It was a beautiful, sunny, chilly December morning in Echo Creek, and Star and Marco were walking to school, as they did every morning. Marco was a huge fan of this time of year- he loved the Christmas season. He loved the winter holiday season in general- he loved celebrating Thanksgiving with his family (extended and all), he loved spending Christmas with his parents (and now Star, too), and he loved celebrating the New Year. This year's surprises had just made the holidays all the better, though- now he got to share all the joy with the best friend he's ever had.

Star, of course, knew nothing about Earth holidays. She hadn't had a clue what Thanksgiving was, so when that holiday rolled around, Marco had explained to her that the holiday, although founded on terrible terms, was about being thankful for all of the good things in your life, thankful for all the people you love and that love you, and about celebrating being together (while eating a lot of food). He had loved seeing how happy she was to be among all the happiness and togetherness of the holiday. And to think, that was only Thanksgiving….Marco thought. Wait till she discovers Christmas…

A small smile crept its way onto his cheeks as he entertained the thought of Star discovering Christmas.

His daydream would soon become a reality, however, because once they got to the school, Star immediately noticed the student government organization helping some teachers put up some Christmas decorations- Christmas trees cut out of green construction paper with decorations drawn on them in marker, garland decorating the railings of the staircases, and of course, the teachers decorated their classrooms to their liking.

"Ooooh, what's all that stuff? What is everyone doing?" Star asked excitedly. Marco's little smile grew huge.

"It's the Christmas season, Star! It's another Earth holiday. Christmas is on December 25th each year, and the legend is that Santa Clause delivers presents to every child in the world on the night of Christmas Eve, and in the morning, children across the world open them up. But what the holiday is really about is giving. It's about celebrating those around you, and spreading generosity and happiness by giving to others. It's my favorite holiday." Marco explained.

"Oh my gosh, that sounds like so much fun!" Star exclaimed, more excited than ever. "Can we…what did you call it…spread happiness and generosity?"

Marco chuckled.

"People typically like to say 'spreading some holiday cheer', but yeah, Star, we can totally do that. What do you have in mind?" Marco responded.

"What do people typically do to 'spread cheer'?" Star asked.

"Well, it can be anything. Whatever you think will make the people that you have in mind happy, will do just fine." Marco explained. He couldn't control the slight blush creeping onto his cheeks as he admired the sparkle in her eyes as an idea came to her mind.

"Why don't we get gifts for all of our friends? Ooh ooh and for your parents, and for my parents, and we can get something for Ponyhead too!" Star babbled on excitedly. Marco's smile shrunk a little.

"Uh, Star, I love the idea, it's very generous of you, but I don't think we have enough money to buy all those people a present." Marco explained nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh, darn…well what else can we do?" Star asked, disappointed.

"Well, we can make something for everyone." Marco suggested. Star's eyes lit up again, which brought Marco's smile back. Honestly, her giddiness made him love Christmas even more than he ever had before.

"That's a great idea! We need to get started right away!" Star said excitedly. She grabbed Marco's hand and dragged him along with her to their classroom so they could brainstorm ideas.

Marco glanced down at his hand, which was tucked snugly into hers, and blushed visibly.

Later, while they sat in their study hall, Star was jotting down ideas vigorously, and with much zeal. Marco was suggesting a few ideas that came to mind here and there, but overall knew he couldn't compete with Star's energy. He liked to watch her excitement just the same, however.

After spending the entirety of first period coming up with a gift idea for their friends, Star and Marco had finally come up with the perfect gift that everyone would love.

Marco had spent a good portion of that time admiring how vigorously she scribbled down ideas, while bringing up a few ideas here and there about what people typically gave as gifts. He brought up the idea of Christmas tree ornaments, explaining what they were, and Star loved the idea. She came up with the idea of making each person a gift custom-tailored to their interests.

Marco explained that he loved the idea, so they then spent the next two entire periods brainstorming ideas for what each of their friends' interests and favorite things were.

By the end of the day, they had the perfect idea in mind for what to make each person's ornaments should be, and Star once again grabbed his hand and dragged (not that he was unwilling at all) him downtown to buy the things they needed to make the ornaments.

They made it to a craft store downtown and immediately started gathering supplies. Star was very excited to get the process going, but she had to get Marco out of the way for just a second. She had come up with one last secret idea.

As she gazed at the shelf full of glitter and markers, a devious smile snuck onto her cheeks. As she turned to face Marco, she quickly changed it to a sweet, innocent smile.

"Hey, Marco, would you mind running over to get a little more red and green felt? I don't think we have enough." She asked as sweetly as she knew how.

"Uh, sure, Star. Stay here, I'll be back in a sec." Marco said, patting her shoulder as he walked over to the other side of the store to retrieve a few more pieces of felt. Star turned back to the shelves, quickly gathering supplies for her surprise gift and tucking them underneath the other supplies in the shopping basket.

A few minutes later, Marco returned with a few more patches of felt, some in red and some in green.

"Thanks Marco!" Star said, flashing him a bright smile as she put the felt in the basket.

"No problem, Star." Marco responded as they headed to the cash register to check out.

After heading home, Star and Marco worked excitedly to put all the ornaments together, and wrapped them in tissue paper and small gift bags. Marco glanced up at Star every once and a while, and each tme he did, his smile grew bigger, and his blush grew a little. He'd never seen Star happier than this, really, and it made him feel happier than he had felt on any other Christmas so far in his life.

Honestly, he didn't know what was happening with him lately- every time he saw her smile, it made him smile just as widely. Whenever she was happy, it made him happy, no matter how miserable or angry he might be. Whenever she touched his hand or his shoulder or what have you, his heart skipped a beat. Whenever she started cooing over Oskar, he couldn't help but feel miserable. What is this girl doing to me? He knew his friends liked to tease him about it, saying that "it must be love", but he found the notion ridiculous…for the most part. Yeah, right, me in love with Star…its not like I think she's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen…with golden flowing hair, and sparkling blue eyes as deep as the ocean, and….

Marco immediately stopped his thoughts and threw them away, trying not to let Star notice the deep red blush on his cheeks.

As they finished each person's gift, Star decided to add a final touch to each gift, Star wrote short, happy, cheerful holiday messages on each tag for each gift, writing each recipient's name under "To:" on each appropriate gift, and her and Marco's name under "From:".

Now that everyone's gifts were made and wrapped up and ready to be passed out, Star allowed Marco to get to bed (seeing as this activity took up the entire afternoon) as she cleaned up.

"You sure you don't need any help, Star?" Marco asked as he stood up and brushed the glitter off of his pants.

Star nodded, trying to keep her smile hidden. Marco shrugged and headed into his own room to get ready for bed.

Star let her devious smile shine through as she worked vigorously at one last gift.

They distributed all the gifts to their friends at school the next day. Each of their friends got one. Miss Skullnick got a small axe made of felt and pipe cleaners, with a small wire hook on top so it could hang on the tree. Jackie got a little skateboard made of a small strip of plastic, painted blue and covered with glitter, and pipe cleaners with small, round beads on the ends for the wheels, and one pipe cleaner glued to the top center of the skateboard so it could be hung on a tree. Alfonzo and Ferguson each got a little clay sculpture of them as the two-person horse they had been turned into when the class went on the field trip, painted and coated with glitter. They made Janna a beanie out of felt and markers with a hook for the tree.

Among Star's favorites were the ornament they made for Marco's parents. They had bought a deep red ball ornament, and got a gold Sharpie to decorate it with. Star drew a heart on it and wrote "Love you!" in the center, intended as a thank you for all that they have done for her.

Marco explained to Star that they should save his parents' gift for Christmas day, because that's when everyone is opening gifts that other people got them. So Star eagerly waited for Christmas day to give the rest of her gifts.

When the day finally came, Star eagerly bounded down the stairs on Christmas morning, and headed straight for the Christmas tree to pick up the gifts she had made for her favorite people.

She bounced over to Marco's parents, who were sitting on the couch, and handed them their present.

"Oh oh oh wait, I need to get Marco, its from both of us!" She said excitedly. She quickly ran upstairs and burst into Marco's room and jumped onto his bed. She sat on top of him and gently shook him to try and wake him up.

"Maaarrcoooooo, wake uuuuuup! We have to give your parents our gift!" Star said gently.

Marco groaned. "Five more minutes…"

"No, silly head, we have to go now!" Star responded.

"Uuuuuuhgh…" Marco groaned once more.

"Wake uuuup!" Star said, edging her face closer to his ear.

"WAKE UP MARCO!" She yelled as loudly as she could. Marco's eyes flung open upon hearing the loud noise blast his ear off.

"Agh, okay, okay, I'm awake!" Marco complained, quickly sitting up as he rubbed his ear.

When he sat up, however, he realized that his face had suddenly become very close to Star's.

Marco blushed intensely and froze in that position. He was so close to her, he could smell the intoxicating yet faint scent of the perfume she liked to put on every day. He stared into her dazzling blue eyes, deep as the ocean, and his eyes drifted down to her lips. He was close enough that he felt her breath on his cheek and it made the skin on his cheek tingle, and it sent a chill down his back.

"Come on, silly, let's go!" Star said, grabbing his hand and dragging him out of bed and down the stairs.

Pushing that brief moment to the back of his memory, Marco smiled and watched as Star gathered everyone in the living room.

"Okay, you can open it now!" Star said excitedly, waving to Mr. and Mrs. Diaz to open the present.

The two parents took the tissue paper out of the bag and unwrapped the present.

"Oh, Star, Marco, its lovely! Thank you so much!" Angie cooed, standing up and heading over to the tree to hang the ornament on the tree.

Marco's parents encouraged Marco and Star to open some of their own presents. For the next hour or so, Marco and Star opened a few presents and admired them for a little bit, thanking Mr. and Mrs. Diaz for each one.

After everything was unwrapped and breakfast was eaten, the family was relaxing in the living room, watching Christmas movies. Star grabbed one last present that she had hidden behind the tree and pulled Marco over to her.

"Here! Open it!" She said excitedly, shoving the gift into his hands.

"Star, what's this?" He asked, confused.

"It's a gift I made for you! So open it, come on, hurry up!" Star encouraged.

Marco smiled and took the gift out of its gift bag, and took the tissue paper off. Marco's smile fell off of his face, and an expression of pure surprise covering his face.

"Star…what's this?" He asked, completely baffled. He couldn't believe what she'd gotten him.

Star had made him his own Christmas tree ornament. The ornament was two felt dolls of Star and Marco, holding hands, jumping through a dimension portal, Marco's free hand holding the scissors and Star's free hand holding her wand. She had painted it appropriately, and glued a little hook to it to let it hang from the tree.

"Star, I-I don't know what to say. Thank you."

"Turn it over!" Star said, very slightly bouncing in excitement.

Marco turned the ornament over to see a message written on the back.

Thanks for all the great adventures, and here's to even more! (She had signed it at the bottom with a heart, a star, and a butterfly)

"Star, I-"

"There's one more in the bag, come on!" Star grabbed his arm and shook him a little. Marco reached into the bag and found another ornament that looked almost just like the first one. This one, however, was of Star and Marco dressed in their Blood Moon Ball outfits, and they were posed as though they were dancing- hands linked together, but bodies spread apart slightly, just like they had been posed at the ball right before Tom had interrupted.

The message on the back read:

Soul mates forever! (again, signed with a heart, a star, and a butterfly).

"Star, these are amazing. I-I really don't know what to say. Thank you so much." Marco stuttered. These were the most amazing gifts he had ever received.

"No one's ever really put this much thought into this stuff for me before…" Marco said softly.

Suddenly, all thoughts fled from Marco's brain as he felt a warmth on his cheek. He practically dropped the ornaments right out of his hand when he realized Star was kissing him on the cheek. A bright red blush quickly made its way to his cheeks. All other color fled from his face and his eyes were as wide as saucers. He felt a strange happiness take over his entire body as the familiar tingling sensation came back to his cheek, and a smile crept onto his face.

He felt a tiny tinge of sadness as Star's lips left his cheek, but he smiled all the same.

"Merry Christmas, Marco!" She exclaimed as she gave him a quick hug and skipped over to the TV and sat down to watch movies with Mr. and Mrs. Diaz.

Marco was still frozen in place, bright smile decorating his cheeks, and his mad blushing had practically taken over his face.

Man oh man, do I love Christmas.

Well here we have it! My Christmas Starco fic! It's really cheesy, and its kind of 2AM right now, so this may not be super great, but hey, nobodys perfect. You'll have to excuse me since I just made it through finals week and it is currently 2AM and I currently very much need to go to bed. Reviews & constructive criticisms are welcome as always!