Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing and make no profit. "Peter Gunn" was created by Blake Edwards and produced by Spartan Productions.

A/N: This is a series of short Christmas-themed ficlets involving Peter Gunn and Edie Hart. All the action takes place during December 1960. There will be 31 entries, one for each day of the month.

Christmas Traditions: 1960

Sunday, December 4

It was all Mary Grace Hart's fault. Why she had to have her Christmas cards in the hands of their recipients before December was barely under way was beyond him. Edie's had arrived in yesterday's mail, Mama Hart for once sending her correspondence to the place where her daughter actually lived, although she had pointedly mailed it in care of Peter Gunn's address and not the man himself. Pete coughed in an attempt to contain sudden laughter at the vagaries of the woman but was apparently unsuccessful.

"What was that?" Edie gave him a suspicious glance from across the table, then licked a four cent postage stamp commemorating the Camp Fire Girls and precisely positioned it on the top right corner of a festively decorated envelope.

"Did I scribble my name on that one?" He went back to addressing his own plain white envelope when Edie nodded her head. "I suppose I have this to look forward to every year now? Writing Christmas cards the first Sunday of December? Just because your parents mail theirs on the first day of the month doesn't make it the rule. I'm surprised Joe goes along with it."

"Mama doesn't give Papa much say in the matter."

"Figures." He reached for the pane of Christmas Seals and stuck several on the back of an envelope addressed to an old Army friend he kept in sporadic contact with.

Pete liked Edie's father, he was a no-nonsense type who knew his own mind, but there were occasions when it seemed his wife held him under her thumb. But then again Pete supposed the same was true of most men when it came to the women in their lives. After all – he paused in the act of signing his name – Edie had easily cajoled him into writing Christmas cards before he realized what hit him. He gave her a speculative look from beneath his eyebrows then continued with his task, trying not to smile, knowing he was as much a sucker for Edie as Joe Hart was for Mary Grace.

"Mama sends two Christmas cards to close family."

"What?" He raised his eyes. "Why?" And did he really want to know?

"She always sends a newsy letter with the second one."

Edie sealed another envelope and laid it on the the ever-growing pile, checked her address book and with a relieved sigh closed it and set it aside. She rested her forearms on the table and clasped her hands and looked on as Pete finished up the final few cards, admiring the manner in which he filled out his casual Sunday attire of dark gray pants, white shirt with muted blue stripes and dark blue pullover cardigan.

"I don't know how she manages it but it always magically shows up on Christmas Eve. Aunt Emilie usually sends a nice letter with her card too, all about what they're doing for Christmas and the big fish Uncle Henry plans to catch when he and Papa go ice fishing and wish you were here. But you wouldn't believe Mama's other sisters – Florence Jean, Virginia and Maureen! – they each mail out mimeographed letters on fancy Christmas stationery. It's become a competition among those three to fill everyone in on everything that happened during the year with family and friends – births, deaths, marriages, jobs... divorces..." she leaned in, widened her eyes comically and uttered that last word in a hushed voice, "...and a lot of other inconsequential gossip that everyone already knows anyway. Sometimes the letters are three or four pages long."

Pete wrote a few words on the inside of an oversize traditional card for Mother that Edie had chosen at the Hallmark store. He passed it across the table for her to add her own personal note, quite suddenly happy with the uncomplicated ease of a simple card and a sincere Christmas message. The wordiest he would get would be from Pop, who would usually fill the left-hand inside of the card with relevant tidbits of news, remind him to expect a package by Parcel Post before the big day and wish him a Merry Christmas.

Their task finally complete, Edie gathered the envelopes and straightened them into a neat stack with the larger ones at the bottom. She flipped through the pile to make sure all had stamps, two for the large ones, and that all were properly addressed and sealed. Then she wrapped them with a large rubber band she'd found earlier while rummaging through a desk drawer for an extra pen.

"There! Wasn't that easy? And wasn't it nice that we had the exact number we needed?"

"If you say so." Pete couldn't help but smile at the woman's cheerfulness. She was still in her nightgown and soft cotton robe, having earlier announced that for once she didn't plan to get dressed at all on her day off. Her blonde hair was nicely messy, her face void of makeup, she seemed more little girl than lady entrepreneur.

"I do say so, it gives us one less thing to worry about." She smiled. "One of us can drop them at the post office tomorrow or the next day.

"Who said anything about being worried?" Then a little wrinkle formed between Pete's eyebrows. "Did we send one to Barney? I don't remember seeing one." He reached for the stack, removed the rubber band and quickly shuffled through the envelopes. "There isn't a card here for him."

"He was on your list for addressing envelopes, honey."

"No – " The PI scrutinized a yellow sheet of paper torn from a legal pad. It comprised the names of people they were sending cards to as a couple. He didn't find the name of the bartender who'd been a staple at Mother's for twenty-two years before the jazz club burned to the ground. "Barney isn't on the list. For that matter neither is Leslie." He suddenly couldn't contain a laugh. "And guess who else isn't on the list?"

"Who?" Edie was definitely puzzled. Who else could they have forgotten?

"Your parents!"

More laughter escaped when he saw a look of chagrin cross her face.

"We'll need to stop by the Hallmark shop for a few more cards. I definitely wouldn't want to be anywhere within shouting distance if your Mama had to call to ask why she didn't receive a Christmas card from her one and only daughter," Pete winked.