"Wait a minute Chopper-bro, you grew up on a winter island and yet you never celebrated Christmas?"
"No... What is it?"
The tiny doctor glanced between Usopp and Franky curiously, both men still recovering from their shock.
The conversation had started out casually enough, with the sharpshooter trying to convince the pair that one of Nami's orange trees would make a great substitute fir and that their navigator herself would, of course, appreciate the effort instead of skinning them alive for touching her babies. A couple of blank stares later however, and it had become apparent that the reindeer had no clue what they were talking about.
"Christmas is great!" Luffy shouted excitedly from his perch atop the Sunny's figurehead. "It's only once a year but everyone throws a huge party and there's lots of food! There's even this Sam-guy who brings presents."
"Presents? That's so cool!" Chopper cried out, eyes wide with wonder. By now the whole crew had converged on deck to join the conversation; Nami and Robin taking up residence on the foremast's bench as Sanji served them up a fresh pot of tea, enjoying their friend's innocent reaction.
"Yohoho! Luffy-san, I believe his name is Santa. I'm surprised Franky-san knows about Christmas though... It's an old east-blue tradition, right?" Brook replied, glancing briefly towards Robin for confirmation before turning back to the Shipwright.
"That's right, Skeleton-bro. We had pirates from all over east blue dock at Water 7 with us over the years and the Christmas cheer is suuperrr contagious!"
"East blue, huh..." Chopper mused, "hey Zoro, is that true? Did you ever get a present from Santa?"
The reindeer turned to the swordsman in question who, though still resting against the ship's railing where he had been napping, had at least cracked open an eye to lazily listen to the conversation.
His brow twitched slightly however as he contemplated his answer; caught between his own lack of belief in old St. Nick and the guilt he would feel if he were to take that wonder away from his young friend, though much to his (short-lived) relief the cook beat him too it.
"Santa Claus doesn't give presents to the plant-life Chopper, only to kids... And just the well behaved ones at that."
"Yeah well I bet you never got any presents either shit-cook!" Zoro growled as he stood and began squaring up to Sanji. "I hear perverts who get nosebleeds over every girl they see are definitely on the naughty list."
"Yo, that's mega un-cool bro!" Franky wailed, quickly stepping between the pair. "There's nothing wrong with being a pervert and Santa himself knows how to embrace it... I mean, who else sneaks into people's houses at night?"
Most of the crew stopped to look at the cyborg with varying levels of disgust at that comment apart from Luffy, who seemed to have missed the older man's insinuation and Usopp, who promptly began sniggering.
"You mean who else besides Nami right?" The sniper started, letting his mouth run away with him as the crew roared with laughter, "although she is more likely to steal than she is to leave anythi- Ow!"
Rubbing at the fist-shaped bruise that was quickly appearing on his head and glaring at Nami's retreating back, Usopp decided to steer the conversation away from their navigator, "anyways Chopper, have I ever told you that I've actually met Santa Claus?"
"You have!?"
"Yeah sure, I even helped him drive his sleigh one night! You see, there was this thick storm a few years ago and he was going to have to cancel Christmas but at the time I had this terrible disease that turned my nose bright red and I..."
