When Noodle woke up and pulled back her curtains to find that the entire world was covered by a thick coating of snow, she was ecstatic. Because snow could only mean one thing: Christmas was coming.

And it was that same morning that 2D was jolted awake by Noodle jumping on his bed and chanting, "Toochi, up! Snow!"

2D rubbed his eyes and glanced out the window (he had neglected to draw the curtains the night before) and said "yeah, snow! That means Christmas is coming!"

Noodle kept bouncing on his mattress while trying to pronounce Christmas, but it came out as "Ku-ris maas! Ku-ris maas!"

2D chuckled at the adorable behaviour and rolled out of bed to put on some warm clothes.

Noodle then jumped off and bounded down the hallway towards Russel's room, excited to tell him the good news.

He must have heard her coming though, because before she could knock, he opened the door tying his dressing gown and yawning. He looked down at the girl and said "good mornin' baby-girl. What gotchu all excited?"

"Snow! Ku-ris maas!" was the answer.

"Oh right!" Russel took a quick look at his calendar. "Yeah, two weeks til Christmas. I can't wait either."

"Tree?"

"Yeah, we gotta start thinking about finding a tree. And some decorations. You'd like to decorate the tree, wouldn't you?"

"Hai!"

"I don't see why we can't go lookin' for one today. You can come help pick it out too, if you want."

Noodle began jumping up and down again. "Hai! Tree! Pick tree!"

Russel laughed at her excitement. "Well, go get dressed, we'll have some breakfast, then we'll head out, okay?" He then turned back into his room and shut the door.

Noodle felt like she was going to burst. They were going to get a tree! And decorate it! She had to tell 2D and Murdoc!

Murdoc lay back in the worn leather seat in his Winnebago, a bottle of brandy in hand. The most 'festive' liquor, he thought sarcastically. You couldn't really accuse Murdoc of not getting into the spirit of Christmas, now could you?

A knock at the door had him slamming the bottle on the table, and marching over and swinging the door open to see who had ignored the "F Off" sign this time. He found himself staring into the wide grins of 2D and Noodle.

"What is it?" He growled.

"Murdoc come help find Ku-ris mass tree?" Noodle asked.

Murdoc furrowed his brow. "Wha'd she say?"

"She said tha' we're going out to get a Christmas tree today, an' if you're gonna come with." 2D clarified.

Murdoc laughed, deep and hoarse from all the cigarettes he'd smoked over the years. "No."

"Bu-" The slam of the Winnebago door shut up 2D for good.

What a stupid request that was! In fact, the whole idea of Christmas was stupid. The mental image of some old fat guy stuffing himself through a chimney and leaving behind all sorts of random crap made Murdoc instantly lose respect for those who spoke of carolling, decorating an ordinary pine tree and getting into the gift of giving. It was practically an entire religion in of itself.

Christmas was useless and a waste of money. If he'd lived this far without it, then so can everyone else.

Noodle looked up sadly at Murdoc's door and let out a sound that sounded an awful lot like a sniffle.

"Aw, don't cry, luv! It's jus' Murdoc being Murdoc! He'll join us when he's ready. But let's go and get a Christmas tree!" 2D said in an effort to cheer her up. It worked and Noodle began enthusiastically pulling on 2D's leg towards the door that would lead them back in to the studio.

Twenty minutes later Russel, Noodle and 2D piled into the car (they weren't about to take the Geep in this weather) and set off, armed with a saw, in search of the perfect tree.

As they passed by a snow-covered paddock, 2D let out a yell of "look at that one!"

Russel stopped the car the he and Noodle looked where 2D was pointing.

Near the fence by the road stood what was indeed the perfect pine tree. It would be the perfect height for the living room. Its branches were lightly dusted with snow. It stood completely straight, regal and elegant.

"Look, it's beautiful, innit?" 2D asked.

"Yeah but, that's someone's property, Dee. It wouldn't be right." Russel said.

"But they've already got one, see!" Indeed, leaning up by the door of the nearby farmhouse, was a pine tree.

"It wouldn't hurt to take it, I mean two Christmas trees is jus' being greedy." 2D continued. "An' we need one desperately." He'd added the word 'desperately' in for extra effect. It worked, as Russel sighed in defeat and said. "Fine. Get the saw."

The trio got out of the car and hopped the fence, which, luckily, wasn't electrified. Noodle stayed a safe distance back while Russel brandished the saw.

"A'ight. Dee, you hold the tree and I'll do the sawin'."

2D grabbed the top of the tree tightly as Russel got on his knees and began sawing.

Progress was slower than Russel would have liked, as his hands were frozen and the saw wasn't really that sharp. But still he kept going. 2D was, thankfully, being patient about holding the tree and Noodle was supporting them both by saying things like "you going good" and "nearly there!"

When he was about three-quarters of the way through, he heard the dreaded sound of a door slamming.

"What're think you're doing?!" A voice called.

The trio turned towards the farmhouse to see an older man stomping his foot on his porch.

"That's my tree! Mama, bring me my gun!"

Russel's heart froze when he heard that. The tree shaking meant that 2D was also scared.

"Baby-girl," he said to Noodle, "go wait in the car." Noodle obeyed. And with that, he began to saw faster than ever.

Little flakes of wood fell to the snow below as Russel frantically worked the saw back and forth, desperate to cut through the remaining trunk. His fears were elevated when he heard the door slamming again.

"Uh oh, he's got a gun, Russel!" 2D cried.

Russel didn't bother looking up. Instead his attention remained on the last little bit of wood. His palms grew sweaty, making it more difficult to hold the saw properly.

Finally, the jagged blade sliced through the trunk entirely. As soon as it did 2D was already hauling ass back to the car, Russel right behind him. 2D flung open the door and shoved the tree inside. But now there was no room for him, due to it being at an odd angle. But now was not really the time to correct it.

"Get in Dee!" Russel yelled.

"I don't think I can Russ…" 2D stopped as the drummer pushed him mercilessly into the back seat and shut the door right as a bullet zinged past his cheek.

Russel wasted no time in climbing into the driver's seat and turning the keys in the ignition and speeding away as he heard the gun crack as it fired another bullet.

Once the crazy old man and his gun were safely in the distance, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief enhanced by the smell of fresh pine and snow.

"Dee, I think it's cool that we cut down our own tree but...goddamn that was intense. Stealing a pine tree is the sorta thing I'd expect from Muds." Russel said.

"I guess you're right but that was the perfect tree and we'd never find another one like it. Plus, I didn't think that bloke would have a gun." 2D said from where he'd fallen onto the floor.

"Tree!" Noodle said from the front seat.

"Yeah, tree! Now, let's go pick up some decorations, eh?" Russel said as he turned onto the highway.

Once they reached the shopping mall in the city and found a place to park, the first thing they did was rearrange the tree so it wasn't sticking out over the top of the seat. Then they locked up and headed inside.

They first sought out a decorations store. The displays showed off bright red and gold baubles and little ceramic deer and sleighs. The shelves held glow-in-the-dark angels and light-up stars. Noodle was fascinated by all of it. Even 2D had to remind himself not to touch anything.

Seeing their stolen pine tree with a delicate layer of snow had given Russel an idea on how to decorate it, as well as the rest of Kong Studios.

"Dee, why don't you go find us some tinsel, preferably white or silver." He instructed. "Noodle and I are gonna look for some fairy lights."

They ended up buying not only the tinsel and plain white fairy lights, but several angels carved out of wood as well as some tree decorations shaped like snowflakes. Russel had even found some wrapping paper and sticky labels that also had little sparkly snowflakes on it.

"Tha's a lotta white." 2D remarked.

"I know. I thought we could have a White Christmas sorta thing." Russel explained. 2D nodded happily at the idea and Noodle kept saying "White Ku-ris maas!" in a very energetic tone of voice.

As they drove home (they sped up a bit going past the farmhouse with a tree stump sticking out of the ground) 2D said "Murdoc's not gonna be very happy about this, isn't he?"

And indeed he wasn't. When Murdoc finally emerged from his Winnebago hours later and stumbled into the lounge to find it entirely decked out in white with a blasted tree in the corner, he wasn't pleased in the slightest.

"Dents!" He bellowed at 2D, "What is the meaning of all this?!"

2D briefly glanced at him, then returned to wrapping tinsel around the tree. "Well, it's Christmas, Murdoc, and we gotta decorate…"

Murdoc then hollered something unintelligible at him until Russel walked in and yelled at him to shut his mouth before he shut it for him.

"This is for baby-girl," he said, poking a finger at Murdoc's chest. "You are not gonna ruin this for her, man. An' don't tell her that Santa doesn't exist, either. Otherwise, you'll have to answer to me. You catch my drift?"

Murdoc rolled his eyes. "Fine."

Just then, Noodle came in, holding one of the boxes of fairy lights.

"Help Noodle?" She asked.

"Of course." Russel smiled sweetly as he helped her lay the lights out in the termite-infested mantelpiece, next to some silver tinsel.

He knew she would love a white Christmas. She loved snow.

He only hoped Murdoc wouldn't ruin it for her.