Disclaimer: I don't own SJA or any of its characters. They all belong to BBC and Russell T. Davies.


December 1st

It was almost time for Luke to come home, so I put on some tea like I do every day. I looked out the window and noticed Alan Jackson putting some Christmas decorations up outside. Oh right, it was the time of the year for that.

This Christmas is definitely going to be different.

Then Luke came inside.

"Mum?" I turn around to see my son, Luke, who like every day, had something on his mind. "What's Christmas?"

Oh right. I hadn't ever talked to Luke about holidays or anything of those sorts. Luke was only born a couple months ago and this would be his first Christmas.

"Clyde and Maria were talking about it." Luke says.

"It's a holiday celebrated every year on December 25th. Families get together, exchange gifts and stuff like that." I tell him. I wasn't very big on the holidays. I knew pretty much everyone in the neighborhood here was, but I wasn't. I didn't really have any family.

"Is that why Maria's dad is putting lights outside their house?" Luke asks and I nod.

"Yes. People do that. They decorate their yards and inside their homes with lights, figures, and stuff like that." I tell him. "They also get a tree and decorate that as well with lights and these things called ornaments. Remember, I think you saw them in one of the shops a few weeks back."

Luke nods. He did remember. But of course, that was a stupid question; Luke remembers everything.

"Can we do that?" Luke asks.

"Do you want to?" I ask and Luke nods.

"Yes we can." I say.

This will be, not only a first time for Luke, but also a first time for me. I never really got to do any of the Christmas stuff as a kid. Well, I never did it as an adult either, but I never saw the reason to. I was alone and with no one to share it with, but a robot dog, which just seemed pointless.

But I was going to make Luke's first Christmas the best.


December 5th

It's Saturday and I promised Luke that we'd go to the shops to get some Christmas decorations. We would get some for outside and inside. He wanted the house to be decorated like the neighbors and since I didn't have many ornaments—well I didn't have any—we needed to get those if we were going to put up a tree and all that.

"Mum, when are we going?" Luke asks as he sees me come downstairs into the kitchen. I smiled at his excitement.

"A little later, Luke."

"When?"

"After lunchtime." I tell him and watch as the smile fades from his face. I glanced at the clock and it was half past eight. That was a couple of hours away. "…or before lunchtime. And we could get something to eat while we're out." I say which seems to perk Luke up a bit.

"Why don't you go get dressed? I'll have the tea done by the time you're ready and then after that I'll get ready to go." I tell him and Luke turns around and runs upstairs. I smile as I put the kettle on. It warmed my heart to see him excited. Luke wasn't even really a year old, so this would be exciting for him. And I was happy to see him like this. He was going to have a better Christmas than I had as a kid.

I got dressed and by the time I got back downstairs, the tea was ready. I didn't get to finish it as Luke was really impatient to go.

"Luke, why don't you go look at the ornaments and I'll pick out the lights." I tell Luke and he nods. We separate. Luke went left and I went right. I go through the boxes of lights, deciding what to get. I get a couple of boxes of multicolor and then a couple boxes of white. Then I saw some boxes with just one color: red, green, blue, ect. I thought about something I used to do at a kid. It wasn't for Christmas, but this could make the experience even more enjoyable for Luke. I pick up one box of green and one of red.

I knew he was going to love this.

I went and looked at the outside decorations. I wasn't going to do anything that involved going onto the roof. No way.

I already had some lights for the bushes and for my garden. But maybe we needed something else. But what? I then saw some candy canes that light up. Oh, those would be great to put up along the driveway!

I put a couple of those in the cart I was pushing and then headed towards the Christmas ornaments to see what peeked Luke's interest.

"How about we get the classics." I suggest, picking up a box of ball ornaments that came in red and silver.

I watch as Luke looks at the all the ornaments that were characters from Films. I saw a bunch from those Star Wars movies Clyde loves. I wasn't sure if Luke was into those or not, but he didn't even stop to look at those.

I found a set that were planets, which I had a feeling Luke might like. I put that in the cart, along with some silver tinsel.

"Mum." Luke says showing me an ornament for a green alien. We both started to laugh and he then puts in the cart. I guess we could get that one. I got a few more things, before telling Luke we had enough.

"Did you get stuff for outside?" Luke asks and I nod. "Can I help put it up?" I smile at Luke before I nod my head again.

I'm so glad this is making Luke happy.


December 6th

It had started raining by the time we got home from the shops yesterday so we had to hold off on putting the decorations up. Luke had brought up the point we could still string up the inside ones yesterday, but then I brought up the point that the house needed some tidying up before we could do that.

I had never thought I'd see Luke so willing to clean up. I knew teenagers could be messy and though Luke tried to do the best he could and was still adjusting. He didn't do what most boys his age would do yet, except he did tend to be a bit messy. I always walked by his room and it was a bit messy.

But I guess the thought of putting decorations up excited him.

He spent the rest of yesterday cleaning which seemed to exhaust him. So I told him we'd do all the decorations the next day; and that's what we're doing.

I was putting the candy canes up while Luke strung the lights up in the bushes. I told him to be careful of my garden and he was.

"Mum, can I turn them on?" Luke asks me.

"Wait until tonight, Luke. They will look better when it's dark." I tell him and he nods. We then go inside and put the lights up in the living room, on the doorway to the kitchen, and some in the attic. They looked really nice.

"We still have a lot of lights." Luke commented. I smile. I had bought more than enough so we had enough for the tree and then some.

"I was thinking we could string these up in your room." I say, holding up the box of green lights. I knew green was his favorite color, so these would be perfect. Luke nods and we go upstairs. I hand them on his windows and his door. I turned off his light after plugging them in. They lit up the room, but not too much; he'd probably still be able to sleep with them.

I could tell by the smile on Luke's face that he loved them.

Then when it got dark, we went outside and turned on the lights. We stood in the driveway looking at the decorations we had put up. They looked just lovely. I wrap my arm around Luke and smile at him.

"What do you think?" I ask.

"I love them."


December 8

Luke was at school and I went into the basement. That was where I kept my stuff since my attic was occupied.

I went through some of the boxes and found some figures. I smiled. They were Christmas figures. My Aunt Lavinia wasn't into the holidays, but my parents had been.

I remember the day I found these.

...

I was nine years old. Aunt Lavinia was on a job again. She was almost never home so she had our neighbor looking after me.

Well she wasn't exactly there to look after me. Just to make sure I was fed and got my homework done. That's all my Aunt wanted. That's what she is paid for. She is a good Aunt, but I just wish she was here more. She's never in one place more than a couple minutes. She was always so busy.

While Mrs. Hannigan was cooking dinner, I went upstairs into our attic.

I liked to come up here when I wanted to be alone. No one ever bothered me when I was up here. I don't know why but Auntie never comes up here. I guess because it's full of boxes and it's a bit dusty.

I wonder what are in these boxes.

I knew a lot of them had a lot of things that belonged to Auntie, so I wouldn't touch them. If she wanted me to touch them, they'd be in my room like a lot of her old toys.

But then I see a box labeled: Barbara and Eddie. They were my parent's names.

I open the box. I cough as dust comes out of it. I guess Auntie hasn't opened this box in a while. I carefully move the bubble wrap and see this figure. I pick it up. It was a man. He was wide with a long white beard and hair. He was dressed it a coat that was both red and white, and then black boots. It was very pretty. I turn to the bottom of its boot. There's some writing on it.

"For SJ"

Those are my initials. For Sarah Jane.

Was this for me?

"SARAH JANE!" I hear Ms. Hannigan calling for me. I close the box and go down the stairs. I quietly close the door so she doesn't know I was up there. I didn't want her to Auntie because technically I'm not supposed to be up there. "Oh there you are. Your dinner's on the table." She says and I nod, keeping the figure behind my back. I put in my room, under the bed.

...

I know I should ask her before taking it, but it's mine. It has my name on it, so what's the harm?

I smile at remembering finding this the first time. I always loved this thing. It was something from my parents. But I guess, after all these years—I forgot about this.

"Mum?" I hear Luke's voice coming from upstairs. I put this back in the box and then go back upstairs.

"Hey! How was school?" I ask, closing the door.

"Fine. Are we going to get a Christmas tree?" He suddenly asks. "I was just at Maria's and she had one up. Are we going to get one?"

I smile at him. Of course, I was planning on it. I think there is a farm in town where people can get them. Just figuring out the best time to get it—I want to do it when Luke doesn't have to think about school or anything. That way we can just enjoy decorating it together.

"Do you have any homework?" I ask Luke who nods. "Well how about we go pick one out tomorrow night and then we can pick it up and decorate it on the weekend?" I suggest and Luke nods.

"Maybe I can get Mr. Jackson to help us." Luke says. Yeah, we probably would need help getting the tree put up. I have never done it before so it would be helpful to have some who knew what they were doing.


December 13th

We got stuck hunting a Slitheen last week, so our plans changed. We decided to just pick the tree and do the decorating on the weekend.

So in the afternoon, Luke and I, followed by Alan and Maria, went to the tree farm.

"Come on, Luke!" Maria exclaims. I watch as Maria pulled Luke away from me, so they could go look at all the trees.

"Don't go too far!" Alan shouts before I could. But I knew they wouldn't. It's not like they would leave the farm without us and I guess Maria just wanted to also be the one to give Luke great experiences with the Christmas season.

"So you've never done this before?" Alan asks me and I shake my head. I know it probably seems odd to him. He's probably one of those lads that have been big on celebrating the holiday. He's probably been doing it all his life. It was the opposite for me.

"When I was being brought up, it was never celebrated. My Aunt was always too busy." I tell him. "And then as I got older—I still never did. I didn't have any family and as you could tell when you first moved in, I didn't have any friends."

He laughs a bit. And I do too.

"So I never had a reason to. Until now." I say. Luke was my family and now I could maybe enjoy myself.

"Has Luke ever—?" Alan starts to ask.

"No. He didn't even know what Christmas was until I explained it." I say.

"His first Christmas. I'm sure it'll be a great one. You're a great mother, Sarah Jane." I smile at Alan's words. They meant the world to me. I want to be the best mum I can be. I want Luke to have the best he can have.

"Mum!" I hear Luke's voice.

"Dad!" I hear Maria's voice.

Alan and I hurry over to where we heard their voices and found them in front of one tree, which Luke has his eyes on. It did look really nice.

"This one." Maria says. "It's perfect."

"Is that the one you want, Luke?" I ask him and he nods after turning to me. I smile at him. If that's the one he wants, that is the one we will get.

I pay for it and Alan helps me load on top of the car. Then when we got back to the house. He helps me get it inside and set up for decorating.

"Well there are you." Alan says once he's finished.

"Thank you so much for this." I thank him.

"Not a problem." Alan says and then left Luke and I not long after that.

Later that day, I got the ornaments we bought out of the car and we decorated the tree with them. Luke hung some and so did I. But he did most of it.

"Is that it?" Luke asks once he got all of the ornaments up. Or at least he thought that was all of them.

"I have one more." I say and take the box out from the bag. "For you." I say handing him an ornament with his name on it. He smiles and then hangs it up right up front.

He stepped back and I wrapped my arms around him as we looked at the tree.


December 18th

While Luke was at school, I went off to the mall to get Luke presents. I certainly couldn't forget about that part of Christmas. And besides, I'm sure Clyde has told him all about that so he'll be asking me soon enough.

I knew Luke liked books so I got him a couple of those, a few films, and then I got him a laptop. He was always using mine, mostly when I needed to get work done. Of course, I usually couldn't get mad at him because it was for school work. So I knew he would going to need this. Then I got him some clothes. I knew that wouldn't be the least exciting of his gifts, but he did need that.

I picked up some wrapping paper. I looked at my watch. If I hurried and got home, then I could get them wrapped before Luke got home.

I got home and wrapped them.

I watched as Luke came inside and his eyes lit up when he saw the presents under the tree.

"Are those for me?" Luke asks and I nod.

"Yes."

"But I didn't get you anything." Luke says and I give him a hug.

"You don't have to, Luke. And that doesn't matter." I tell him. He shouldn't feel guilty about not getting me anything. Besides, it's not he had money to get me anything. I am pretty sure he spent it when he went to that Laser Tag with Clyde and then that film with Maria last week.

"You don't have to get me anything. But I wanted to get you these." I give another hug.

"But you said the holiday's about giving. What did I give you?" Luke asks and I put my hands on his face.

"You gave me a life, Luke." I tell him. There was nothing he could give me that hadn't already just by being here. "Luke, you are the best present I could ever have." I kiss his forehead and he gives me a hug.


December 24th

The days leading up to Christmas Eve were great.

Luke got some presents from Maria and Clyde and they were under the tree. Then we had some family come to our door to carol and I explained it to Luke.

Now we were in the kitchen and he was making cookies. Apparently Maria showed him to make it and he was good at following cook book instructions; I wish I was that good.

I put them in the oven.

"Now we wait." I tell him.

I then remember I bought stockings for us to hang up when we were out weeks ago when Luke asks about them. I left them downstairs in the basement.

"Can you go downstairs to the basement and get them?" I ask and he nods. I had bought some treats I was going to put in his stocking. Along with a new mobile phone since he was in a need of a new one. Thanks to this Slitheen breaking his current one.

Luke brought them up and I hung them.

"Mum, where did you get this?" I look up and see he had the figure that my parents left for me. Did he go through the boxes? Why?

"Be careful with that!" I say and snatch it from him. I didn't want him to break it. I don't want it getting broken. I've had that since I was little and it was the one holiday thing I have from my parents. I look up at Luke and frown. Luke looked ready to cry. I had never snapped at him before.

"S-Sorry."

I put it down and wrap him into a hug.

"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap." I say and then have him sit next to me over on the couch. "I didn't mean to, Luke. I'm sorry. I just was worried—I didn't want you to accidently drop it."

Luke leans into me and asks "Where did you get it?"

"My parents got it for me before they died." I say as I wrap one arm around him and then use my other to pick up the figure and then showed him the bottom which said 'For SJ'. "It's one of the few things I have from them."

"Did it break before?" Luke asks, moving his finger over the mark it had on it. He was right. It did break once before.

...

It was not too long after I had taken it from the attic. During the December—which it now was—I kept it on my dresser. It was the only thing up that was for the holiday. Aunt Lavinia said we don't have time for putting decorations, getting the gifts, or any of that. She always works on Christmas anyways, so I knew it probably wouldn't happen.

But it would have been nice.

So the only thing Christmas-y was that Santa figure that my parents had for me.

"Sarah Jane! Are you ready for school?!" I hear Ms. Hannigan call. Auntie had to go to work extra early so she was taking me to school. I get up and pull my scarf, not realizing that the figure was on top of it.

Smash.

When I pulled my scarf, it knocked it on to the floor and it broke into a couple pieces. I crouched on the ground in front of it. I hold the pieces in my hands and start to cry.

The one thing I had of my parents was broken.

"Sarah Jane, are you—? What happened?" I turn to see Ms. Hannigan come in and crouch next to me. "What's this?"

"My parent's g-gave it to me." I cry. I knew not technically but it was for me. They would have given it to me if they had been alive.

"Did it fall?" She asks and I nod. "Hey now, dry your teas sweetie. This can be fixed."

"H-How?" I ask, wiping them away. Was she serious? Or was she just saying this to get me to calm down?

"Come on." She brings me into the kitchen, with me carrying the pieces. She sits down with me at the table and then gets glue out. She carefully glues the pieces on. "Yeah, you've got to be careful with these. You're lucky only a few pieces broke off."

"I am."

"I know it was just an accident." She says as she rubs my shoulder. "Now we got to let it dry, but it should be just fine. I'll put it in your room to dry." She says and carefully takes it upstairs to my room and puts it up so it couldn't be knocked down again.

...

"That's why I got worried—even as careful as I am, anything can happen." I tell him after telling him the story.

"I won't touch it again." Luke says.

"No, you can." I tell Luke. I didn't want him thinking I didn't trust him. And I did. I do. "Just be careful okay?"

Luke nods. "You should put it out here. It is Christmas." Luke says and I give him a hug. He was right. I should. As I put it up somewhere, Luke ran and got the cookies out of the oven. A bit darker than we expected but they looked good; better than I could have done.

After the cookies were cooled, we put most away. But we kept some out to eat with some hot cocoa. "Are they good?" Luke asks.

"Best I've ever had!" I say giving him a hug, which makes him smile.

After we ate some cookies, I put on one of the Christmas films I had for Luke and I to watch together. We cuddled up on the couch together to watch it. This was really nice. I love spending time with him. I'm happy he's not one of those who thinks spending time with their mum is uncool—at least not yet.

Luke hasn't been with that long. Only a couple months. But having him here has been the best couple of months of my life.

Luke makes me so happy. He's my world.

"Luke." I say after glancing at the clock. He looks up at me. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, mum." Luke says sleepily. He sounded really tired.

"Let's get you up to bed." I say and he nods. I get him upstairs and into bed, where I tuck him in and kiss him goodnight before going to bed myself.


December 25th

I wake up around nine. I was half-expecting Luke to wake me up, but then again we were up pretty late and Luke liked to sleep in. Unless he has plans with Clyde or Maria. That'll he'll get up for. I put on my robe and go into his bedroom. Still sound asleep.

"Luke." I whisper in his ears to wake him. "Wake up, Luke."

He starts to open his eyes.

"It's Christmas." I say. "Time to get up." Luke sits up and I give him a hug. As I pull away I give him a kiss on the cheek.

We go downstairs and Luke looks in his stocking first. He was happy to see the new mobile phone and the various bags of candy I have gotten him. At least with him I didn't have to worry about his teeth as they don't decay. He then goes and opens his present. First was the box of clothes, which he liked.

"I knew you would need some new clothes. I know, not every exciting." I comment.

"No. I love them, mum." Luke says. I knew he didn't want to seem ungrateful. I knew he did like the clothes, but I knew he would favor everything else I got him.

"My own laptop?" He questions at opening it and I nod.

"You can do anything you want on it." I say. But then a thought comes to mind. "But nothing inappropriate." Luke nods and then we both laugh. I knew I didn't really have to worry about that with Luke. He didn't even quite understand girls yet.

He then opened the films and books I got him; he was more excited about the newest release that I got him. "You got me the new one?" Luke asks and I nod. I knew he liked this series, so I thought why not. He'll love it. He then gives me a hug.

"What did Clyde and Maria get you?" I ask.

"Maria got me an MP3 player and Clyde got me a Star Wars movie." Luke tells me and I smile. I knew Clyde always talked about those movies and Luke never knew what it meant. I remember seeing those and I enjoyed them, but I don't know if Luke will.

He then sat next to me and I noticed there were four gifts still under the tree.

"Aren't you going to open those?" I ask and Luke shakes his head.

"They're not for me." Luke tells me and brings them over to me. I looked and saw they had my name on them.

"For me?" I ask and Luke nods.

"That one's from Maria, that one's from Clyde, and those two are from me." Luke tells me. I look up at Luke and smile. He got me two presents? "Open them."

I open Maria's first and see it was a necklace. It was of my initials. I decide to put it on; it was lovely. I then open Clyde's and see it was a movie. I laugh as I had told him weeks ago I hadn't seen it and he was unpleasantly shocked. I open the bigger one of Luke's and see it's a picture frame.

"You can put a picture of us in it. If you want." Luke says and I smile at him. That was perfect. I had been meaning to get one as I didn't have any pictures of us together up around the house. Besides the ones I took with the two of us along with Maria, and Clyde.

Now we could put one up with just the two of us.

I then open the second present and it was a figure. I smile at looking it over. It was of the earth. I then look at the bottom and smiled at the writing. For mum. You are my world.

I put it down on the table. I turn to Luke and wrap him in a big hug.

"You are my world too, Luke." I say as I feel him wrap his arms around me. "I love you so much." I kiss his forehead and hold him close to me again.

"Merry Christmas Luke." I say. This truly is the best Christmas I've ever had.

"Merry Christmas mum." Luke says.


A/N: Yeah I know it's like a day late (almost two), but I honestly only got the idea to write this on Christmas Eve and I didn't have much time to keep writing it. So it's late. But it's still December! So here's something! I hope you enjoyed it and also had a very merry Christmas, if you celebrate it :) Please don't forget to review!