Written by IwRiTe4yOu (lucifers-otp)
"So, Kevin has locked himself in his room like the teenager he is, and Crowley is having too much fun baking, so making the wreaths and decorations is just up to us bitches," Charlie grinned at her adopted brothers and plopped bags upon bags of craft stuff on the table in front of them.
"Where are Gabe and Cas?" Sam asked.
"They went M.I.A. early this morning. I've been calling for 'em but so far I've got nothing." Dean explained. "Lord knows where they are and what they are doing."
"Which leaves making everything up to us!" Charlie smiled. The brothers groaned until Charlie smacked them over the head.
Charlie placed seven wreaths out on the table as the boys went through the different bags dragging out tinsel, foam snowflakes, plastic birds, glass baubles and other extravagant trinkets. Charlie gave them a brief seminar on how to fluff the wreaths and the 'art' of decorating it. Dean was in charge of his, Cas's, and Kevin's; Sam was doing his and Gabe's; Charlie was doing hers and Crowley's.
"The glass bulbs are for a different decoration so don't use them on the wreaths," Charlie explained as they started. "Otherwise, you can use anything you want and everything we don't use will be added to the rest of the decorations for the house!"
With those little pieces of direction, they got to work. Charlie was skilled in the art seeing as she had done it before when she was a little girl. She had tinsel wrapped around one and had hidden random plastic birds throughout the other. She was working the snowflakes in and a couple of plastic red bulbs that she had found. She had hoarded a few strings of small rainbow presents that she seemed to be mumbling to herself trying to figure out how to use.
Dean spent quite a bit of time staring at his three wreaths before just grabbing a bunch of ornament and placing them around the wreath 'skillfully'. He added a mistletoe on one of them, which he swore to Sam, "It's Kevin's". But his red face had his two siblings convinced otherwise. He mumbled profanity at them as he placed a red and green ribbon bow on a different wreath and searched for more decorations.
Sam was finishing up a rather majestic looking wreath. There were two birds facing each other up at the top and he had tied two bells on the top that hung directly in the center of the wreath and rang when it was moved. He placed a shimmering golden bow down at the bottom and wove some vines and flowers around the edges of the wreath adding a snowflake in every so often.
Charlie glanced over and nodded approvingly, "You're a natural Sam."
Dean huffed at the lack of appreciation for his work causing Sam to chuckle. Soon everyone in the room is laughing.
"What are we doing?" Sam asked, "Seriously? Two life-time hunters, a hunter in training and we're making wreaths to decorate and celebrate for Christmas?"
"Not to mention," Charlie interjected, "That they two hunters are in intimate relationships with their guardian angels, and they live with a prophet of the lord and an ex-demon."
"I don't think any of us qualify to get on Santa's 'nice list'. Should we even be celebrating Christmas?"
"There's more to Christmas than just Santa and presents Dean. Christmas is to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus and it's a great time to get together with family and appreciate each other's company."
"Although," Charlie spoke, "Baby Jesus wasn't really born on Christmas day, his actual birthday would have been more of in early fall."
Dean playfully glared at her and teased, "Thanks for ruining Christmas Charlie. What's next? Are you going to tell me that Santa isn't real too?"
The three of them laughed and stopped questioning the universe, going back to working on their wreaths. After an hour or so they all stepped back to admire their work. Dean's looked hastily thrown together, Sam had two masterfully crafted holiday wreaths, and Charlie had two festive and colorful wreaths.
"These will go on everyone's bedroom doors. It'll decorate the halls and the rooms!"
They stacked all of the wreaths on a table just as a flutter of wings came in behind them. Gabriel and Cas stood there looking pleased with themselves.
"Where have you two been?" Charlie demanded, "We already finished making the wreaths."
"Calm down Red." Gabriel soothed. "We brought extra decorations, but we can't give them out until everyone gets out here."
Half an hour later Charlie had forced the other two occupants of the house to sit civilly in the same room. Cas and Gabe were standing by the fireplace holding something behind their backs.
"We were going to wait until Christmas to give these to you," Cas explained, "But we thought it through and Christmas would be so much better with these decorating the halls."
They slowly brought their hands around; each of them had a few glass ornaments in their hands. Some were picture frames with borders that just had Christmas related words; some were picture frames in the shape of a snow globe, or a sleigh. They handed them out one by one.
"They are built so that each one can connect to your wreath," Cas continued. "We've been in heaven collecting the pictures we needed. These are all pictures of how happy your loved ones are up in heaven."
Looking at their decorations a few of the occupants began to tear up. Charlie broke down as she looked at the snow globe picture frame of her parents happily looking at each other in the frame. Kevin sat down, not crying, but emotionally drained, unable to take his eyes off of the picture of his mom smiling at him. His ornament was just a small frame with 'Joy' written at the top, but engraved on the frame just below the picture in his mother's handwriting was: 'I am so proud of you.'
Sam and Dean compared their ornaments. They had the same frame shape, a sleigh, but the colors were different. In the center was a picture of their mom and dad in heaven. They each had a different picture of their parents. 'Riding' in the sleigh were three little elves with their names engraved on the hats. "Sam", "Dean", and "Adam".
Crowley left the room with his ornament. Everyone else looked to Gabriel and Castiel to explain. "It's a picture of his wife from back when he was human." Gabriel said. They all silently agreed to leave the man alone.
Charlie pulled herself together a few minutes later and clapped her hands together. "Let's make our final decorations!" She said, sniffling.
They all gathered at the table, minus Crowley, and grabbed a glass bulb. "Okay so there is only enough of each color for all of us to claim one color. But here is how you do it. You pour a little bit of the glue into the bauble and spread it around. Then you pour the glitter of your choice in it and put the top on and shake. Simple enough, then I have silver sharpies for all of you to write your names on them. So get to work!"
Charlie took the red for Crowley, Gabe claimed orange, Kevin stole the yellow, Dean nabbed the green, Castiel grabbed the blue, Sam snatched the indigo, and Charlie seized the purple for herself. The instructions were simple, but, of course, by the end of the decorating the table had been covered with glitter as were several of the occupants.
In the end, after they had all finished signing their work, the glass bulbs still looked great, as did the wreaths and the ornaments that Gabe and Cas had made for everyone. Thinking back, all of them agreed that, overall, it had been a very productive, very happy, and a very Christmasy day.