"I don't understand," Castiel said, staring at the object in the corner of the room. "Why…is there an angel that does not look remotely like an angel perched on top of that pine tree?"

"Dude, it's just a Christmas tradition," Sam replied. "I don't think there really is a reason. You're supposed to put either an angel or a star on top. I think Dean thought it would be funny this year to use an angel."

"It is funny," a voice called from down the hallway. "Sammy, Cas, give me a hand with these." Dean was struggling to drag two huge, dusty crates down the hall, full of old ornaments. Apparently the Men of Letters had celebrated Christmas properly, because among all of the weapons and books had been quite a few boxes of decorations. Cas and Sam went to help Dean bring the crates into the living room.

Once they had opened the crates and stopped coughing and sneezing from the dust, they set about decorating the tree. Some of the ornaments were made of porcelain and had shattered into hundreds of sharp fragments, but the boys were careful not to cut themselves. Mostly.

Sam found some pieces of wood carved into intricate scenes, with loops of wire to hang on the tree branches. The tree was so tall that even he had to reach to place them up near the top.

Then Dean decided it would be a good idea to throw one of the shiny gold spheres at Cas. The ex-angel had been examining a snow globe depicting the oft-repeated scene of Baby Jesus in the manger surrounded by Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the angels. The ornament hit him in the head and he dropped the snow globe in surprise, spinning around. The snow globe shattered, leaving the water and tiny white glitter specks all over the floor.

"Oops," Dean said sheepishly. Cas frowned at him.

"You made me drop the decoration."

"Yeah, maybe wasn't thinking too far ahead there. Sorry, man."

Castiel knelt down next to the ruined snow globe, carefully brushing the broken glass into a pile while protecting his hand with the edge of his trench coat. Sam had grabbed a small hand-towel and tossed it to him. "Thank you, Sam," Cas said distractedly, mopping up the water. Dean offered to help, but Cas shook his head. "I've got it, Dean." The middle part of the snow globe, the scene itself, had remained intact. Once he had finished cleaning the rest, Cas picked it up. He held the wet towel full of glass shards carefully by the edges.

"Here," Dean said helpfully, "I'll take that." He took it and walked over to the trash can. "I'm just, um, gonna throw the whole thing out. It's an old towel."

"That's fine," Sammy told him. He was watching Cas carefully, who was still studying the tiny scene. "What're you looking for, Cas?"

"Nothing," Cas replied. "It wasn't snowing."

"Huh?" Dean said, walking back over into the living room and sitting down on the couch. Sam took notice of this and frowned.

"Dude, aren't you going to help us finish decorating?" he demanded.

"Nah, I might break something else. Cas, what do you mean, it wasn't snowing? When wasn't it snowing?" Dean asked.

Cas held up the broken decoration. "When he was born. It wasn't snowing. It wasn't even December."

"Hey, I actually knew that," Sammy remarked. "It was probably May, wasn't it?"

Cas shook his head. "Late April. 'Historians' got it wrong, like usual." He wasn't being derogatory, just stating facts.

"Were you there?" Sam asked curiously.

"Sort of," Cas responded. "I saw it, yes, but I wasn't actually present. I didn't have a vessel at the time; very few of us did."

"Why not?" Dean asked bluntly.

"There were fewer people. And many fewer willing to be an angel's vessel. Modern humans are much more…open." Cas gave his typical half-smile and placed the broken decoration on a shelf. "It's much more accurate without the globe and glitter, isn't it?"

Sam and Dean looked at it. "It's still broken, though," Dean remarked.

"But maybe it's better broken," Cas defended. "Can it stay?"

"Sure, Cas. We can keep it," Sam agreed.

Dean shrugged. "Not everything is the worse for having been broken."

"I'm broken," Castiel pointed out. "An angel without its grace is about as broken as you can get."

"We're all broken, really." Then there was silence.

"Merry Christmas, my friends."

Merry Christmas, my friends! Thank you for reading! My first SPN fanfic (well, second, but first published), so...I really hope you liked it. Love you all.