"For hundreds of years historians and theologians and whatnot have been debating whether he was actually born at all and many came to the conclusion that of he was he was most likely born in June," Paris explained why Christmas wasn't about the deity anymore.
"That's what I found during my research as well," Neelix said. "Christmas was originally celebrated on Earth not because of the birth of a deity but to celebrate the rising sun. That's why it's so late in the year, during the Christmas season the sun only stays in the sky for a few hours, at least in the northern hemisphere."
"Now Christmas is about family, good food and having fun," Tom said. "And giving presents, of course." To Janeway's surprise he presented her with a small wrapped package.
"Oh, Tom, that was absolutely unnecessary," Janeway said, but she smiled, took the present from his hands and excitedly ripped it from the paper. It was a foldable plastic mug. "Thank you!"
"The look on your face is all the thanks I need, Captain," Tom said graciously.
"It's really a shame, isn't it?" Janeway asked suddenly. "That Chakotay and B'Elanna and Tuvok and all those who don't celebrate Christmas don't get any presents and don't get to see this magical tree and taste all these delicious different dishes. Neelix, what exactly is that reddish meat with the white sauce and potatoes?" The Captain pointed at one of the dishes on Neelix's counter.
"It's smoked lamb meat," Neelix said proudly. "It's replicated, the smoking process takes a few weeks and it has to be slowly boiled for about eight hours. The white sauce is called béchamel, according to the replicator, and is made with white flour, butter and milk. It's a traditional Christmas dish from the ancient Earth nation state Iceland."
Janeway tentatively picked up the plate and moved to a table, closely followed by Neelix. She took a few hesitant bites, then dug in like it was her favorite food. "It's absolutely delicious," she complimented him. Something that actually tasted good wasn't very common in Neelix's kitchen.
"You said the smoking process takes a few weeks," Harry Kim, who was standing next to Captain Janeway's table, asked. He was sporting a Christmas cap and had a string of tinsel draped around his neck. "How did they do it?"
"It's delicious, you should try some, Harry," Janeway suggested, speaking with her mouth full.
"Yeah, try it, Harry," Tom encouraged Harry as he sat down by the Captain's table with the same dish. "It's very tasty. I must congratulate you, Neelix."
"Thank you, Tom." Neelix's chest swelled with pride. "The smoking process is actually quite interesting. The meat was stripped from the bone and tightly wrapped in a net, then hung from the ceiling of smoking huts for a few weeks. The smoke was made by burning dried birch and dried sheep manure underneath the meat."
"Eww," Harry, who hadn't been eating anything at all, put his hand in front of his mouth as if were about to be sick. "Excuse me," he said and quickly left the table, quite pale.
"Well, this is replicated so there is really no actual meat or dried sheep manure involved," Neelix tried to apologize.
"Okay, seriously mom, you're making this up," Gretchen said with an obvious tone of disbelief. "There is no way any self respecting human being would ever eat anything that was exposed to the smoke of anything's manure."
"Actually, there is," Chakotay said. "In my tribe dried meat was very common and more often than not, smoke was used to speed up the process. My ancestors quickly discovered that the meat tasted differently if different things were burned, among the dried animal droppings."
"Eewww." Gretchen was so disgusted that her entire body shook. "Promise me you will never make me eat that."
"I do not understand," Edward said suddenly. "Why is using smoke from sheep manure to flavor meat any more disgusting than using smoke from wood?"
"Because it's manure," Gretchen said in that annoyed tone she sometimes used when she talked to her older brother. "It's the sheep's poop, their shit, you know."
"Watch your language, Gretchen," Chakotay said, clearly out of habit.
"I'm sorry but that's the word for it," Gretchen said undeterred. "It's sheep shit."
"I know," Edward said, still confused. "Why does that disgust you? If it makes the meat taste better and preserves it, why is it wrong?"
"Why don't we let mom continue the story?" Aliyana asked in a commanding tone that clearly meant that this was not a suggestion. Though she and Edward were only four years older than the younger twins, Aliyana, as the oldest, had a certain authority over the others and she wasn't afraid to use it. "We can discuss sheep dung later."
"Fine," Gretchen agreed, though she was obviously annoyed at her sister's command.
"Yes," Kathryn picked it up immediately to avoid a fight between her children. No matter what the topic was, Aliyana and Edward were always on the same side and Gretchen and Kolopak were always against them. "Where were we?"
"I believe you just had an epiphany that the meat you were eating was disgusting," Kolopak said.
"No, I decided that it tasted good and I ate it anyway," Kathryn said. "But I did have an epiphany about something else, a little bit later."
"How can you eat that?" Harry asked. He had returned and sat down by the Captain's table with a plate of turkey, which he didn't seem to have the appetite for.
"It still tastes good, no matter what it's made of," Tom said, with his mouth full.
Apparently deciding that it was time to change the topic, Harry asked, "So what was it like, celebrating Christmas in Indiana, Captain?"
"It was usually very white," Janeway told him. "And festive. We had it all, Santa Claus, turkey, presents, a tree, carols and lots of snow. When we were kids, my sister and I used to go out on Christmas Day and make a snowman." She didn't mention how her father wasn't always there to celebrate with them, or how much more she always missed him at Christmas or that after his death her family hadn't celebrated Christmas at all for a full five years.
"What about you, Harry?" Tom asked.
"Well, I never got presents from Santa Claus, my parents told me he was just a scam," Harry said sadly. "So when all the other kids at school were talking about all the cool presents they got from him, I could only tell them about the presents I got form my parents. I usually got very few presents, my parents weren't exactly young when they had me and their parents had passed away. They were also both only children."
"Aww," Tom said, patting Harry's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Harry. You can rejoice in the fact that you have a much bigger family now."
"Family," Janeway said, dropping her fork. "That's it. That's what Christmas is about and that's why Neelix is right, attendance should be mandatory."
"You can't force people to celebrate Christmas," Harry protested.
"Watch me," the Captain challenged him and stood up from the table. She quickly strode out of the mess hall and took the turbo lift one deck down. She stopped outside the quarters adjacent to her own and defiantly rang the door chime before she changed her mind.
"Come in," Commander Chakotay's voice sounded from the other side of the sliding doors, which opened a second later and Janeway stepped in. "Captain, what can I do for you?"
"Attendance to the Christmas party is not optional, Commander," she said commandingly. "Which means you're coming with me. Neelix has a present for you, there is a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the mess hall, a lot of good food and even better desserts."
"Captain, you know very well that I don't celebrate Christmas," Chakotay said calmly. "I see no reason to celebrate because some kid was maybe born on this day twenty five hundred years ago."
"Christmas isn't about that. It's about family and I think the crew should celebrate it as a family."
"Captain, this crew is not a family," Chakotay argued. "We've barely even become friends."
"There's an old saying," Janeway said, "that one can choose one's friends, but one can't choose one's family. We didn't choose each other but we are stuck together anyway. There's an old aunt or uncle that everyone dislikes in every family, but they always get invited to the Christmas parties because they are family and that's what Christmas is all about."
"You might be right about that," Chakotay said, "but you can't force us to celebrate Christmas."
"You don't actually have to celebrate," Janeway promised him. "Just attend the party. You'll never find out what I got you for Christmas if you don't."