A/N: A bit belated, but second Christmas gift for my mate, Christie. It took me a few attempts to find the angle for this one...until John finally asked to have his say. Then the pieces fell into place at last. So...here we go, a short and sweet look at Connor's first Christmas with the Winchesters. Hope you all enjoy...and Tara? Thanks so much for taking the time to assure me this was okay. The muse doubts itself a lot lately. *HUGS*

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Christmas was generally a time for family, too much food and showering your loved ones with gifts…or so the typical avalanche of sugary Christmas movies and specials would have you believe anyway.

John Winchester could barely recall a Christmas like that, despite his best efforts to give his boys some touch of normality in their lives when they were young. There had always been so much darkness in their lives, so much uncertainty with constantly moving around all the time - that Christmas had become one day of the year where John could at least try and let them think for a moment, that they were like every other family.

If you ignored the salt lines and arsenal of weaponry stashed throughout their motel rooms at any given time.

But Christmas hadn't lasted long. By the time Sam was eight years old, The magic had been lost. There was no Santa…hell, that Christmas there had almost been no John at all thanks to a run in with a particularly nasty revenant. He'd stumbled in the door late on Christmas night, hurt and bleeding, to find that Dean had been stealing girl's gifts for brother…and that Sam knew the truth of what their lives had become now.

From that year on, no matter how hard John had tried in the next few years to show that he would always be there for his boys at Christmas, that they could be a family still. Things had unravelled. Sam had locked horns more and more until finally he had left for Stanford and by then, there hadn't been much point in celebrating Christmas at all.

But as he stood out on Bobby Singer's front porch, watching the snow blanket everything around him, John found himself smiling again. This year…things were different. He stepped out into the yard itself, feeling snow drift down to cover his inky black wings with white, as though he was dusted with icing sugar. Turning his face up to feel the cold flakes on his skin, John close his eyes, thinking of how much things had changed in his life…

"Open now? Pwease?"

John wasn't going to ever forget the look on Connor's face as he had dragged Dean and Skye downstairs earlier that morning. The little boy's eyes had been so wide and full of anticipation, that John had expected Connor to burst. Something in Dean had shifted in the wake of the knowledge he was going to be a father to a new baby. A little brother for Connor. There was a light in Dean's eyes, a smile seemed ready to burst across his lips at any given time…and he had become consumed with the idea of teaching Connor all about Christmas. So they had begun watching Christmas movies, until John was sure his brain was going to bleed. Sam had taken to reading Connor "The Night Before Christmas" as a bedtime story while Dean fielded questions about why it was okay to let Santa into the house and how salt lines wouldn't hurt him cause he was one of the good guys.

Elise had been teaching Connor a song about "Six White Boomers" which had led to more questions about why there wasn't snow in Australia for Christmas and how Santa needed to give his reindeer a rest in exchange for some strange animal that Connor had never seen before.

So many questions and answers were fielded back and forth amongst them all as John and Bobby watched the boys throw themselves whole heartedly into the spirit of Christmas to make it special for Connor.

Even Bobby had gotten into the act, making sure that the milk and cookies Connor had left out for Santa were eaten by morning, although he had drawn the line eating the carrot left for the reindeer. "Do I look like Rudolph? You eat the damn thing, Dean, might balance out all those cheese burgers you've been chowing down on."

Then there had been the mountain of presents that had been opened that morning. Bobby's living room had disappeared under a sea of torn paper while the house had been filled with laughter and chaos before everyone had settled in for a huge Christmas lunch that Skye, Bobby and even Elise had slaved over, showing Skye how to make some kind of cake called a Lamington that Dean had all but inhaled and asked for more of, like some grinning oversized Oliver Twist.

It had been a day of perfect memories that John was going to hold close to his heart always. I wish you could have seen it, Mary. I know you'd have loved every damn minute of it.

Voices drifted on the cold winter air from within the house, breaking into John's thoughts as he chuckled.

"No way, dude! Best out of three! You were cheating!"

"Cheating? At Guitar Hero? Dean, how the hell could I be cheating?"

"I don't know, Sam! But come on, man! You beat me at playing Black Sabbath? No freaking way! Maybe you've got an un-natural advantage with those huge Sasquatch fingers of yours?"

"Riiiight…that's got to be it." Sam voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Damn right it is! Shut up and get ready for another round. No way am I losing again!"

"Well it's my pick…you chose last time."

"Oh no…no way, dude. You're not picking one of those freaking crap emo songs you love. I'm picking a real song for us."

"Aw come on, Dean! Now who's cheating? You chose the last one!"

"Fine. We'll decide who picks, the proper way. Come on, dude. Paper, scissors, rock."

"Dean…"

"Come on, Sam!"

"Alright…alright…"

There was a moment of silence, before John could hear Skye and Elise laughing.

"Dean, Dean, Dean…always with the scissors, dude."

"Shut up! Just pick a freaking song already…bitch."

"My pleasure, jerk…"

John shook his head, laughing as he turned and started back towards the house. Christmas had once been many things to his sons. A time of sadness, of fear, of empty promises and regrets…a time when the world held no magic anymore, but plenty of harm and darkness.

Now it was full of light, laughter and love again. The way it was mean to always be for them and John couldn't keep the smile from his face as he walked up the steps. He paused one last time, knowing that somewhere, Mary was smiling down on her boys, before he went back inside to the warmth of family.