Yet again, the holidays had made their way to the frost covered Magic Kingdom on a cold, yet starry evening, the joyous sounds from children playing in the snow on Main Street USA, to the jingling of sleigh bells, could be heard. The smell of freshly baked Christmas cookies filled the air that was almost lit bright by the colorful Christmas lights strewn together on the buildings. Wreaths hung on every door, golden tinsel around every window, and giant noels and gingerbread men and houses decorated the stores.
And on this particular day of December, Christmas Eve to be exact, the citizens of Main Street were gathered in front of Cinderella Castle where the Disney Princesses, specifically Snow White, Ariel, Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, and Rapunzel, in formal winter wear, stood on stage.
In front of their audience, the princesses sang.
Snow White
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How lovely are your branches
Cinderella
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How lovely are your branches
Aurora
In beauty green will always glow
Ariel
Through summer sun and winter snow
Belle
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How lovely are your branches
Jasmine
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your beauty green will teach me
Pocahontas
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your beauty green will teach me
Mulan
That hope and love will ever be
Tiana
The way to joy and peace for me
Rapunzel
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your beauty green will teach me
The Princesses
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your boughs can teach a lesson
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your boughs can teach a lesson
That constant faith and hope sublime
Lend strength and comfort through all time
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your boughs can teach a lesson
The princesses took a bow as the audience applauded.
After the little holiday concert, everyone in the Magic Kingdom preceded with their holiday activities.
In Adventureland, Tarzan, Jane, Terk, Tantor, and the Professor strung lights and decorations on their tree house. In the Enchanted Tiki Room, the tiki birds were singing carols.
In Tomorrowland, the citizens put up a futuristic-looking Christmas tree. In Monstropolis, the monsters were also looking for trees. A monster picked the biggest one he could find. The salesman presented it to him and after paying him, the monster gulped it in one bite.
In Frontierland, Brer Bear and Brer Fox were chasing Brer Rabbit all over Chick-a-pin Hill. In the process, Brer Rabbit put decorations all over the hill until it was fully decorated. As Fox and Bear saw it, they couldn't help but stop to eye in awe along with Brer Rabbit. While they were distracted however, Brer Rabbit took the opportunity to run away.
At the holiday-decorated Haunted Mansion, the ghosts, along with Jack Skellington, Sally, Dr. Finklestein, and the rest of the inhabitants of Halloweentown had a jolly old Christmas party. Sally and Jack danced together while Oogie Boogie was guzzling down the eggnog.
And in Fantasyland, everyone, from the fairies of Pixie Hollow, to the Peter Pan and the Darling family, to Pooh and his friends, were deep in merriment.
Yes indeed, once again at this festive time of year, the residents of the Magic Kingdom were in celebration, even more so in particular this year. For tomorrow, Mickey had invited virtually all of the Magic Kingdom for the a big party that would culminate with a huge Christmas parade.
The princesses felt no different from the rest as they exited the castle and were met by their husbands.
"Jasmine, you and the girls were great!" Aladdin said after a kiss.
"Oh, you really think so?" asked Snow White.
"We know so," said Prince Charming.
As Rapunzel and Flynn hugged, Flynn dangled a piece of mistletoe over Rapunzel's head to which she responded with a long kiss.
"Oh, get a castle, you two!" Jasmine said.
Rapunzel responded with a tiny raspberry. Then, suddenly, she noticed something. "Hey, has anyone seen Merida?" she asked.
The other princesses and their husbands looked around and saw no sight of Merida anywhere.
"Well she did say she didn't really want to sing with us," said Belle.
"Merida did not want to sing with you?" Phillip asked.
"I'm sure she had a good reason. Too much turkey?" Snow White suggested.
"Yeah, Snow. She ate an entire turkey and got too full to come on stage and sing a song. Of course, being that it's Merida, that wouldn't be surprising," said Tiana.
The other princesses giggled at Tiana's comment.
"Listen, why don't you and the guys go on while we look for Merida," Pocahontas said.
"Of course," John Rolfe said.
With that, the guys went on their way, but not before Flynn and Rapunzel kissed some more under the mistletoe.
Tiana turned, saw this, and pulled on Rapunzel's hair. "Come on!" she said.
Figuring Merida must've been at home, they decided that was the first place they would look.
As much joy and happiness was spread throughout the kingdom, not everyplace was joyful. Such as the Forbidden Mountain, abode of Maleficent, the Mistress of All Evil, who observed the festivities from afar.
"Well, well, well. Mickey is throwing a Christmas party, is he? It should be quite the celebration, but how inconvenient that he failed to give me an invitation," she said.
Maleficent continued to observe the Christmas activities, seeing the beam in a person's eyes when they got a present from someone they cared about, the little children talking to their parents about Santa, the amount of happiness and the less of weariness, and was utterly disgusted.
"Such joy and wonder this holiday brings...and yet, I just don't feel the same way," said Maleficent. "Hmmmm, maybe I should give them a real reason to celebrate the holidays, by giving them a Christmas they won't soon forget...or maybe one...they will."
The princesses all arrived at Merida's castle by way of carriage and were somewhat shocked by what they had discovered. There were absolutely no Christmas decorations anywhere. No wreaths, no lights, not even the slightest bit of Christmas anywhere. They all got out of their carriages and Cinderella knocked on the front door.
Elinor and Fergus answered.
"Well hello there, you must be Merida's friends," Elinor said gleefully.
"Hello, Elinor. Merry Christmas," said Cinderella.
"Merry what?" Fergus asked.
"Merry Christmas," Cinderella repeated.
"What is Christmas?" asked Elinor.
"Christmas," Tiana answered. "You know, sleigh bells? Peace on Earth? Goodwill toward men?"
"That sounds gastly!" Fergus exclaimed.
"Fergus!" said Elinor.
"You've really never heard of Christmas?" asked Cinderella.
"No," Elinor answered.
This news was discouraging to the princesses. How could anyone not know of a wonderful time of year like Christmas? And then they began to think, if Merida's parents didn't know, maybe she didn't know what Christmas was either.
"Um...is Merida at home?" asked Cinderella.
"Yeah, she's out in the back, playing with her brothers" Fergus answered.
"May we go and see her?" Cinderella asked.
"Of course," answered Elinor.
In the back, Merida and her brothers were having a snowball fight. Merida hid in a trench on one while her brothers hid in one on another side. Both sides carefully eyed one another, making sure not to make the wrong move. Merida's brothers were each loaded with a snowball, ready to go on the attack while she was out of ammo. Slowly, she sidestepped to her right so not to draw any attention, but her brothers could spot her hair from a mile away. Realizing this, Merida rushed out of her trench. Avoiding a flurry of snowballs from her brothers, she managed to gather up a bunch of snowballs and launch them. What ensued afterwards was a back and forth snowball war.
Suddenly, Merida noticed the princesses coming and decided to play a trick on them as she stopped her brothers, brought them over to her, and whispered to them. As her friends approached, Merida quickly hid in her trench while the boys awaited them.
Snow White gasped at how cute they were.
"These must be Merida's brothers," said Belle.
"Well aren't you all just so cute," Snow White said as she patted the boys heads and pinched them on the cheek, much to their annoyance.
"But where's Merida?" asked Mulan.
"Her parents said she was out back," said Pocahontas.
"Maybe she went back inside," Cinderella suggested.
However, as the princesses turned around to go inside the castle, Merida popped out of the snow, growling like a beast and scaring them. She and her brothers laughed.
"Very funny," Tiana said sarcastically.
"Oh you should've seen the look on yer faces! AHAHAHA! Oh, Tiana, I can show you the look on yer face!" Merida said before she imitated Tiana. "So what can I do for ya?"
"We came here to see if you wanted to come to Mickey's Christmas party," said Cinderella.
"What's Christmas?" asked Merida.
Just as they thought.
"Merida, you don't know what Christmas is?" asked Belle.
"It sounds like that giant rash my dad was constantly scratching one time underneath his butt," said Merida.
"Well thank you for sharing that, girl," said Tiana with a cringe.
"Christmas is a holiday," said Aurora.
"Oh, my family doesn't really celebrate holidays," said Merida.
"You don't?" asked Cinderella.
"No. My mom was always too busy grooming me for the throne to worry about such things and my dad...well, he was busy hunting bears," Merida answered.
Rapunzel walked up to Merida with shock on her face. "So, you and your family have never heard of Christmas?" she asked.
"Not to our knowledge," Merida answered.
The very concept of a whole family who had never heard of Christmas, much less celebrate it, was befuddling to the princesses. Of course, they hadn't known Merida for too long, only over a year, so they didn't have much knowledge of what she did during this time of year. However, it wasn't too late for them to show her.
"Merida, how would you and your family like to spend Christmas Eve with us at your castle?" asked Rapunzel.
"Christmas Eve?" Merida asked.
Mulan walked up to her. "Yeah, we'll have decorations, a big tree, and we'll show you everything there is to know about Christmas," she said.
"Well I don't know..." Merida said with indifference.
The other princesses begged and pleaded with her. They wanted to give their friend and her family their first actual Christmas.
"Please, please, please," they all begged.
"Sure, why not," said Merida.
The elated princesses jumped with joy as they huddled up and hugged Merida tightly.
"Uh...guys...I can't breath..." said Merida.
A shopping trip and a knock on the door later, the princesses returned with a mountain full of decorations.
"Let's get started!" they all shouted before they entered the castle and the decorating began.
The princesses started by placing a series of red and green carpets across the floor.
Then, they decorated the fireplace with golden tinsel and stockings.
With Merida's help, they set the table with red tablecloth and lined it with decorated plates, holly, turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, Christmas pudding, candles, Christmas cookies, and all the trimmings.
Next, they set up a big tree with popcorn, lights, noels, tinsel, candy canes, and a big star on top, and placed a bunch of brightly wrapped presents underneath.
They also introduced Merida and her family to things of Christmas like eggnog, which they all quickly became addicted to and fought over. They also introduced them to things like mistletoe, exchanging presents, and 90% off sales at department stores.
Merida, her mother and father, as well as her brothers and even her two dogs, were given Santa Claus hats.
Eventually, Merida and her family were starting to get into the holiday spirit as they helped put up the rest of the decorations, including covering the whole outside of the castle with lights and the words 'Merry Christmas' in big, red letters. They were just having a good ole time, as good a time as they would've had shooting arrows or hunting bears.
When it was all done, the castle was as Christmas-y as you could get. Merida, her family, and her friends smiled at their work; her and her family especially. Their enthusiastic eyes glittered from the dozens of Christmas light strung together on their castle. This was the very first time they had celebrated the holiday and it was absolutely beautiful.
Meanwhile, in Toontown, Ludwig Von Drake was busy with Christmas plans of his own, as he was working on yet another new invention, singing merrily in the process.
"Oh jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what it is to make new devices on Christmas day...even though it's technically Christmas Eve, but you get the idea," Drake said to the audience.
After screwing in the last screw, Drake pulled the switch and watched as his new machine sparked with life. Without a doubt, this would be his greatest work yet. Then, from out of the machine came...a piece of fruitcake.
"Yes! My fruitcake machine is a success!" Drake proclaimed with joy as he took a bite of the fruitcake. "Mmmmmm."
But his celebration was cut of short as his laboratory was suddenly engulfed in flashing green flames and thunderbolts. He shivered in terror for he knew this could mean only one thing...Maleficent. And he was correct as the Mistress of All Evil appeared front of him and he nervously swallowed his fruitcake.
"Mr. Von Drake...I have a very...special...holiday...request..." Maleficent said as she slowly approached the duck scientist.