A.N: This is a collection of short stories, one for each day before Christmas. There will be various characters and timeframes and the one shots aren't connected to each other unless mentioned otherwise. The first chapter takes place sometime after Brook joined the crew. No major spoilers.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece

Hatch 1: What's best about Christmas?

It was an early morning in first of December as Nami walked into the kitchen where Sanji already was, making breakfast.

"Good morning, Nami-san" he said "Can I get you something before the breakfast?"

"Morning Sanji-kun" she said cheerfully, being in a better mood than usual "And no thanks; I already have all I need."

Curious, the blond turned to look at the woman, wondering what she meant. Nami was currently taping something on the kitchen wall.

"What's that, Nami-san?" he asked, leaving the food for a moment to go and take a closer look.

"An advent calendar; I thought we might as well put one on our wall" she said "And the kitchen's the safest place since our three idiots get kicked out of here pretty fast if they start messing around."

"You can count on that, Nami-san" Sanji said, inspecting the calendar that had a picture of a huge Christmas tree on it "I remember when I was a kid I looked forward to opening a new hatch on the calendar before Christmas. It made waiting so much easier for an impatient, little child."

"Yeah" Nami agreed "At my house it brought a real war with it, tough."

Sanji gave her a confused look, which made her explain: "Bellemere-san only bought one calendar for each Christmas and Nojiko and I argued who'd get to open the hatch on which day... every year the fight had a different outcome; like when I was 7 she lost her patience and burned the whole thing."

"I take it your mother was a temperamental woman, Nami-san?"

"She sure was" Nami said with a chuckle, but soon shuddered "In both good and bad."

Sanji raised his visible eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Glancing at the clock he decided that he should continue the breakfast so that everything would be ready by the time the crew usually ate.

XXXXX

"Food!" Luffy yelled, running in to the kitchen. Sanji smiled slightly, having gotten everything ready just in time. The smile soon turned to a frown as he saw Luffy reach out for the food already. Swatting the younger boy's hand away with a spoon he hissed: "Ladies first, shit head!"

Luffy frowned but got in to his seat at the table anyway, watching as Sanji brought everything on the table. The blond kept a stern eye on his captain, not trusting him to be patient enough to wait for everyone else. Luckily they didn't have to wait for long for the rest of the crew to show up. In the middle of the breakfast Usopp took a notice of the calendar on the wall.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Advent calendar; its December first after all" Nami said.

"Oh yeah" the long nose said.

"I love Christmas!" Luffy announced "Especially Christmas food. Sanji, make us some for lunch!"

"Not a chance" he replied drily "You'll have to wait 'till Christmas"

Luffy pouted, arguing: "But it's the best part about Christmas!"

"Then it's worth waiting, isn't it, captain?" Robin reasoned with a laugh. Luffy seemed to think for a moment, which was rare in itself. After few seconds he came to a conclusion: "I don't like waiting."

"We know; just deal with it" Nami said, taking a sip from her juice "My personal favorite thing about Christmas are the presents!"

"Obviously" Zoro said, rolling his eyes "I like the drinks."

"Like that was any less obvious" Nami told him, but Zoro decided to ignore it.

"I like the snow!" Chopper threw in. No one bothered to point out that the reindeer's home island always had snow anyway.

"And I like Christmas songs. Yohohoo!"

"Nothing beats making new, super Christmas lights and decorations!" was Franky's opinion.

"I can help you with those" Usopp said "But what I like about Christmas most is how much easier it's to pull pranks on people thanks to them being in better mood because of the holidays."

The others looked at Usopp and Zoro asked: "Was that a warning?"

"Sounded more like a threat" Sanji said with a narrowed eye "Well, Christmas food is good and making it isn't exactly boring either."

"What about you, Robin?" Nami asked. The older woman sipped her tea before answering: "I've never really cared about Christmas or winter."

"Kill joy" Zoro said, blocking Sanji's leg that was aimed for his head.

"Well then we need to make this a good Christmas for you" Nami said "Right guys?"

"Yeah!"

"A super Christmas!"

"With a lots of food!"

Robin laughed as the others started to make plans for Christmas. Maybe this year's would be alright.

A.N: If you have any wishes for which characters should have a chapter of their own, don't hesitate to tell. I'll see what I can do. In the next chapter we'll have a peek in to Nami's childhood.