Beep! Beep! Beep!

Emmet opened his eyes. A broad smile stretched across his face as he threw off his dark blue blanket and silenced his alarm clock. Yawning, he leapt out of bed and stretched his arms up to the ceiling.

"Good morning, apartment! Good morning, ceiling! Good morning, floor!" He went over to the window and threw the shutters open. "Good morning, ci-"

His jaw dropped. Swirling through the air were sparkling white studs. And the streets, the tops of buildings, the cars - everything was covered in sleek sheets of white.

Emmet blinked a couple times and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't just seeing things. He stared a little while at the sparkling city before him, comprehending. "It's snowing..." He gazed a few moments longer. And then his former smile returned, wider than before. "It's snowing!"

He closed the shutters quickly and ran to the bathroom. He finished showering and dressing in record time - thirteen seconds - and had snacked and was running out the door in seven more seconds.

Frosty air met his beaming face as soon as he bounded outside. Most of the citizens of Bricksburg were outside too, frozen in place, staring at the phenomenon happening all around them. A few, though, were already moving around and using the snow for their own form of amusement. For instance, Ice Cream Mike and Ice Cream Jo were collecting the falling flakes to create snow cones. A group of children were packing the piles of snow into balls and throwing them at each other. One person was busy building an entire army of snowmen in his front yard.

Soon, everyone else recovered from their momentary shock. Many of them went back inside to put on warmer clothing, then returned outside to chat with each other. Some wondered aloud what was going on, others expressed delight in the change of weather.

Emmet hurried down the sidewalk, waving at his neighbors as he zipped by. They happily returned his greetings, occasionally throwing in a comment or two about the snow. Emmet responded with brief remarks, glad to talk with his neighbors but too much in a hurry to stop and chat for long. He wanted to find his friends, whom he had earlier planned to meet with for breakfast that day, as quickly as possible. Hopefully the snow hadn't hindered their arrival.

The snow made running much more difficult than usual, so the construction worker soon had to pause to catch his breath. He stopped at an intersection, where he noticed a familiar face in the middle of the street. Because the traffic lights were broken - probably due to the snow - Good Cop was directing the cars this way and that. Unfortunately, it appeared that he was having a difficult time doing so.

Emmet waved at him. "Good morning, Good Cop!"

Good Cop looked at him, smiled, and waved back. "Hi, Emmet!"

One of the drivers must have mistaken the cop's wave as a signal to move, because they came forward while another car was turning. The startled cop leapt away in time to keep from getting hit, but not in time to avoid getting grazed. The two cars collided behind him as he fell face-first in the snow.

Emmet cringed. "Oops, sorry!"

When the police officer lifted his head, the construction worker saw, instead of a pair of rounded spectacles, a pair of cold, impenetrable silver shades. Bad Cop growled at him, got up, and furiously kicked the two cars - whose occupants had fortunately vacated - out of the street.

Emmet wisely chose to take a different route.

After pacing down a couple more blocks and turning a few street corners, Emmet found his friends in front of a small diner. There was Benny, wearing a new blue scarf and contentedly floating along with the gentle breeze. Unikitty was also wearing a scarf, this one with a rainbow design. Standing in between them, looking up at the sky, was the black-clad girl of his dreams. Her hood was pulled over her head.

"Hey, guys!" he cried to them, grinning.

The trio turned towards him. They all smiled and shouted some form of "Hi, Emmet!" back to him.

When he reached the group, Lucy met him with a warm embrace. When she pulled away, Emmet spent the brief pause to admire her bright-eyed, smiling face, which he longed to see every day.

"Lucy, what's going on?" he asked.

"I don't know," she admitted, shrugging. "It's never snowed in Bricksburg before!"

"But it's so pretty, isn't it?" Unikitty chimed, sparkles appearing in her large eyes. "It reminds me of vanilla ice cream!"

"I love the snow!" Benny commented, drifting back onto the ground. "I can use it to build snow-spaceships!"

Suddenly, Emmet heard a familiar, friendly moaning. His attention was drawn to the cloudy sky, where a white ghost holding a lollipop stick was floating down.

"It is I, Ghost Vitruvius," the figure announced. "Woo-ooo-oooo!"

"Hi, Vitruvius!" Emmet greeted.

"Hello, Emmet." He continued to descend until he was only a few bricks off the ground.

"Vitruvius, do you know what's happening?" the construction worker asked.

The ghost gestured to the sky with his staff. "It's snowing, my dear Emmet."

"Well...yes, but why?"

"Why, it's Christmas time."

"What? Already?"

"It's the month of December, dummy," came a deep, raspy voice.

Emmet whirled around and saw Batman hanging upside-down from the bannister of the restaurant, an unimpressed frown on his face.

"Hey, Batman!" Unikitty called, bounding a few studs closer to him. "How have you been?"

He shrugged. "Could be better."

When he added nothing else, Unikitty said, "What have you been up to? Fight any bad guys lately?"

"Nah; I already kicked all their butts a few months ago. I've been busy working a new song. I finished it this week."

"Ooh, really?" Her eyes shone like glistening pools. "I'd love to hear it! What's it called?"

"'Jingle Bells'."

Unikitty cocked her head at him, confusion written all over her face.

"But hasn't that song been written already?" Benny asked, one eye narrowed.

"Not my version of it," Batman replied, smirking slightly.

Emmet turned back to the wizard. "But it's never snowed before, even during Christmas time. Why is it snowing now?"

Vitruvius shrugged. "Perhaps the Man Upstairs just wanted to do something different this year."

Just then, the jumbotron built into a skyscraper towering high above the little shops flickered to life. On the screen was the grinning face of President Business.

"Hello, everybody!" he greeted, waving. "I have an important announcement to make: due to this totally unanticipated weather condition, we're having an important meeting in Downtown Bricksburg. It starts in about twenty seconds, so if you think you can make it, please come. If not, stay at home and watch it on tv. Alright? Good! Until then, ciao!"

With that, the screen shut off. Everyone looked at each other.

"Anyone interested in going?" Emmet asked.

They looked at each other again.

"I don't see why not," Benny finally said. "It might even be useful."

"Yeah," Batman replied sarcastically. "Maybe he'll teach us how to build snowmen or knit pretty sweaters."

"Ooh, that'd be so fun!" Unikitty squealed, earning a groan from Batman.

"Alright then," Emmet said. He started walking. "Let's go!"

Benny, Unikitty, and Lucy followed after him while both Vitruvius and Batman vanished elsewhere.

After the allotted twenty seconds, the group reached their destination. In the center of the downtown district a platform was set up, on which President Business stood. A large crowd had gathered below him, like a huge wave pushing up against the structure's brown bricks. They were shouting questions, most worried about transportation and work, others merely curious about the sudden weather change, and a few ill-tempered citizens threatening to riot if Octan didn't do something about the blocked roads soon enough.

The professional smile that President Business had worn on television had long-disappeared, replaced by a nerve-wracked cringe. He waved his arms repeatedly up and down in an attempt to calm the storm.

"Everybody, calm down!" he urged. "I know, this seems all new to you, but don't panic! The snow is not dangerous!"

A snowball smacked the president in the side of the face, briefly knocking him off balance. Most of the cold white substance slid off his face, and what was left of it was burned away by his fury.

"OKAY, WHO THREW THAT?! WAS IT YOU, PHIL?!" He pointed accusingly at a man wearing glasses. Then he pointed to the man holding a red coffee mug next to him. "OR WAS IT YOU, CHRIS?!"

Both of them shrugged, although Phil appeared to be holding back a wide smile that ached to explode across his face.

Business groaned in an exasperated sort of way, lifting a claw hand to his forehead as if to quell a headache. "Look, I'll get a few snow sweepers to clear all the streets. It will take some time, but it will get done, and all I'm asking is that you all be patient. Think you can do that?"

By this time, Emmet and his friends made it to the front of the crowd.

"Do you even have a snow sweeper?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, since it's never snowed before, why would you have one?" Phil added.

Business full-on glared at the two, looking like he was about to explode again. "Well, it wouldn't be that hard to get one, now would it?"

"So you don't have one," Chris concluded.

Emmet decided to intervene before the president lost it. Quickly, he raised his hand. "Don't worry, President Business! We can help you build one!"

When Business saw the construction worker, his countenance brightened with an elated smile. "Oh, Brickowski! I didn't even see you there!" He made a sweeping motion with his arm over the group of friends. "You see, everyone? We've got a talented team of Master Builders that could make a whole army of snow sweepers!" Momentarily quirking his brow, he asked them, "How long do you think it would take you to make, say, a dozen?"

"Oh, that's easy!" Lucy replied, grinning confidently. "Just give us a pile of bricks and we'll have a dozen sweepers in seconds!"

"Wonderful! I'll get some bricks to you right away! So don't worry, everyone," he turned back to the crowd, "with Brickowski's and his friends' help, we'll have all the streets cleared off before you know it! In the meantime, I'll organize the Octan Snow Emergency Committee. They will be in charge of the snow sweepers and the like. If you guys run into any other problems with the snow, they're the ones whom you will be able to give a call."

The people whispered in satisfaction. Business took a deep breath, relieved, then ran his claw hand down the paper on his podium. "Hmm... Well, that pretty much covers all I wanted to say. Are there any questions or concerns?"

"Uh, yeah, when are we gonna have the next election?" Phil inquired.

Business looked at him incredulously. "Alright, you know what, Phil? I'm just going to ignore you for the rest of this meeting."

Someone raised their concern about the possibility of the snow trapping them in their home, but Emmet soon lost interest and started daydreaming, particularly about Christmas. Faint recollections of Christmas memories rolled through his mind, though it was hard to differentiate between them. All of them looked very much the same. During Business' tyrannical reign, his Christmas Days were usually spent at home with Planty, watching movies and sipping hot chocolate, especially since all his construction worker pals seemed too busy with their own plans to visit him.

But this year was different. This year he had true friends. He smiled to himself, absolutely sure that this Christmas would be an amazing one.

So why not do something a little extra special this year?

Emmet tuned back into the conversation, which Business was neatly wrapping up. When he was finished, Emmet raised his hand.

Business immediately gave him his attention. "Yes, Brickowski?"

"I was just thinking that Christmas is coming soon, and that, well, in the past years, we haven't decorated that much for Christmas. I mean, I remember a couple wreathes on a few doors and some lights on a few houses here and there, but we haven't really done much. But I think it'd be a lot of fun if we did more. So... why don't we decorate the entire city this year? We can decorate our houses, workplaces, and even the trees, lampposts, mailboxes, and whatever else we can find!"

Business stared at him for a moment, then tapped a claw hand on the podium. "Well-"

"That's a great idea, Emmet!" Lucy exclaimed, eyes bright with anticipation of the proposed plan. "It would be a super fun project that everyone can pitch in on! We should do it!"

Unikitty did a little spin, sparkles flying all around her. "We could string up all sorts of pretty, colorful lights! And ornaments! And ribbons!"

A wave of agreement rippled through the crowd, small at first, then growing in intensity. Everyone chattered excitedly amongst each other, already coming up with their own ideas and shopping plans.

The president's face lit up with alarm, however. "Whoa, hold on! Wait a minute!" The crowd quieted slightly, enough that everyone could hear Business clearly. "Don't you know how much Christmas decorations cost? To even start getting just this avenue spiffied up, we would need at least three hundred dollars. And don't even get me started on the city park-"

"Oh, come on, President Business!" Unikitty begged, her eyes adopting a puppy-dog look. "It would be sooooooooooo much fun!"

"Yeah, it would!" Benny affirmed, smiling enthusiastically. "It's a great idea; I say we do it!"

The crowd cheered.

"We'll decorate the city and make it super-duper PRETTY!" Unikitty declared, prompting the people to holler all the louder.

The president lifted his hands in protest, eyes narrowed with frustration. "Doesn't anyone care that city funds are negative six hundred dollars? We don't have the resources to undertake such a project like that!"

Batman suddenly appeared behind him, hanging upside-down. "Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to KraGle-ize everything, there would still be some money left."

Business turned around to shoot the Caped Crusader a glare, who only smirked back at him.

"Uh..." Emmet tapped his chin, thinking hard. "Well... what if everyone made their own contribution? I'm sure that if everyone chipped in a little bit, then funding wouldn't be a problem. Right everyone?" he asked, turning to the crowd.

The people shouted in the affirmative.

"Whatever you say, Special!" Phil yelled.

President Business looked down at the top of the podium, his brow creased in thought. After a few moments, he redirected his eyes to Emmet. "Alright, Brickowski. If everyone can take care of the decorations without city funding, I'll allow whatever kinds of Christmas decorations you choose on whatever public property you want."

A happy cheer erupted from the crowd.

Emmet gave the minifigure equivalent of a fist pump. "Awesome! Thanks, President Business!" He faced the citizens. "Alright, everybody! When this meeting is over, let's get started by grabbing some decorations and putting them up all over our houses and workplaces! Once we're done with that, we'll each contribute to decorating the rest of the city! We'll have Bricksburg ready for Christmas in no time!"