"Bah, humbug!" snarled Xander Harris at the Santa Claus display inside the front shop window of a closed store in the deserted Sunnydale downtown business district well into the night hours. Right after saying this, a deeply-worried frown abruptly appeared upon the young man's face, clearly shown in the window reflection, as Xander then nervously looked over his shoulder. This was the Hellmouth after all, and you always had to be careful of just what came out of your mouth while living here.

Fortunately, unlike a certain Dickens short novel, three ghosts representing the Christmases of the past, present, and future didn't suddenly appear behind Xander, with their transparent forms drifting a few inches over the baking city sidewalks. Feeling very relieved at somehow avoiding yet another opportunity to be the Boca del Infierno's favorite butt-monkey, Xander returned to his intense glower of disgust at the shop window showing off a happy celebration of the holiday season, expressing best wishes to every family out there delighting in each other's company.

"Yeah, suuuure," cynically drawled the high school student, wiping away the sweat from his forehead that was the result of the heat wave scorching the whole town and breaking temperature records even right now, shortly before sunrise on Christmas Day. Shoving his hands deep in his jeans pockets, Xander continued his sullen stroll through the business district. After a few hours of wandering through the night, this area was where he'd finally ended up, and just like every place else, Xander was the only person in sight, human or otherwise. Which was a real pity, since at this exact moment, the Scooby Gang member was in the perfectly foul mood to get into a fight with somebody, anybody at all.

Okay, if that did actually happen with some vamp or other demon wandering by, he'd undoubtedly get his ass kicked. Big deal. It'd still be the best part of his otherwise lousy night so far.

Right on schedule, just like it'd come up in his discussion earlier yesterday with Willow and Cordelia, his folks had started their usual drunken Christmas fights. Only this time, it'd been even louder and nastier than he could ever remember, probably due to the heat. In the end, Xander had been forced to leave the backyard where he'd been trying to sleep, thinking that maybe a walk around the neighborhood would pass the time until his boozehound parents finally collapsed into their normal alcoholic stupor.

Except, during his ensuing amble down the deserted Sunnydale streets despite knowing how dangerous this was, every time Xander considered heading back to the house, he didn't particularly feel like it. Instead, he kept on walking, which resulted in him eventually winding up here in the business district. Which, from the looks of things, had gone completely overboard as usual, with their numerous decorations, blinking lights, and ornaments bedecking the stores in their yearly attempts to yank out as much cash as possible from the pockets of Christmas shoppers.

"Ho-ho-ho, Mr. Xander!" sarcastically intoned the teenager out loud in a mock-jovial bass far deeper than his usual voice, that went on to further declare, "You've been such a good little boy that I'm sure there'll be no problem with you getting whatever you want for this Christmas! Now, if you'll just give me a hint or two, my elves at the North Pole will get to work right away, and before you know it, there'll be a nice, big present under your tree for you to find early in the morning!"

Smirking to himself as he continued to saunter down the empty sidewalk, Xander then opened his eyes as wide as possible in a truly innocent look, followed by uttering in a childish, high-pitched squeak, "Gosh, Santa, last year's present of a dozen Playboy Playmates gave me so many hours of fun that I'm still fooling around with 'em all! No, what I'd like for you to do is to give the most gosh-darn amazing reward to, to-"

A bemused look flashed over Xander's face at that point when he paused, not exactly sure of what to say next in his satirical conversation with himself. An instant later, a very malicious grin lifted the corners of the young man's mouth, as he once more piped, "To Angel, my bestest friend in the whole wide world!"

Beginning to snigger under his breath, Xander gleefully continued in his little-boy-on-helium imitation, "Oh, Santa, that handsome vampire with the big hair that could consume a year's production of mousse in one go, he really, really needs something new to brood about! Why, if you can believe it, over the last week, he told me he had a whole ten minutes during that time when he never got around to feeling sorry for himself! So, please, please, please, on Christmas Day, I want you to…"

Trailing off to heighten the dramatic tension, Xander now possessed an actual evil glint in his eyes when he was just about to come out with something truly ghastly as a gift for the demon with a soul that this young human deeply loathed. However, in the next second, Xander completely forgot what he'd been about to say, as a sudden shimmer of pure white light appeared over his entire body.

Instantly halting in his tracks when the unexpected illumination faded away as swiftly as it'd come into existence, Xander cautiously looked down at himself, to then sigh in utter resignation at seeing there an entirely new outfit instead of his sneakers, jeans, and t-shirt of a moment ago. Being all too familiar now with this experience, Xander simply muttered, "Okay, who am I this time?"

Glancing to his left, the Scooby Gang member going through yet another manifestation of someone from the Legion of Super-Heroes frowned at his new face shown in the image mirrored there upon the shop window. Reaching up to touch what was covering his head, Xander tried to remember exactly which of those 30th century costumed adventurers normally dressed up in a fur-trimmed cap, a one-piece purple outfit with more fur at the collar, wrists, upper ankles, and waist, and a design on his chest which looked like…(nah, that can't be right)…an icicle?

Gawking at this bizarre emblem, Xander abruptly arrived at the correct conclusion, helped along by the fact he also physically felt something different for the first time since Sunnydale's heat wave started: Cold.

"Well, I'll be damned. Polar Boy!" Grinning at his window reflection smiling back, Xander chuckled, "Yeah, you started out running the Legion of Substitute Heroes, but you eventually made it to the big time, pal, joining the other, more-respected Legion."

Idly holding up his index finger before his face, Xander mused to himself, "Lessee, you had super-cold ice and freezing powers that got pretty impressive at the end, so I should be able to…" Without finishing that sentence, Xander quickly pointed his finger at the sidewalk in front of his boots, to then concentrate for a moment.

A thin, white ray of vapor shot out from Xander's fingertip, striking the surface of the concrete, and right after this, a sheet of ice silently formed on top of the sidewalk for about ten feet further on down the street. His mouth falling open in awed delight, Xander absently switched off his powers, letting his hand fall to the side of his body, as the proud young man eyed what he'd just done. After a second's consideration, Xander then carefully stepped forward onto the ice sheet.

Cautiously testing his footing, the high school student found out his boots gave him sufficient traction to walk along the ice without slipping. During this, Xander enjoyed the faint crunching of his footsteps upon the upper surface of what provided to be an inch of ice. Coming to the end of his ice sheet, Xander stepped back onto the sidewalk, and then he turned around to smirk downwards at what was already beginning to melt on the warm concrete.

Scratching his chin while also luxuriating at feeling cool for the first time in days, Xander wondered what to do next. It'd sure be fun to coat in ice the entire downtown area, especially since he was positive he had more than enough freezing power to do that, as part of a really glorious prank. Snickering to himself at the possible reactions of whomever showed up here right now in 90-degree weather only to then find themselves in an environment far better expected somewhere north of the Arctic Circle, Xander suddenly felt a little let down at realizing the evident drawbacks of this plan. For one, he was still the only person around, and besides even if he did it, freezing up the whole place, it'd probably all melt before anybody else came along.

So, what else could he do. *Hmmm. Well, just a few minutes ago, you were looking for a fight…*

Five seconds later: "YOO HOO, ALL YOU OOGLY-BOOGLYS! FRESH, JUICY HUMAN RIGHT HERE, TOPPED UP WITH THE RED STUFF AND CHOCK-FULL OF VITAMINS AND OTHER GOODIES! GET HIM BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE DOES!"

Standing in the middle of the deserted street, a very tight grin on his face after yelling out his ludicrous taunt to any demon presently in the vicinity, Xander eagerly wiggled his fingers held down at this sides, getting ready to freeze solid any slavering monster who had the decency to show up. The young man waited…

And waited…

And waited…

Finally throwing up his hands in pure frustration when absolutely nothing happened for a full five minutes, Xander stalked back to the sidewalk, to then lean with one shoulder against a building wall while folding his arms across his chest. Indignantly muttering to himself, Xander grumbled, "Typical! Any other time, and I couldn't walk around without tripping over a Big Bad! But no, when you really want to take them on, they all suddenly have other plans, and you can't even turn one goddamn blood-drinker into a vampicle!"

Xander's dejection only increased further when the morose teenager inwardly checked for how much longer he'd still be Polar Boy. Judging from how it felt, he had barely a couple more minutes before changing back to his normal, no-powers body. Decided that during this to start heading home, a very grumpy Xander straightened up from the wall, only to then become utterly stock-still when a real inspiration abruptly burst into existence inside his mind.

Once more walking out into the middle of the empty street, Xander vertically lifted high both arms, holding these in a V-shape. Every finger outstretched and pointing directly upwards at the cloudless night sky just beginning to turn from full dark into a lighter grey, Polar Boy closed his eyes, and he now willed with every bit of concentration possible for him to create what he truly desired.

An unknown time later, Xander found himself kneeling on the street asphalt, feeling totally drained. His head hanging low, a weary teenager could see right away that he'd gotten back his ordinary, 20th century clothes. Not paying all that much attention while lurching upright in the gloom surrounding the street, Xander rubbed at his face, with all the usual bits there once more in their familiar feel. Except, when he brought down his hand, the tip of his nose suddenly felt a tiny sting of pure…frigidity?

Suddenly focusing into the distance beyond at head level, Xander gawked at witnessing in the slow drift downwards to the ground not just one, but two - and a dozen - and a few hundred - and finally, what could be called nothing but innumerable snowflakes.

Looking up at the pitch-black clouds that had all of a sudden appeared to completely cover the Sunnydale sky from horizon to horizon, Xander started to uncontrollably laugh, despite also beginning to shiver in the chilly air that had just dropped at least seventy degrees in several seconds. For the first time in Xander's entire life, the Southern California native opened his mouth, and he tasted his first snowflake.

That was forever one of the best memories Xander Harris ever had of living in Sunnydale. It even almost made up for the occasion a bit later, when the young man with a smidgen of Chaos magic inside himself learned at last what else had occurred in the California city early during Christmas Day. How Angel the vampire had decided to commit suicide to atone for the atrocities done by the demon controlling his body. Despite Buffy Summers' entreaties, the Irish undead had walked out of his Crawford Street mansion, expecting to greet the rising sun that would turn him into ashes. Only instead, he and Buffy found themselves without any warning or expectation in the middle of a freak sheltering snowstorm.

Nobody else in the Scooby Gang ever understood why such a romantic development made Xander hate the December 25th holiday even more.