"Fentons!" Jack shouted, kicking the door open, "We're back! And we got the stuffing!" he dropped the box. The inside of the house was nicely decorated, the satellite on the roof preventing much from being done on the outside. The Christmas tree was set up in the living room, decorated with white lights, bulbs, bells, and other ornaments. The tree was a bit short, dry and scraggly, but the decorations worked wonders. An old, authentic reef was hung on the door. The berries had had to be replaced with fake ones years ago and the needles were sharp and a bit brown but it wasn't in too bad a shape. The mantle held up figures of the visit from the three wise men that Jazz had made as a project in first grade. Mistletoe was hung in a few places around the house, and Jack and Maddie had been "caught" under the plants so many times that Danny now knew all the places not to get caught under in the house. The smell of burning cookies floated in from the kitchen, and the sound of a fire extinguisher being put to use could be heard; Maddie had burnt another batch.

"That's nice, dear," she called back, "Could you bring them in here?"

"Sure thing, Maddie!" Jack grabbed his box from the ground and the one Danny had and headed into the kitchen.

"Jazz, dear, could you get out some more tinsel from the attic?" Maddie yelled.

"Mom!" Jazz was soon running downstairs, a handful of tinsel in her hand, "Don't tell me you burned another batch!?"

"I'm sure Grandma Fenton has something less…charred," Danny looked into the kitchen. Maddie was sliding the black remnants of gingerbread men into the garbage, Jack waving his hands to move out the fumes and the extinguisher smoke. Jazz was tearing down tinsel that had been scorched and re-applying it with the new tinsel from the attic. In spite of the circumstances, they really were happy; even Jazz was grinning.

'Help out,' a voice echoed in Danny's head. He really did want to; he could feel some surge in his leg, as if the signal to walk had come down from his brain…and then, without alert, an image of himself in ghost form flashed across his mind, and he couldn't go in. Instead, he threw himself down on the couch with a sigh and turned on the TV. It was times like these when he started wishing he could get rid of these powers. He flipped through the channels, trying to find something not related to Christmas. Through the view into the living room from the kitchen, Jazz caught her little brother. She'd been the only one in the house not too preoccupied to notice Danny's lack of holiday spirit. Somehow she knew it had something to do with his ghost powers, but didn't want to bring it up. He could talk about it on his own time. Still, looking at him now, she was starting to think maybe waiting for him wasn't the best idea in this case…

----

The Manson home was almost completely draped in multicoloured lights. A flashing sign read SANTA: LAND HERE, Coca-Cola snowmen were mounted on the roof around it, neon-lit elf designs were clinging to the string of traditional Christmas bulbs, and a Rudolph statue stood by the steps to the house. It was the most overdone house on the entire street. Inside was even more elaborate. The Christmas tree towered to the ceiling, a wonderful tree with full green colour and soft needles. It was elaborately decorated with rainbow lights, bulbs, and ornaments of all kinds. Artificial snow that didn't melt had been sprinkled artfully over the tree. Holly, mistletoe, pine, reefs, and all sorts of holiday plant decorations were lined up everywhere, with red bows and artificial berries planted all over them. Sam stared at the sight before her as she walked in the door from the ride home, her sisters moving past her to sit down on the couch and chat about boys, school, gifts, clothes, and "popular" things. Her dad was on the phone over a business deal on Christmas cards, her mom was cooking turkey, Grandma Manson was speeding around on her wheel chair like mad, and her brother was revising his Christmas list for the seventeenth time in the month.

'Sickening,' Sam thought to herself. It had been the same thing every year for as long as they could remember. Nothing but commercialism, indulgence in all the habits she protested against, and complete ignorance to anything but presents, TV specials, and out-doing the neighbours at decorations.

For a moment, Sam felt like saying something that would start a fight. She'd be able to take all this out on someone. She'd be able to tell them all off. And she'd finally tell them the truth. The real reason why she did this every stinking holiday…

'No,' she sighed in her head. It wasn't worth it. They never listened anyway. Without saying a word or getting any notice, she headed up to her room to watch TV.

----

By dinnertime, a thick blanket of clouds covered the sky over Amity Park and a cold, crisp breeze blew through the streets. Winter had been mild so far for the city, but people still had their coats on wherever they went. Now that it was approaching nightfall, temperatures were fading. Inside the Fenton home, however, it was toasty warm. Having given up on her cookies, Maddie had gone on to make chicken noodle soup with hot chocolate and cranberries for dinner. The family sat around the table eating quietly, the faint sounds of a Christmas CD coming in from the living room. Maddie and Jack were looking over Christmas cards from the few family members who couldn't make it up this year, so only Jazz was able to notice Danny's sulky mood. He had his bowl of soup in his hands, quickly gulping down the noodles after having finished off the broth. He hadn't cracked a smile since he came home and he'd hardly said a word to anyone. He soon set his bowl down and walked out of the room, slouching.

"Mom, can I be excused?" Jazz asked.

"Sure, dear," Maddie said lightly, not looking up. Jazz headed into the living room, where Danny had thrown his body onto the couch and was staring at the TV screen, an indifferent look in his eye.

"Hey," she said mildly.

"Hey," his voice was as hollow as his expression.

"So, uh, Danny…everything OK?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine," not even Jack would have fallen for that.

"You sure?" Jazz pressed on, though cautiously, "You seem like you have the holiday blues or something."

"I just had a rough week at school. I told you, I'm fine."

"Danny, Lancer's been hopping around in a Santa hat all week and we haven't had any homework all month," Danny sighed.

"I'm just not feeling great right now. It's no big deal…

"Yes, it is. Usually you're jumping off the walls at Christmastime! This year you've hardly spoken to anyone!"

"I told you, it's no big deal!" Danny was starting to get ticked off; did Jazz always have to do this? "I'm a bit tired, you don't have to obsess over it!"

"You're not just tired, Danny," Jazz kept going; this was serious, "You've been like this all month!"

"Yeah?" Danny stood up to face his sister, "Well it's not like you've never had a gloomy day in December before!"

"Not because of Christmas!"

"I am not acting like this because of Christmas!" Danny knew that was a lie, and Jazz did too.

"Danny, I've been watching you all week! Anything related to the holiday season and you're gloomier than the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come!" Jazz immediately wished she hadn't picked that parallel, for a dark, depressive look flickered across Danny's face at the word "ghost."

"Is there something wrong in here, kids?" Maddie's voice came from behind them. She and Jack had finished looking over the cards and had picked up on some of their children's conversation.

"Haven't you two noticed!?" Jazz cried in an over-exasperated voice, "Danny's acting all depressed again because of the holidays!"

"Danny? Depressed over December?" Jack laughed, "That's ridiculous! You've seen him at Christmastime, Jasmine. He's like frog the way he hops all over this house! No, if anything's wrong with him, it can't be over Christmas! Right, Danny?" he looked over at his son. Danny tried to get his face to look neutral, but he couldn't hide the truth; not even from Jack.

"Danny?" Jack said again, more concern in his voice, "Is it Christmas?"

"Uh…" Danny didn't want to answer, and Jack gave him no time.

"Great Scot, what's going on here!? Danny upset over Christmas!? That can mean only one thing…"

"DON'T SAY IT!" Jazz shouted without thinking, knowing the only conclusion likely for her dad to make. Too late she caught her mistake. In face of the stares she was getting, she just grinned nervously.

"What is wrong, Danny?" Maddie asked gently. Danny sighed.

"Nothing's 'wrong!' I'm just not feeling that great right now! Sheesh, you think you guys could obsess a little more every time I'm not an over-happy clown!?" that was pushing things a bit far. Jazz, Maddie, and Jack all glared at Danny.

"You watch yourself, mister!" Jack muttered.

"Danny, we're just trying to help!" Jazz said, "You've been acting strange this whole year!"

"Oh, that's great!" Danny rolled his eyes, his voice filled with sarcasm, "It's not bad enough everyone at school calls me a freak! Now my family does too! I have so much to be happy for this Christmas!" he glared at them.

"Now you have crossed a line, young man!" Maddie said, "Your sister's concerned for you and all you do is snap at her?"

"I'm fine!" Danny shouted with such force that the rest of his family drew back a bit, "Excuse me if I don't have a good Christmas for one lousy year!" and with that, Danny headed upstairs, slammed the door to his room shut, and threw himself down on the bed.

Right away he started to regret his outburst. There was no way his family could know what he was going through without him telling them his secret, but they were bound to notice that he wasn't himself sooner or later. And they'd want to try and help. He couldn't blame them or get mad at them for being a good family.

"Good one, Danny," he muttered to himself. Now Tucker's brief day as a malevolent ghost-monster ran through his mind. He threw his hands to his head. This was getting ridiculous.

One thing was sure, he thought as he lay down on his back…it was going to be a long vacation.

----

The Manson family were all gathered in the living room around the fire, a Christmas CD blasting away loudly. Sam was up against the wall in the corner of the room, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed. The cheerful holiday tunes rang hollowly in her ears, like bad elevator music played at too fast a tempo and too high a volume. She didn't even know why she was watching her family; the only reason she had come downstairs was to get something to eat. They certainly weren't doing anything she wanted to see.

Her brother was messing with some electronic thing, adding to the noise in the room. Grandma Manson, who was supposed to be tending the fire, was half-asleep. Her dad was still on the phone over a deal, her mom was reading A Christmas Carol for the eighth time, and her sisters were still talking about their boyfriends. It was still sickening.

Sam was about to go into the kitchen, get a snack, and lock herself in her room for the night when…

"Samantha, don't you want to sit around the fire for a while?" her mom asked, "It's got to be cold up in your room."

"Let her go back up," her brother piped up, "She's probably doing some creepy psycho-ghost ritual!" Sam turned around and shot a death glare at her brother, and their mother gave him a "be quiet" look.

"Why do you even ask, Mom?" one of her sisters said in a voice sounding a lot like Paulina's, "You know she never does anything for Christmas?" Sam now turned her gaze on her.

"Leave your sister alone," their mom said to the twins, "Sam, I just don't want you locking yourself in your room the entire break."

"Danny's still in town," Sam shrugged, "I was gonna hang out with him."

"What about your family?" her dad finally hung up the phone, "It is Christmas, after all," Sam sighed.

"Dad, do we have to go through this every year?" she asked, annoyed.

"I'm just worried about you. I don't want you going any deeper into that…stuff you look up than you already…"

"Dad, I dress in black and do ghost research for Danny's parents. That's all," Sam couldn't believe he was bringing this up again. She'd told him that a million times already! She was seriously considering writing to Webster's and asking them to put her parents down and synonymous with overprotective.

"You forgot hating Christmas," her brother spoke up again.

"That does seem to be where all this started, Sam," her mother added.

"Oh, what? My not being mindless social clones like them!?" Sam pointed at her sisters, "Oh, yeah! That's a big problem!" she rolled her eyes.

"No, that's not a problem, but don't you thing you do a bit…much in trying to be one of a kind? Ever since sixth grade it's been one thing after another and…"

"Do you have a point you haven't already stressed to death, or can I go get something to eat?" Sam snapped. No one seemed surprised by her rudeness; they were all used to it by now. It was a typical Manson family chat.

"Can't you at least be happy about seeing your family from out of town?" her dad asked.

"The last thing in mind for you people during Christmas is 'family,'" Sam muttered.

"What do you mean by that!?" her mother raised her voice. They'd heard all of Sam's insults before, but whenever she turned personal, the conversations always heated up.

"You all spend December shopping, obsessing over gifts, outdoing the neighbours with lights, and worrying about Dad's business is doing. That places so much emphasis on family," Sam said sarcastically.

"Sweetie, those are just holiday traditions…" her dad said.

"And they've taken over everything else about the holidays since as long as I can remember," Sam cut in dryly. Everyone stared at her in shock; even Grandma Manson had started to wake up. The way she said it, you'd think they were the reason she hated Christmas.

"Is there something you'd like to say to us, Sam?" her mother narrowed her eyes.

"No, nothing," Sam said, a bit too lightly to be believable. Everyone still continued to stare at her, and she actually cracked a smile, though a slight, sneaky one.

"You really wanna know?" she asked, still using the light tone. They all nodded, "Fine, then. You're always telling me whenever I make a decision you don't agree with, 'You used to love doing this!' or 'Come on, you used to talk with us all the time!' Do you remember what I used to be like on Christmas?" the family's faces changed from attentive to confused.

"Uh…of course we do, dear!" her dad said weakly, "You, uh…"

"I liked it," Sam went on, "I got excited over it. I couldn't wait for Christmas, just like everyone else. But here's the catch. I didn't get excited over presents, I didn't get excited over lights, and I didn't get excited over Dad's money. You want to know what I did get excited over? Everyone was always saying how Christmas is really about family and friends and peace on Earth an all that. That's what I got excited over. But year after year I noticed something odd. What was it? Oh, I don't know…maybe it was that no one in my family every stopped to care about that! Dad was either talking on the phone or away on business, Mom and the twins were working on the lights, food, presents, and the rest of that garbage, and when the twerp came around, he whined about presents. Just like the rest of the year, but worse. At least other times during the year, you occasionally made some attempts to be a family. It kept going on, year after year. Then, in sixth grade, it finally hit me," Sam now dropped her light smile and glared at her family.

"Christmas was dead," her tone went dark as well, "It got killed by commercialism years ago, and you all went with the times. So did everyone at school, on the streets, in the stores…everywhere. So I gave up. And I still say the same thing to this day. You want to know why I hate Christmas? There's your answer!" the fury in her final words was so horrible it sent a chill down the spine of everyone in the room. And with that, Sam headed up to her room and slammed the door shut, completely forgetting about her snack.

----

Danny had been lying on his bed ever since his fight with his family, not even bothering to look at the clock, but a combination of guilt and boredom forced him to turn his head towards the alarm by his bed.

"6:00" he read. He now looked out the window. It was dark and cloudy, but he knew his way around the city well enough not to get lost. He managed to fly around the streets every day; a walk wouldn't kill him. He didn't know where the idea of going out came from; likely from the desire to let off steam; but he made up his mind on it, got off his bed, and headed downstairs.

Jazz was nowhere to be seen ('Probably recording our in her memoirs,' Danny thought.) Their parents were sitting by the fireplace, gloomy expressions on their faces. Danny felt a new force to the tug of guilt in his stomach.

"Um…" he said when he'd reached them. They turned to look at him, "I'm going out."

"Where?" Jack asked quietly.

"The forest. I'll be back by ten," no one spoke for a while. The uncomfortable atmosphere was getting so thick you could cut it with a knife. Danny couldn't stand it when his parents acted this way because of something he did; no one was happy in the house for days afterwards.

"Alright," Maddie finally said, "Put a coat on," she and Jack turned back to the fireplace. Danny wanted to say "thanks," but for come reason could not. With a sigh, he walked over to the closet, pulled out his jacket, overcoat, gloves and scarf, put them on, and headed outside.

----

Sam leaned against her bed, listening to a quiet Danny Elfman CD. Her mind seemed to be filled with a million angry bees, none of them wanting to stop flying against her skull.

Well, she'd done it. She'd told her parents why she hated the holiday season. And she meant every word of it. The first twelve years of her life looking forward to December 25 every year and always seeing everything you thought would happen fall apart would be enough to get anyone in a sour mood, she thought. They were always so keen to notice whenever she was doing something that they didn't consider appropriate or, in her sisters' case, "cool," but completely ignored her disappointment every Christmas. She had been wanting to tell that to them ever since sixth grade, and had no regrets on doing so.

'Then why do I feel so lousy?' she thought. She looked up at the clock. 6:00. There was enough time to sneak out on a walk of the park. She hit the OFF button on the CD player, grabbed the coat and gloves on her bed, and looked downstairs. Her family was watching a TV special, oblivious to everything around them.

"Perfect," Sam whispered to herself, cracking a real smile for the first time in the month. She quietly tiptoed down the stairs, making not the slightest sound as she made her way towards the door. She was just about to open it when…

"You think we really did put Sam through all that?" her mother said out of the blue. Sam almost fell over in shock, but caught herself. Were they showing…regret? For something they'd done to her? For a brief instant, she considered heading back to her room. Then…

"You know Samantha," her dad shrugged, "Emotions go all over the place," Sam's glare returned. Silently but defiantly, she turned the doorknob and headed outside.

The walk to Amity Park's park was longer than one might think. Sam managed to get to and from there so fast most of the time because she usually either rode her scooter or got a lift from Danny. The walk from her house to the park bordered on an hour in time. She didn't mind, though; the longer she had away from her family, the better. As she walked her eyes caught all the lights of the Christmas decorations and lawn ornaments. She did her best not to let those agitate her even further. Finally she arrived at the park. She walked down the path until she reached the end of the park, at the edge of a cliff overlooking a small lake, as far away from her house as it was possible to go at night. She stopped at the cliff's edge, breathing in the cold night air. The air in winter always seemed to remind her of mints. She looked down over the lake. It was frozen over, a frosty ice covering all the water. Had the moon been out, it would have been beautiful to see. Now, with the clouds, it was as melancholy as Sam felt. She looked up at the sky for no reason, then back down over the lake.

She didn't know how long she was going to be out here, but she could tell it was going to be a while before she started to cheer up from this.

----

Amity Park Forest was about an hour's walk away from FentonWorks. Danny could have made it there in half that time or less flying, but he didn't mind using his legs. It gave him more time to cool off, and literally cool off. Even with his coat and scarf he could feel the cold night air nipping at his face, and he'd put his hands in his pockets because he could feel the cold through his gloves. He barely took notice of the Christmas decorations, another thing changed from last Christmas. Eventually he reached the forest, walking along the wooden path through the trees. Most of them were dead, but there were a few evergreens around. Every year Jack vowed he would go into the forest, chop down one of these 100-foot tall evergreens, and set it up in the backyard as their Christmas tree. Every year they settled for the cheapest tree he could find, and let the decorations do their job.

Danny laughed lightly to himself at the thought. It was the first good thought of Christmas he'd had in a while, and he liked it. He stopped walking to let it sink in. He took his hands out of his pockets and looked at them. His winter gloves were black and thick, but there was a stain of silver paint on his right thumb. Oh, if just for this one month Fenton and Phantom could separate and he could get on with Christmas!

Danny sighed and drew his eyes away from his gloves, instead looking up to the sky. It seemed to be getting colder, and the breeze seemed a bit stronger. Sighing again, Danny kept going. He could not have known it was not just his emotions making the weather seem colder, that, looming just less than a mile away and coming in fast, was the very blizzard that Lancer had missed the report on, its sights set on Amity Park.