Disclaimer: Dragongirl only own Jacinda and Selena. Now can I have that cookie?
Dragongirl: -.- *tosses Disclaimer a cookie* After note, I'm not religious, but I'm considering my options, let's just say that. This is probably going to offend some people who know the biblical story from back to front, because I used the basic knowledge I had to write this. That's why I just used an outline of the basic story: to offend the fewest people possible. Just don't hate because I screwed parts up, or I misinterpreted something, I just really wanted to write a Christmas story . Also, I'm NOT calling Snotlout's dad Baggybum. He is named Spitelout, and you will have to deal with it!
Disclaimer: What if I don't want to?
Dragongirl: You will just have to suck it up, loser.

"You don't know what Christmas is?" Snotlout shook his head.

I'm Jacinda, unintentional instigator of the dragon-human war on Berk, bonded to one of the most powerful dragons in existence, and Snotlout's girlfriend (read The Love of the Earth, it explains everything).

And these vikings had no idea what Christmas was. This needed to be fixed. I was up off my surprisingly comfortable sheep wool and bear pelt couch and at the door within a couple seconds.

"Jacinda? Where are you going?" Snotlout asked. "Do I even want to know?" he added under his breath, pulling himself off the couch.

I considered. "Probably not." And I was out in the seven-feet-deep snow that covered Berk on December 23rd. Selena (my dragon) and Fire (Snotlout's dragon) were huddling together, tails twisted together, making mushy-sounding dragon noises at each other. Great.

"Awwwwwww, so cute! Now come on, Selena, we need to teach these people about Christmas!" Selena wasn't your typical dragon. She was completely smooth, for one thing, and a shade brown like pale tree bark, with smooth, curving horns reminiscent of Korean dragons the colour of pale skin curving from her head. She had what looked like ribbons curling from the base of these horns, that waved smoothly through the air at the same speed, no matter what the wind. She also had control of all five elements (earth((rock, soil)) water, fire, air, and plant life). I was snatched as a baby by two Night Furies that had been given Selena's egg; Earth Dragons need to bond to a person, and share their powers, otherwise they'd go insane.

Selena and Fire jumped apart, and Selena gave me a reproachful look. I stuck out my tongue.

Snotlout stopped at the door to my house, leaning on the doorframe.

I ignored him and conjured a purple flame in my hands. Selena sensed what I was doing, and brought up her own flame. We melted the snow in the town, clearing the way so everyone could get to the main hall. I rang the assembly bell, so everyone knew that there was an assembly.

…

Half an hour later, everyone was gathered in the hall, grumbling about being called out for a gathering in 'weather that would make a bird's wings freeze off'. That was a load of dragon dung, because most of them were probably using some poor guy named Bob as a sled.

"Snotlout told me that no one here knows what Christmas is," 'no's' were grumbled, small children rubbing their eyes falling with 'thunk's to the floor.

"Well, that simply won't do. You may think this whole thing is stupid, but that's because you don't know what I'm talking about."

…

It started with a pit-stop in a little roadside town called Bethlehem. It was the middle of winter, and the town was buzzing. I knew that tomorrow was Christmas, a day where people gave things to each other, but was it THAT big of a deal in this small town?

"Why is everyone so excited?" I asked the girl, Grace, who had offered to be my guide. They spoke a form of Afro-Asiatic I had heard before, so I didn't need to learn the language.

"It is almost December twenty fifth, the day Jesus was born! Our town is where he was born, you know." Grace seemed to be very proud of her town's history. I had no idea whatsoever about what she was talking about.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about."

She looked quite put out.

"We have several bards who are going to be telling the story to the young ones. Would you like to listen?"

"I would love that."

The little town was beautiful, the only lights coming from small torches and the moon. The houses were small, thatched, simple cottages. The people considered dragons sacred, and the animals were everywhere. They were every shape, size and colour. For the most part, I had seen all these dragons before (much like large cats, and varying shades of yellow and orange to blend in with the savanna), but there were a couple I hadn't. Some seemed more like horses or donkeys, and small children were running in between their long legs, tripping over their talons.

It was pretty strange that the town was so active at this time of night; it was about midnight.

Grace took me to a building that was a bigger version of the other houses in the town, and was slowly filling up with people. They gathered around two very old men sitting cross-legged in the centre. I noticed there were no chairs, and everyone was sitting on the ground, regardless of age or rank. The man on the right beckoned Grace and I to the front of the circle.

Once everyone was seated, and no one else was coming in, they introduced themselves as Fable and Poe, two brother bards who had lived in Bethlehem their whole lives.

"We are here to tell you the story of Jesus Christ."

"You've most likely heard of him before, but have you heard the whole story?"

Fable chuckled.

"Well you are tonight! Since it's Christmas eve, Poe and I are going to tell you about what happened in this little town so long ago, when we were kids." The men paused to gather their thoughts, then started weaving a picture of a couple who couldn't have kids, and God's answer to their problem. I had heard about God, and I knew the basics, but I was unfamiliar with this story.

It sounded wonderful, a stable surrounded by animals and dragons. The later not trying to eat the former, the clear night sky that you can see all the stars in the heavens. The Kings bringing gifts to the baby Jesus, the simple shepherds with their sheep.

The bards were weaving a fairly basic story, but packing it with meaning. The point of Christmas came across in their story. It wasn't just an excuse to get things for yourself and other people, it was a celebration of the improvement of the world, and taking comfort in each other.

When they finished their story, everyone left for bed, yawning and sighing. A couple of them had fallen asleep, probably having heard the story quite a few times, but just imagine how the bards must feel, having to tell the story over and over and over.

"Heh heh, we really put them to sleep that time, eh brother?"

"Just as well. They need to be asleep for their parents to place their gifts under the tree."

Grace led me out into the streets, so we could watch the dragon-fire show. Most everyone had gone to sleep, but all the dragons were flying around far above the town. With a loud woosh, a large green dragon breathed fire into the sky. I had never seen a dragon with a red flame; all dragons (except Selena) had orange or yellow fire.

All the dragons were shades of green, red, blue, or yellow, and their fires were respectively coloured.

"One day a year, the dragons that live around here can light up the sky like this. God gave them the ability to have coloured fire this one day, to celebrate the birth of His son."

I saw a burst of purple fire among the reds, blues, yellows, and greens and smiled. Selena had made some new friends.

My time spent in Bethlehem had taught me something about people and their nature. These people had so little. Houses that looked to fragile they could be blown over in a heartbeat, few possessions, yet they were happier than quite a few nobles and royalty I had met. Some people could be selfish, greedy, and everything bad. But with special circumstances, they could do really good things. Over the years, I saw the effects of Christmas. Christmas was people being drawn together through music, festive decorations, and the One who started it all. Over the years, some people forgot the point, but the underlying feeling and mood was there.

…

When I finished my story, quite a few vikings were asleep, but I think, or hoped, that my story had gotten across. Snotlout seemed to have gotten it, and so did most of the other people who were awake.

"I guess the point of that story was to tell you about what is hands down the best holiday out there. Do you want to do something similar here?" I directed the question at Stoick. Most of the vikings were shaking themselves awake.

"That was an interesting story, Jacinda. I think it would be a wonderful thing to celebrate, but the whole tribe needs to agree."

Hiccup raised his hand.

"Yes, Hiccup." Stoick acknowledged.

"Other than giving people gifts and celebrating the birth of God's son, what is involved?"

I thought for a few seconds. "Decorations. An evergreen tree with all sorts of do-dads and whatsists on it. Food, a lot of it. And I think we could pull off a dragon show like they did in Bethlehem."

Another viking raised her hand. Ethel, the one that Snotlout figured had to shave her beard.

"If this 'Christmas' is such a big deal, why doesn't Thor or Odin celebrate it?" Everyone, who had been whispering to each other, fell silent.

"That, I don't know. Gods are different in all religions. But you don't have to believe in God to celebrate Christmas. It's not about any God in particular, just being together with those you love." Ethel snorted and walked out.

"Don't mind her. She's always grumpy in the winter." Stoick rumbled.

…

In the end, most of the vikings were actually interested in Christmas. Snotlout and his family, the Twins and theirs, Fishlegs, Astrid, Hiccup, Gobber, Skullette (who had left with Tuffnut early in my story), and quite a few others.

The children were having vicious snowball fights with their dragons, which was interesting to watch, because a snow ball would hit a dragon, and melt. Dragons can make snowballs alright, but they have to be quick about it.

It was Christmas eve now, and Spitelout, Snotlout's dad, had insisted on dragging the big evergreen back to the village, even though I could've done it in a heartbeat.

I was showing some of the kids how to make tree ornaments out of pinecones, when Snotlout grabbed me by the arm and dragged me outside.

"Whoa there! What's going on?" I asked him. He glanced back with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"You are taking a break. You haven't stopped going since last night."

I told Fishlegs to watch the kids making ornaments; they were putting tree sap in each other's hair.

Snotlout and I ended up in the forest, about two hundred metres from the village. I won't go into detail, but there was much lip locking. After a while, I pushed him off.

"What brought this on?" I smirked

"Merry Christmas." He laughed in my ear, and kissed me again. I rolled my eyes and pushed him off again, heading back towards the village.

"Come on, loser. We have things to do." I grabbed his hand and kissed him on the cheek.

…

The hall looked great; the tree was sparkling with shiny bits of metal dangling from the branches, and an army of pinecone people hanging on all sorts of weird angles.

Selena had spent her day teaching the dragons of Berk how to do the flying routine the dragons of Bethlehem did, and she said they had it down as well as was possible. Now came the hard part.

I placed my hands on Fire's nose. "Here goes." I focused my energy on the dragon's inner fire, tweaking the chemistry of it. The dragons of Bethlehem somehow naturally did this, but I had to do it manually. Making a dragons fire turn green was tricky, but I did it. I moved through the dragons, making adjustments to their fire. Their owners had given me permission to do this, and were standing by their side, making soothing sounds to their dragons.

When I was done, Selena led the dragons who had their fire turned blue, and led them in a sweep across the sky as they breathed their coloured fire into the sky. Fire led the dragons with green fire perpendicular to the blue-flamed dragons. Toothless led the red dragons in a swirl up to where the two other colours crossed. With the help of Selena, I held the fires in place as they were spewed by the great reptiles, so at the end of it, we had a pillar of red flame, with blue and green fire trailing off in a big X from the red. Selena created a glob of purple fire where the colours intersected.

The vikings cheered, and even Ethel, who had been opposed to the idea of Christmas, smiled a bit.

After that, the fire faded from the sky, and the dragons did several more patterns, ending with a multi-coloured star.

Once that was done, we had a feast, and managed to finish off the bear meat from Tasma's attack on Berk.

"I told you so!" I said, elbowing Snotlout in the ribs. Earlier, I bet him that the meat the bears had supplied us with wouldn't last until winter.

…

The next day, Christmas day, all my friends and their families gathered at my house, bringing packages for each other.

Skullette and Tuffnut looked like they had been wrestling in the snow, and dripped all over my floor. I raised an eyebrow at Skullette.

"Really? Really?"

They both looked sheepish, and shook themselves off outside.

"Sorry about that. But hey, the snow was just begging to be romped in!" Skullie exclaimed, Tuffnut nodding vigorously beside her.

"Wow, Skullette. I'm impressed! He hasn't said one word since he got here!" Ruffnut said with a smirk.

"If this wasn't Jacinda's house, You'd be so dead." Her brother stated.

"I don't care, just don't break anything, and no blood on the floor." I said.

We all gathered in my living room, the parents sitting on the available couches and chairs, the teens fighting over who got the last remaining love seat, Hiccup and Astrid winning because Hiccup was a 'cripple.' He handled his disadvantage rather well, I'd say, but I didn't fight it.

Among chatter about whether or not a dragon could fight a giant bear one-on-one, everyone handed out their presents.

The parents all got various weapons, like Stoick, who got a new axe from Hiccup to replace the one he'd lost in the forest a few weeks ago. Fishlegs got a new set of charcoal sticks and paper, along with a pair of nerdy glasses from the twins, because they said he'd need them if he kept up with his 'nerd-ness.' The Twins each got a spear, and they got shields that had identical skull designs on them, except the Ruffnut's skull design had spiked necklaces. Hiccup got a new helmet (one NOT made out of an old breast plate) and a light rapier. Astrid was given a new sharpening rock with a shmancy handle, and a new pair of boots. Skullette squealed over her new fang necklace and sword, and rushed outside to show Andrae. Snotlout, thankfully, got some new clothes; his old ones were getting too short. He also go a new chest protector. I got a saddle (I'd never used one before) and a necklace with a single painted wood rose. That came from Snotlout, and was possibly the best thing I'd ever gotten.

I gave everyone miniature sculptures of themselves and their dragons, and they all seemed pretty happy with them.

"Thanks so much, guys!" I said, waving everyone off as they waded behind Fishlegs and Stoick to take the easy path home. Snotlout gave me a hug and a kiss before he ran off and tackled his dad from behind. Within a couple minutes, everyone was caught up in a wrestling match in the snow. Then the dragons joined in. Selena sat down beside me on the front steps, and we rolled our eyes at each other.

First Christmas