I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The Christmas Tree Mishap

"Stitch, we really need to focus."

The blue experiment nodded, his face set with determination. "Ih. No distractions."

"Exactly. Nani gave us the most important Christmas job." Lilo tilted her chin, peering through the holly-adorned archway that served as the entrance to a Christmas tree lot. "We need to find the annual Pelekai Christmas tree."

Since pine trees were scarce on the Hawaiian island, they were imported for the holiday season. Dozens of trees were lined in neat rows. The ones near the front were of modest stature, and the majestic pines were arranged at the back of the lot, towering high over their brethren.

Lilo and Stitch began to wander down the aisles, inspecting their options. "Have to be perfect," Stitch said firmly.

"You're telling me," Lilo sighed. "I know we weren't Nani's first choice to get the tree, so we can't mess this up or else she'll never let us forget it."

The consistent tropical climate of her home often brought many tourists from places that experienced a harsh winter. They would arrive in truckloads at the beaches, especially for the holidays. Taking advantage of the extra work, Nani clocked in as much overtime as she could at Birds of Paradise, handing out surfboards and scuba masks to sunscreen-slathered tourists by the dozens.

Nani had originally asked Jumba and Pleakley to shop for a Christmas tree, but the pair were already waist-deep in Christmas lights. David was out buying Christmas presents on Nani's behalf, and Angel, Belle and Glitch wanted to bake Christmas cookies instead of tree hunting.

Lilo tried not to be offended that she and Stitch were the last resort.

"I don't know why she's so worried," Lilo muttered. "I'm thirteen. I think I can handle picking out a Christmas tree for the family."

"This one?" Stitch suggested, pointing to a decent-sized pine tree.

Lilo leaned forwards and studied the needles critically. "Won't do," she declared. "The needles are already starting to turn brown."

"Seven days until Christmas," Stitch said with slight exasperation. For almost a month the trees had been sitting in the lot—of course the needles would be brown. It was kind of a miracle that most of the trees still had needles to begin with.

"We can do better," Lilo said dismissively.

They went back to their search, eventually splitting up to cover more ground. After a while, Stitch spotted a nice-looking conifer near the end of the row and scampered up to it. The needles were green and full. But there was a crack in the trunk, and Stitch wasn't sure if it was rotted or merely a surface flaw.

He pressed his paw against it—and found that yes, it was indeed rotted.

The tree buckled under Stitch's strength, toppling into the tree propped up proudly beside it. The experiment could only watch in horror as a domino reaction started, with the trees banging one another into the ground.

The crunching of splintering wood and repetitive, heavy thumps caught Lilo's attention. She snapped her gaze towards the source of the noise. "Stitch!" she cried.

"Soka!" he said desperately.

"You rotten pest! Look what you did to my tree lot!"

"Let's go!" Lilo hissed as the owner came dashing towards them.

She and Stitch sprinted away from the lot, only stopping when the owner gave up his pursuit. Stitch recoiled as Lilo glared at him. "Not my fault!"

"What did you do?"

"Accident! Just seeing if trunk was sturdy."

"Apparently, it wasn't," Lilo said flatly. "Stitch, there are only three tree lots on Kaua'i. We are now down to two. There is no way I'm going back there. The guy looked like he wanted to kill us, and I didn't even do anything wrong."

"Soka," Stitch repeated.

Lilo's expression softened and she stroked his ears. "It's okay. Sometimes you forget just how much strength you have. But try not to kill anymore tree lots, okay?"

"Won't happen again," Stitch promised.

To get to the next lot, the duo had to cut through town, which was crowded with sock-with-sandals tourists. Several stopped Lilo to ask for directions, and in the spirit of Christmas, she didn't feed them the wrong information.

With the sun beating down on her, Lilo could not help but be a bit bewildered. "I guess if you live somewhere that always gets snow, you probably don't want to be around it as much. But I'd love to go somewhere cold for the holidays."

They rounded a corner, where their next tree lot was located, and Lilo's eyes widened. "Hey, what do you know? Snow!"

Stitch held out his paw and caught a flake on his finger. He stuck it in his mouth to taste it. "Is soap," he reported.

"Well, it's not cold, but I'll take it."

They were ten minutes into their Christmas tree search when something jabbed Lilo in the shoulder. Lilo turned around, fighting back a grimace at the sight of Mertle standing behind her. "Ah. It's you."

"You're a little late to the Christmas tree shopping, aren't you?"

"We've been busy," Lilo replied. "What's your excuse?"

"Mother wanted another Christmas tree for the parlour. We already have three, but you can never have too many," Mertle said smugly. She pointed towards the far left-hand corner of the lot. "Those are where the discounted trees are. They're broken, ugly, and smell bad. Perfect for your humble little hovel, I think."

Mertle swivelled on her heel, intending on leaving Lilo behind with her burn. Something sticky smacked against the back of her head, causing her to whirl back around with a fierce scowl. "Ew! What was that?"

"Haven't you ever heard of a snowball?" Lilo asked innocently, wiping the fake snow off her fingers. "It's a harmless winter game."

"Lilo," Stitch said warningly, but it was too late.

Mertle got a fistful of fake snow and whipped it at Lilo. The raven-haired girl squawked as it slammed into her cheek, the impact causing her skin to sting. "Oh, that's it."

The two were soon fully into a snowball fight, their projectiles whizzing every which-way. They ducked amongst trees for cover, chucking the clumps of fake snow as hard as they could at one another. Stitch plopped down on the edge of the path and watched the battle unfold, cheering Lilo on.

"Girls! Girls!" the owner screamed, racing down the aisle towards them. "Stop this at—"

He stepped into the path of Lilo's snowball. The force sent him stumbling back into one of the snow machines, his elbow knocking the lever to the high-speed setting. Fake snow spewed from the nozzle at a rapid rate, becoming nothing more than a fat white cloud. The machine began to smoke and Lilo shouted, "Hit the deck!"

She, Mertle and Stitch fled from the malfunctioning machine. A few seconds later it blew apart, spraying the thick soapy substance over a quarter of the tree lot. It dripped from the trees and covered the ground, warm and sticky.

"Way to go, Weirdlo," Mertle said with a snicker.

"He got in my way," cried Lilo.

"Look at this mess!" the owner howled.

"I clean it!" Stitch volunteered. There was a fire hydrant located near the entrance and he ran to it. He slashed the cap off with his claws and water churned out, spraying fast and strong across the lot.

He forgot one very important detail. The fake snow was made of soap, and when water joined with soap, well…

It was as if a washing machine exploded. The soap grew thicker and foamier, carried further through the tree lot by the powerful stream of water. As the owner began to shout with fury, Mertle took off, making her escape. Lilo was right behind her, charging for the entrance.

"Sorry! Merry Christmas!" she called over her shoulder.

This owner chased them a little bit further, but he was no match for Lilo and Stitch's speed. They eventually lost him and Lilo paused to catch her breath. "Okay," she panted. "That one was my fault."

"One left," said Stitch nervously.

They ran to the last Christmas tree lot on the island. "We can't screw this up," said Lilo frantically.

Lilo and Stitch made their way down the rows of pine trees, keeping their arms stiffly at their sides. Lilo glanced anxiously at each price tag and gave a moan of frustration. "Five hundred dollars, three hundred dollars, two hundred dollars. We only have fifty!"

"Expensive lot," Stitch observed, noticing that the trees were a bit more elegant and more looked-after than the ones in the previous lots.

"Leave it to us to wreck the affordable trees."

"Could still go back."

"No way," said Lilo immediately. "The second we step foot on their property they'll make us pay for the damages we caused. We can't afford that, not at Christmas. We'll...we'll make it up to them after the holidays."

Lilo pinpointed the owner and approached him. "Excuse me, sir? I don't suppose you have any trees for, say, fifty dollars?"

He rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "Actually, I do have something. It was beaten up badly on the way here so I had to mark it down. It's thirty bucks, but it's not a looker."

"I don't care. I'll take it!" Lilo said eagerly, hardly daring to believe her luck.

She handed over thirty dollars and the man went to get the tree. "Please be okay, please be okay!" Lilo begged, crossing her fingers.

It was a rather stressful few minutes before he returned. "Here she is. You sure you want her?"

Lilo stared. The trunk of the tree looked like an overgrown twig. The branches were basically naked, with clumps of pine needles stuck here and there. It was clear the tree had been horribly mangled, for it was only a little bit taller than Stitch.

"Yes," Lilo managed to squeak, as it was the only thing in the lot they could afford. "Thank you. Merry Christmas."

Stitch shook his head. "Oh boy."

Nani was not going to like this.

…

Lilo and Stitch made a detour to the outdoor mall on their way home. Multicoloured lights twinkled merrily on full, sweet-smelling branches, and Lilo eyed it with jealousy. Stitch coaxed Topper down from the tree and, before anyone noticed they were stealing the town star, they fled the premises.

Topper hummed with puzzlement. Lilo interpreted the nonverbal communication with ease. "We're just taking you home for a little bit," she said, trying to be casual. "We thought maybe you'd like to be the star for our tree for a couple of evenings."

Topper's happy purring immediately stopped when he caught sight of the flimsy-looking tree Stitch was carrying over his head. He looked at his cousins as if they were crazy. "Don't you give me that look," said Lilo with a pout. "It's…it's a fine tree. It just needs to be spruced up. That's where you come in."

"So stupid," grumbled Stitch.

"I'm sorry, do you have a better idea?" snapped Lilo.

"Not going to work!"

"It will! Just…just play along."

They arrived home and Lilo eased open the front door. There was no one in the living room, so Lilo motioned for Stitch to bring the tree inside. "Okay," she whispered. "We'll—oh, maybe we should hide it first—"

"Hide what, young lady?"

Lilo jolted with a small yelp of surprise. She could not stop the guilt from filling her brown eyes as she turned to face Pleakley. He was standing in the kitchen entryway, his eye stern. When she did not offer an immediate answer, Pleakley prodded, "A response, if you please."

"Your present?" Lilo said weakly.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Try again."

"Right. Um, I just want to say it's not about how pretty the tree looks. It's about what the tree represents."

She stepped aside, allowing Stitch to be in full view, and the tree the experiment was holding was so thin and unremarkable Pleakley had not seen it poking out from behind Lilo's slender form. He gaped at them for a moment before exclaiming, "That's the best you could do?"

"We didn't have much luck," Lilo said vaguely. "But it'll be fine! Stitch?"

Stitch propped the small, Charlie Brown tree in the corner of the living room. "Ta-da!" he said, with a note of sarcasm that did not go unnoticed by his best friend.

Topper giggled and Lilo resisted the urge to glare at both of them. She set Topper down and plastered on a smile. "We'll decorate it before Nani gets home from work. When it's all pretty, she won't even notice how small it is."

"I sincerely doubt that," said Pleakley flatly.

"Just wait and see," said Lilo, mostly to convince herself. "Stitch, can you please get the Christmas decorations?" When he darted off to complete the task, she folded her hands behind her back and asked, "Where's everyone else?"

"Jumba went grocery shopping with Angel, Belle and Glitch. They were missing an ingredient for their cookies. They are going to be really surprised when they see this."

"It's not that bad," Lilo lied. "It's a tree, isn't it? Besides, it deserves some love and admiration just like the nice Christmas trees."

Pleakley tilted his head. "Are you going to tell me what really happened?"

"Maybe later," said Lilo, her eyes shifting.

"Hon, you kill me," he said with a chuckle, ruffling her hair fondly. "You want some help decorating the tree?"

"Please." Lilo grinned.

Stitch returned with the box of decorations. Together, the girl and three aliens decorated the tree, draping glittering tinsel off the branch tips, winding golden garland and white lights over the branches. The glass ornaments had to be meticulously placed, or else risk snapping the branches from too much weight. The final touch was Topper. Lilo set him gently at the top of the tree and he activated his bright glow.

The small tree was sagging slightly from all the decorations, but it was stable, and a vast improvement from what it looked like without all the glitter and sparkles. "You know what? It'll work," said Lilo, pleased. "Thanks a lot, Topper."

"You know Nani is still going to ask questions," warned Pleakley.

"I saw this poor little thing and thought it needed a home for Christmas," Lilo rehearsed. It wasn't a complete lie. She was growing rather fond of this little misfit tree.

The rumbling of an engine caused Lilo and Stitch to rush over to the window. Lilo winced slightly as Nani's Jeep and Jumba's buggy rolled into their respective parking spaces. "Great. They came home at the same time."

Pleakley eased onto the couch. "I have got to see this."

"Shush! Okay, Stitch, act natural."

The two backed up, standing next to the tree. Jumba came into the house first, loaded down with bags of groceries. His three experiments followed after him, each eating a peppermint snow cone. Nani came in behind them, faint bags under her eyes and exhaustion creasing her forehead.

"Hi," greeted Lilo, sounding as upbeat as possible. "Stitch and I found our Christmas tree."

There was a brief beat of silence as her family stared in disbelief at the tiny, mostly needleless pine tree. Angel was the first one to speak. "Oooh. Ah. It's…small."

"Little Girl does not have eye for Christmas trees," Jumba remarked. "That is okay."

Nani rubbed the space between her eyes, trying to keep her frustration at bay. "Lilo, I gave you enough money for a good tree. Why did you get this one?"

"I think it's cute," said Lilo strongly. "And it looked so lonely, sitting all by itself, isolated from its fellow tree-kind, all because it was different. I see the beauty in this itty-bitty tree. I took one look at it and decided I would give it a home for Christmas. Give it the love it deserves. How can that be wrong?"

She mentally crossed her fingers. Nani's annoyance melted into fond exasperation. "Lilo, you really amaze me sometimes. I suppose it is kind of nice." She kissed her sister's head. "Thank you for picking up our tree. I'm going to take a shower."

She headed down the hall and into the bathroom. Glitch invited Topper to help finish up the baking and they all filed into the kitchen with Jumba. Lilo and Stitch exchanged a high-five. "I told you we'd be fine," said Lilo with a wide grin.

Pleakley snapped his fingers to gain her attention. "All right, real story. What the heck happened?"

"We…had some incidents," said Lilo with a wince. "Stitch accidentally broke the first tree lot we went to. I accidentally flooded the second tree lot. The last tree lot was too expensive and this was all they had that we could afford."

"Now that I believe," said Pleakley, shaking his head. "You gave a pretty speech."

"I did mean it, though." Lilo regarded the Christmas tree with affection. "It's not about how the tree looks. It's about what it represents."

"What's that?"

"The place for Nani to put my presents, of course."