Pre-Chapter AN: Before you read this, I (Kitkat) want you to know that I tried very hard to be historically accurate when it comes to different cultures. I tried to use reliable sources via the internet for this stuff and did the best I could. Now please enjoy this chapter.
The Three Seasonals' Traditions:
Before Jack became a Guardian, he spent every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with his siblings. And while Jack didn't know he had a past life, he did know the time period he'd been 'born' into as well as the usual traditions that took place during the holidays.
Families would decorate trees together, sing Christmas-themed hymns, and play in the snow all day. Then at night, regular mortal children tried to stay up as late as possible to try and catch Santa Claus (aka Nicholas St. North) while they drank hot cocoa and ate cookies.
But Jack wasn't exactly a regular teen/young adult. So he hadn't been quite sure what he'd do for his first Christmas. Lucky for him, he had met Ash and River, who had been through a great many holiday seasons during their immortal life. After all, they were a whole century older than dear Jack.
Ash had grown up in France, where they tended to have a small party at midnight on Christmas Eve. Kids would leave their shoes by the fireplace for Pére Noël (again, North) to place little goodies for her and her brothers. And there was King's Day, where a traditional pastry called Galette des Rois was made with a secret ingredient; a small fève (a porcelain figurine). Each person at the party got a small slice, and whoever's slice had the fève would be declared king and they wore a small paper crown until Christmas had ended.
Meanwhile, River was Japanese, and when he was a boy, well, Christianity was exactly allowed. His family, though, didn't live like most of the other people in Japan. They were a part of a secret religious group known to some as Kakure Kirishitan that went underground after the Shimabara Rebellion. They had to wait until it was dark and mutter their prayers under their breath as well as give their offerings to an altar that was cleverly hidden as a panel for the wall. Figurines of biblical characters, such as Jesus and Mary were disguised to look like Buddha.
River had never understood why his family had to keep their faith a secret but had followed along anyway. They weren't able to really celebrate Christmas like other countries, but he was told stories of Mr. Santa and would eagerly wait to see the infamous sleigh go past his window. River never did, but neither did any other child so he felt a little better about himself.
When Ash and River had met, they'd incorporated a bit of both their cultures. They would do the whole King's Day thing, set up an altar to pray and give offerings to their ancestors, and just laughed and talked throughout the night. When the sun rose, they then exchanged little gifts. That was their Christmas.
But then Jack came into their lives. And Jack had wanted to have a new tradition, one that included him and the stuff people in Burgess did for the holidays. So the three Seasonals put their heads together to try and think of what to change.
It didn't change too much, though. They just added the stuff Jack wanted to do to the tradition they'd already had. They decorated a tree with fancy ornaments and played in the snow for hours after they gave one another presents.
And while in France people would leave their shoes out for good ol' North, since neither RIver nor Jack ever wore shoes, Ash had never thought to practice that particular custom nor did she see fit to try and use stockings either. She was the only one who ever wore socks, so that too was pointless.
Yes, the three Seasonals, made up of two brothers and a sister, had a bunch of fun during Christmas. And they would continue this tradition for the next three hundred years.
The Four Guardians' Traditions:
Christmas Eve was (and still) is North's busiest time of the year. After a long night of delivering gifts, he usually spent the next day sleeping, which meant the Guardians usually didn't get to celebrate the holiday until December twenty-sixth.
Despite the fact that Bunny knew deep down he'd never be able to skip the festivities, every year he would try to come up with some excuse to get out of celebrating. But to North, Easter was never as important as Christmas, so the Russian saw no reason to delay Easter preparations for a day or two.
So for a little while, Bunny would have to put up with his holiday rival. It wasn't that bad, after all, Bunny always got to have as much eggnog as he could drink. Tooth would always brew a special herbal tea that didn't stain teeth while Sandy had coffee (decaf, of course) and North drank a peppermint white Russian cocktail.
Then the four of them would tell stories, some either completely fabricated or exaggerated greatly before they exchanged gifts by the fireplace. The interesting yet untrue stories would then morph into tales of fond memories, some from the past year or just some that made the Guardians think of during the holiday season.
Bunny told stories of Pookas, who every winter would gather around and tell stories just like Bunny and his friends did year after year. The Pooka warriors would brag about their victories, tell the more kid-friendly tales about their battles when the young ones were around, and just have a grand time laughing and talking.
Tooth mostly talked about memories, how her mother would brew the tea the fairy queen was so fond of, and how her father would help her find trinkets that he had hid around the house for her to find.
Sandy never really did holidays before he met the Guardians, and he didn't know many people beforehand. So he usually sat back and listened to what his friends had to say for many hours. Eventually, one of them would suggest they play charades, and Sandy would laugh whenever his friends got confused or frustrated when he won time and time again.
At the end of the night (though by that point, it was early morning), North would take them to the dining hall, where they'd have a great big feast. Once everyone was stuffed to the brim, North would partake in a traditional Russian activity; fortune-telling.
He wasn't very good at it, but the large man tried so hard his friends could never bring themselves to tell North that the card was either upside down or that he was misinterpreting the meaning.
The four Guardians only got to enjoy each other's company a few times throughout the year. But the traditions that always came with Christmas gave the four enough memories to cherish and hold onto till the next time they saw one another.
The Three Danaan's Traditions:
Scarlett couldn't remember everything about her parents and the different holidays they spent together. But if there was one day of the year she remembered better than anything, it was Christmas day.
Years later, Scarlett would finally realize why her parents insisted that she should know why they did things according to Celtic tradition. They would burn a Yule log for good luck, decorate the house with holly and ivy to keep bad spirits away, and mistletoe was for both health and magical properties.
Their tree was always called a Yule tree, with candles (plastic to avoid fires) and solar objects that represented different Celtic gods and goddesses. And there was, of course, gifts piled underneath the tree which would lay in wait for a certain redhead to open early on Christmas morning.
The night before, on Christmas Eve, the youngest of the O'Brien family would light a candle that would then be placed in the window. Her father said it was to keep bad spirits away, as they couldn't stand anything light and cheery.
But Scarlett's mother had a different explanation. It was a beacon of hope for anyone who passed by, a welcome sign for those in need. It represented the love and warmth of a home and the people who lived inside.
When Scarlett was young, she liked to believe that Santa Claus would see it and know he was welcome to come in their home, take a break from his long journey. And the second time she met Jamie, Scarlett told him about how she always lit a candle and both him and Sophie loved the idea. Of course, by that point, Scarlett's parents had both died.
Even after her parents' death, Scarlett tried to honor their memory by doing what they did every Christmas. She found holly, ivy, and mistletoe and covered as much of the orphanage as she could. She'd light a small candle and place it in the window right by her bed, and she would sometimes pretend it would guide her parents' spirits to Scarlett.
While two of the immortals known as Danaan died, one still remained. Scarlett lived on and continued her family traditions. Then she passed them onto Jamie, Sophie, and the other Burgess children. So in a way, there were still three Danaan left in the world.
The Seven Dwarves- I mean, Kids' Traditions:
Jamie, Sophie, Pippa, Cupcake, Monty, Claude, and Caleb all had little things that their parents did differently around the holidays. But for the most part, it was all the same.
Mid-November, they would all write their letters to Santa Claus as a group and compared what they wanted with each other before they gave their lists to their parents to send to dear ol' Saint Nick.
After weeks and weeks of waiting and waiting, Christmas Eve would finally arrive. Jamie and Sophie always drank hot chocolate and watched funny Christmas movies, like Rudolph, Elf, Frosty the Snowman, etc. Then Scarlett would always call to talk to Jamie and Sophie right before they were supposed to go to bed.
But once their parents were asleep, Jamie and Sophie would sneak down to the living room and sit on the couch right by the fireplace. Beforehand, Jamie always passed out walkie-talkies to his friends the day before Christmas Eve as part of their 'mission' to stay awake and catch Santa Claus. They'd even gave themselves code names, for whatever reason, so they felt more like spies.
Jamie was Mr. Believer (because he believed in everything), Pippa was Snow (because of her white hat), Claude and Caleb were Things 1 and 2 (because they were twins and weren't very creative), Monty was Bravestone (kid liked to pretend he was brave) and Cupcake was Filly (like a horse). Sophie had none because Jamie only had six walkie-talkies, and the twins already had to share. To make her happy, Jamie called her the Hoppy fairy (combined her love of bunnies that hopped and fairies). Not that it mattered, because the Hoppy Fairy was always the first to fall asleep every Christmas Ever
Unfortunately, the children weren't aware that Sandy was hard at work every Christmas Eve to keep children (and parents) fast asleep so North would never get caught. One by one, each of the children felt their eyelids grow heavy as they drifted off to sleep.
While they were each disappointed that their mission was a bust, all of the Burgess Bunch were way too ecstatic when they got to rip off the wrapping paper of gifts they all got to open. After a morning packed with excited yelling and exhausted parents, the children went outside to play in the snow.
Jamie and Sophie would meet the others in the park, and it wouldn't be long until they had started to throw snowballs at one another. Their tradition wasn't that different from most of the children in the world, but to the seven children who lived in Burgess, it was special and something only they shared.
The Fifteen Friends' Traditions:
After the events of the Rise of the Guardians movie, Autumn's Orphan, and Bunny's Springflower, it was safe to say that a new Christmas tradition was in order.
Ash suggested that the Seasonals go to her cottage on Christmas Eve, especially since the Guardians would be busy that night anyway. Before they did that, though, they dropped off small gifts for North to deliver the Burgess kids along with his usual presents.
Then Ash, River, and Jack did everything they usually did but made sure to put holly, ivy, and mistletoe all around the house. Since Scarlett was the youngest of the group, she still got to light the candle and put it in the window like she always did. While they ate Galette des Rois, they took turns telling Christmas stories from their mortal lives, and some from when they were immortal (except Scarlett because she had none).
And though it was meant to be a joke, they put up stockings Mother Nature made for each of them for North. It wouldn't be until morning that they realized North had left little gifts in the stockings, and left four neatly wrapped gifts under the tree that stood out from the ones the Seasonals had wrapped.
After they opened their presents from one another (and the ones from North), Ash transported them to Burgess to play with the kids in the snow. Scarlett got to introduce Ash, River, and Jack to Mrs. Bennett, who gave them each a handful of cookies.
Then after some thank you from the children, Jamie and his friends gave their gifts for each of the Seasonals along with some small packages that needed to be delivered to the Guardians.
That afternoon, Jack and Scarlett received a summons to the North Pole. Along with Ash and River, they arrived in the main room where Bunny, Tooth, Sandy, and North awaited them with even more gifts.
The Seasonals couldn't remember the last time they had gotten so many presents in one day, or heard so many stories from their new Guardian friends. Jack's stomach hurt by the end of the night from all his laughing, and Scarlett couldn't remember the last time she'd had so much fun just listening to her friends' adventures.
Bunny and North argued over who could tell the best story, but at the end of the night, they were just happy to have such an enthusiastic audience. And Tooth was over the moon because finally, she wasn't the only female in the group. Her, Ash, and Scarlett got to joke about things the guys didn't understand, something the men had gotten to do for centuries with their jokes going completely over Tooth's head.
And Sandy...well, finally, he had people who were actually good at charades, like Scarlett and Jack. It made things an interesting night, to say the least. Though the mistletoe made it even better, especially when Phil took pictures of poor Bunny and Ash, as well as Jack and Scarlett, all of whom got trapped beneath the mistletoe.
Had April Fools been there, then all of the Seasonals would have most likely gotten their pictures taken. Lucky for River, she had been too busy to join the group.
Later that night, they all ate as much as they could at North's feast before they saw him try to tell their fortunes. Scarlett wasn't sure if she believed it or not, but with how dramatic and serious North acted, it made Scarlett think that maybe what he said would come to pass. The others didn't, but they did appreciate the effort North put into the fortune-telling act.
If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's this; traditions don't change, or stop, just because you have more people in your family than you did the year before. They merge together and evolve into something new, something better.
Okay, enough with the sappiness. This chapter is getting a little too sweet for the Author, so let's just say the Guardians had a merry Christmas.
If you (the Reader) don't celebrate that holiday, that's okay. The Man in the Moon knows this and respects all the different winter holidays. Or if you don't celebrate anything, he respects that too. He does want to ask that you don't leave a review complaining about the name of the holiday the Author chose to use for this one-shot.
North called it 'Christmas' in the original ROTG movie, so the Author is just going off of that and isn't trying to exclude anyone. And the Man in the Moon hopes that you (again, the Reader) understands that.
AN: I know it's been well over a month or two since I updated and I'm sorry again. Finals came up so I had to wait until they were over before I could post this. But hey, at least it's the holidays so this one-shot is more relevant. Merry/Happy whatever holiday you celebrate if any and a happy New Year!
- Kitkat Out!
