Okay, so, every day of December, until Christmas, I'm gonna post a short story in this collection. Please enjoy! :)

A Radiator Springs Guide to Christmas

December 1st: Decorating

It was that time of year again. It was amazing how quickly December had rolled around.

Everyone was hard at work. Fillmore and Ramone were driving up and down Main Street, draping all of the lampposts in tinsel; stringing long fake pine branches, decorated with ornaments and golden bells, everywhere and even giving Stanley a Santa hat and wreath.

Over at Flo's, everyone else was crowded around the Christmas tree, singing or humming "Deck the Halls" as they worked. Most of them were deliberating where to put each ornament, candy cane and length of tinsel. Mater and Fudge, however, just stuck things wherever the heck they felt like it.

"I want to put my ornament here", Fudge announced. Each of them had a brightly coloured ornament, onto which they had written their name with a permanent marker.

"Fudge, we've already got plenty of ornaments there", Sarge pointed out. "It's gonna be too crowded. Can't you put it somewhere else?"

"But I want it there", the six-year-old insisted.

"Sarge, having a perfectly decorated tree is not what Christmas is all about", Flo reasoned, hanging up the shiny green ornament with her name on it.

"Yeah, Ebenezer Sarge, where's your Christmas spirit?" Fillmore spoke up, entering the café with Ramone. "D'you guys have any extra tinsel?"

"Yeah, right h-" Flo began, only to stop and find Mater draping Fudge in it. She laughed and laughed as she was covered from head to toe.

"I'm a tinsel mummy!" she shouted.

"Now, do me, Fudge!" Mater requested.

However, by then, Ramone had caught wind of what they were doing.

"Hey! Cut that out!" he shouted as he started to unravel Fudge. "I need that tinsel!"

Both Mater and Fudge tried to apologise, but they were both giggling too much to sound sincere. Anyway, Ramone was laughing too.

Sarge shook his hood. "Now, I see why they call this the silly season."

"Why don't you try decorating the tree instead?" Sheriff suggested.

"I've hung up ornaments everywhere I can reach!" Fudge complained.

The synthetic (translation: Fillmore approved) tree was very tall and on little six-year-old legs, there wasn't much of it that the human girl could reach. Plus, Red's ladder was occupied by Guido.

"I'll help you", Ramone offered, scooping Fudge up. She laughed with delight as he rose up on his hydraulics. With the Lowrider's help, she managed to hang ornaments much higher on the tree.

Lightning smiled. What a great sight. Everyone was working together beautifully to get ready for the holidays, everyone was helping each other.

"So, Stickers", Sally began, as though she could read his mind, "you excited for your first Christmas in Radiator Springs?"

Lightning grinned. He was already sporting a Christmas-themed paint job: his usual red with a dark green lightning bolt on either door, resembling Christmas trees.

"I am. It's just kind of hard to believe. You know, when I first arrived here, I just wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. Now, I'm celebrating Christmas with you guys. It's a little crazy."

Everyone smiled.

"And when you first arrived, we wanted to get you out of here as fast as possible", Doc pointed out. "And now, we're celebrating Christmas with you and that's a little crazy."

That got them all laughing.

"So, what were you doing for Christmas last year?" Sally wanted to know.

Lightning thought about that.

"I gotta focus!" he whispered to himself, closing his eyes, yet he could see the track perfectly in his mind. "I am speed!"

After months of training and sponsorship contracts and campaigns- most of which being done in Boston, the home of Rusty, Dusty and the Rust-Eze headquarters- Lightning was back in Dallas, where he was born and raised. While most everyone else in Texas was getting ready for the holidays, Lightning couldn't afford any distractions. By this time next year, I'm gonna be the first rookie in history to win the Piston Cup! he kept reminding himself.

People may have thought it was sad that this was how Monty "Lightning" McQueen was spending the holidays, but he kept reminding himself that there would be other Christmases. But he only had one chance to make history as the first rookie to win that glorious, golden Piston Cup.

Besides, it's not like he had anybody to share Christmas with. Most of his family were out of town. Well, it wasn't exactly true that he had nobody. Mack had actually invited him to stay in Boston with his family. Lightning gave a not exactly polite answer of, "Thanks, but no thanks." He had to get out of Boston for three reasons.

One, he wanted to focus on his training.

Two, he couldn't stand the cold there. He wasn't used to it at all, growing up in Texas.

Three, after what Carl and Oliver did to him at the Fast Track Racing Academy, he wasn't about to make friends with anybody, not even Mack.

Even so, he couldn't help feeling guilty. The very least he could've done was declined much more politely. Plus, now, as he parked there alone on the starting line, he felt a wave of loneliness wash over him. Maybe it wouldn't have been such a bad idea to go with Mack after all. He had been kind of a friend, after all.

What are you saying? Lightning scolded himself. He's not your friend! He's just gonna betray you, like Carl and Oliver. You can't count on anyone.

Determined to push those thoughts out of his mind, Lightning took off. Racing always put him in a good mood. He forgot about his loneliness for a while... At least until he drove past all of the families celebrating Christmas together on his way home.

"Not a lot", he answered honestly. "What about you? What were the rest of you doing for Christmas last year?"

Everyone hesitated as they remembered. Luigi blinked back tears, turning to look at his daughter, who was giggling as Ramone helped her up to the tree. At least she wasn't thinking about what they were doing that time a year ago...

It was Christmas Eve. The Christmas tree in the corner was beautifully decorated and twinkling. Presents were stacked neatly underneath it. There was still a faint smell of freshly baked cookies in the air. Snow fell outside the window.

Yet, inside, the atmosphere was like a funeral.

Fudge had fallen asleep in Guido's arms a couple of hours ago. Both Guido and Luigi had told the others several times that they needed to leave, so they could tuck her into bed. However, neither one of them could bring themselves to move. They all just really felt like being together. This was going to be Fudge's last Christmas in Radiator Springs, with her family. Plus, they were all expecting that any moment now, she would wake up, screaming bloody murder after yet another nightmare. The social workers' visit was over three weeks ago by that point, so they were all over the initial shock, but that still didn't mean that any one of them was happy about it.

Finally, Flo broke the silence with a sigh. "Look, everybody, I'm about as happy about this as the rest of you, but if this really is Fudge's- Fudge's last Christmas with us", she just barely managed to utter, "then let's make it a good one, okay? It's not fair to anyone if we just spend tomorrow cryin'."

Everyone agreed that they would try to be happier in the morning. It seemed important to them that if Fudge really was taken away, then they should make sure she had some happy memories to take with her.

They may have tried to do that, but they ended up failing. All anybody could really do was cry. Well, Doc and Sarge didn't cry, but everyone else did and the two of them were pretty sad as well. Sheriff tried to hide the fact that he was crying, but it was obvious that he was. Every little thing made them all cry even more. When Fudge opened her Christmas presents, when they all got together for Christmas lunch, when they all sat around drinking hot chocolate or hot oil, all they could think about was how they would never be able to do this again. When they all gathered very close together for the Christmas picture, nobody really wanted to move. They just gathered in a group hug for over an hour, sobbing. Not exactly a merry Christmas, but they knew it would be memorable.

"Gosh, that sounds awful!" Lightning exclaimed sympathetically.

"It was", Sally confirmed, trying to hold back tears of her own.

Flo noticed and gave them all a sympathetic smile. "C'mon, everybody! We don't have to start with that again. Fudge is still here. Look at her."

Luigi smiled too. "I know. These are tears of joy. I am just so happy that I still have my little angel!" With that, he started sobbing and rushed over to Fudge to give her a big hug and a kiss.

"I got the stockings!" Red announced, providing a much needed distraction. He placed fourteen soft red and white stockings, each one with the name of a resident in gold letters down on the counter. "Does everyone want to come and hang them up?"

The tree was just about complete by then, so everyone picked up the stocking with their name on it and hung it on the counter, ready for the Santas to fill them up in just twenty-four days.

"Just one thing missing", Doc reported. "The star."

"Can I put it on?" Fudge begged. "Please? I never get to do it."

Luigi frowned. "I don't want you climbing Red's ladder. You could fall." That was exactly what had happened to Ramone eleven years earlier. He'd been cooped up in Doc's clinic for a month, but fortunately, he was okay. The Fiat hated to even think something like that might happen to his little girl.

"(I better be the one)", Guido added gently.

So, he was. Carefully, he climbed back up Red's ladder and, carefully, placed the glorious, shiny, golden star on top.

"Wow! What a beautiful star!" Lightning exclaimed, having just seen it for the first time. "Much better than the angel we used to have on our tree. It was so old, it was practically falling apart."

"I'm an angel", Fudge spoke up.

"Yes you are", Lightning agreed, "but you won't want to sit on top of the tree all month."

Everyone laughed.

Then they moved back to admire the tree as a whole. It was a little overdecorated, but that didn't matter. It was still amazing and everyone, especially Fudge and Mater, were terribly proud of it.

"E bellissima!" Luigi cried.

"It's perfect!" Sally declared.

"How wonderful!" Lizzie added. "Reminds me of when Stanley and I used to celebrate Christmas together."

"I have to admit, it looks pretty good", Sarge conceded.

"I love it!" Fudge cheered. "Oh, I can't wait for Christmas to get here!"

"Come see the work we did outside!" Fillmore shouted.

They all ran outside. The Radiator Springs Christmas festivities had begun.

That will be one of the longer ones because, like I said, they're going to be pretty short.

By the way, has anybody listened to the Cars Land Christmas songs? If not, there is a link on my forum.

Please review.