gift and the girl beamed with joy as Colin gave her the present.
After several children Colin admitted to himself that this was his first Christmas that he enjoyed. The sleigh ride was fabulous and being the one who is making each child smile felt spectacular.
At the end of the line Colin was surprised when he discovered that his little twin half brother and sister, Grace and Samuel were waiting for him.
The five-year old Samuel was the first to crawl in Colin's lap.
Colin enjoyed seeing this child's happiness, but his step mother would not allow him to visit Grace and Samuel at Christmas. She was still angry that Colin's father divorced her, and she projected all her hate on Colin, because he resembles his father.
Colin's father decided that Colin needed to live with him as the firstborn; however, Mr. McCrae never showed any other interest in Colin than business matters.
Samuel proudly stated, "I get everything I want, because my mother and father are rich."
Colin smirked at the familiar words of the little man. Samuel sounded exactly like him, since he used the same sentence all the time.
"Ho Ho Ho, Samuel. Merry Christmas. Is there anything I can give you tonight?"
Samuel eyes widened, and he whispered in Colin's ear. "My sister and I have only had one wish." He waves his hand for Grace to come near him.
Colin grabbed Grace and lifted her onto his lap and the two said together, "We want to see Coli today."
Absolutely surprised Colin tried to hide the tears building in his eyes. "Your brother?"
They two twins coyly nodded while the nanny encouraged them with her gaze to continue.
"We miss Coli," Grace shyly continued, "He's far away in heaven."
At first as the twins told him, he wanted to tell him that he didn't live in heaven, but now he thought it was kind of cute to say heaven instead of New Haven.
Finn observed the scene and was overjoyed that the plan that the brigadiers worked out with the nanny was perfect.
"I'm sure Santa will be able to bring you two your brother. Just grab a mint hot chocolate over there with your nanny and wait for your gift," Finn said confidently to Grace and Samuel.
The two little children smiled and were confident that Santa would give them their wish. Quickly the children ran to their nanny.
Colin wished everyone a Merry Christmas and followed Finn to the back of the workshop so that he could take off his costume. Finn told Colin that he could spend the next hour with Grace and Samuel, before the two children needed to go back home. After that they would all return to Yale where there would be a LDB Christmas party with lots of alcohol and lovely ladies.
"I've got all the company I need right here, friends and family," Colin whispered to himself.
Maybe Christmas, Colin thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps, means a little bit more. This was the first Christmas in a long time that he could say this is the best time of the year.
This is what Christmas is all about!
Can you feel it?
Merry Christmas and in Omnia Paratus.