"MARCO!"

"OOF!" Marco jolted as something big and heavy slammed down on his stomach. He opened his eyes to see Star on top of him, the antlers of her reindeer onesie tickling his nose.

"GET UP! IT'S CHRISTMAS!"

"I will when I can breathe," he joked. The two shared a morning kiss and he shot up out of bed. The teens rushed down to hall to find… the entire living room covered in gifts.

Marco's jaw dropped.

"Come on, sweetie," Angie called, sitting on the couch with Raf. Mariposa sat nearby, playing with one of her gifts.

The teens wasted no time. Clearing the stairs in a single jump, the two of them dove into their gifts.

"A LOVE SENTENCE HOODIE!" Star quickly threw the garment on over her onesie. Next to her stood her freshly-unwrapped karoke machine and new designer boots.

"Whoa!" Marco unwrapped a skateboard, a Mackie Hand video game, a pair of silk ballet shoes, and a Space Unicorn alarm clock. "You guys!"

"What's that sound?" Star took notice of one large present that was moving and making noise. She opened it, revealing a small cage with a baby Warnicorn.

"He's… so… cute!" Star let him out from his cage and the little pet immedately went to work licking her face. "Just make sure you house-train him," Angie instructed.

"I will!" Star promised, kissing the little beast. "I'll call you… Rudolfo."

Mariposa crawled over into her brother, tugging at his shirt to show him her gifts; a collection of shiny, plastic toys and fluffy stuffed animals.

"Hey Marco," Star handed him a small box. "This one's for you."

Marco opened it up and was hit with surprise.

It was a talking, flipping Mackie Hand action figure. Wrapped to it was a note of fine parchment. "Hey, look what I found," Rafael pulled two huge presents from the stair cupboard. "They're for Star."

Squealing, Star ran over and tore the paper off them. She shrieked. It was a Giddeyup Buttercup and a winged, red bycycle.

"Hmm," Marco heard his dad mutter. "I don't remember buying her those."

Angie shrugged. "Must have slipped our minds."

The two smiled as Marco opened the note.

Sometimes, I make exceptions.

"What a guy," Marco said to himself.

"Ho-Ho-Ho!" They all turned to see the front door swing open, revealing a flurry of snow… and a trio of Butterflies.

"Merry Christmas, everybody!" Eclipsa entered, swinging a brand new electric guitar. "Mar-Mar!" Meteora toddled over and hugged her baby friend, only to get swarmed by Rudolfo. "Now now, sweetie, don't absorb his soul," her mother warned.

"What do you think?" Globgor presented them with a beautifully handcraved wooden guitar. "I've always wanted to learn to play."

"Sweetie!" Eclipsa watched her daughter chase off after Star's new pet. "Globby, can you help me please?"

Globgor shrunk down to his daughter's size and began chasing after her. Eclipsa and Angie exchanged cups of eggnog and chatted about their gifts. Posey played with a new, toy train.

"I think there's only one way this could get even better," Star said to herself.

Right at that moment, a gust of snow poured in from the chimney and put out the fire. From above came a cry and something huge landed on the smoldering pile of logs.

"AH! HOT! HOT! HOT!" Something big and red flew out of the fireplace and out the front door before settling in the snow.

"Ah!" The short, plump man in the cold dust-covered Santa suit sighed as he cooled his burnt butt. A woman in a blue coat walked into view and shook her head at him.

"I told you the chimney was a bad idea, River." She pulled back her hood, revealing the face of Moon Butterfly. "MOMMY! DADDY!" Star cried. She raced into their arms.

"I thought you guys all went south?" Marco said.

"We did, but something in our guts told us we needed to be here," Moon explained, "The yurt folk can handle themselves for a couple days."

"And we brought gifts," River produced a sack and handed out gifts to the teens; A fox fur scarf for Star ("it's real") and a boar-tooth knife for Marco.

"For everyone," Moon handed a large, bow-tipped bottle of festive brandy to Marco's parents. "Distilled West Mewnian Brandy. For special ocassions."

"Oooh, I bet it taste nice with a bit of nog," Eclipsa giggled, handing over her cup.

"Can this get any better?" Star sighed happily.

THUNK! Something else big and red suddenly landed in their fireplace.

"Okay, how many Santas are we going to get this year?" Angie chuckled.

"HO-HO-HO!" The figure stepped out and lifted their Santa hat, revealing a green, bulbous face and a wide smile. "S Rozhdestvom, everybody!"

Everyone's jaw dropped. "Buff Frog?"

"And company." He opened his sack and all his kids jumped out, filling the room in green frogs. "Dear Mama came down with a case of swamp fever and Katrina wanted to wish you Merry Christmas!"

"Eeeeek!" Star was ecstatic. "I LOVE THIS HOLIDAY!"

Looking over the swarm of frogs infesting their home, Angie said, "Eclipsa, may want to pour me some of that eggnog too."

A short while later, everyone moved outside. The teens sat on the front steps of the porch, watching as Globgor and the babies made snow angels, Moon and Angie made a snowman (while red-faced gossiping like two teenagers), Cristina tried out Star's new Giddyup Buttercup, and the rest of the tadpoles had a snowball war with River, Rafael, and Buff Frog.

"Hey Marco, check these out," Star held up her phone, revealing recently-posted photos of Janna and her folks watching Christmas horror movies, Tom ice-skating with his parents, and Pony live-streaming her family opening (and mostly fighting over) presents.

"So Star, this is what we on Earth call Christmas," Marco said, putting an arm around her, "How would you rate your very first?"

"Knowing that Santa is real and my boyfriend is the luckiest guys on the planet?" She said. "I'd say almost perfect."

"Why almost?"

Star leaned forward and kissed him. "Cause I hadn't done that yet."

Marco blushed and looked into his girlfriend's eyes, feeling toasty warm in the neatly sub-degree tempature. "Merry Christmas Star."

"Merry Christmas Marco."

Epilogue

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

The teens turned around as loud music came blasting from inside the house.

"Oh boy," Marco sighed.

An empty bottle of Mewman brandy rolled across the floor as a formally-dubbed Queen of Darkness danced across the living room, all to the rocking tune of Eddie Money's Everybody Loves Christmas .

Everybody loves Christmas

Everybody has fun

That time of the year that holiday cheer

A good time for every one!

Everybody loves Christmas

Now were counting the ways

You know it's almost here!

It's Christmas Day! (Christmas day)

As the tippsy lady shook her body to the beat, Star chuckled. "I think she likes the holiday too."

"Assistance!" River cried as he and the other dads were assaulted by the opposing side. "Somebody please help us!"

"¡Ayudar!"

"Pomoshch'!"

Laughing, the two teens got up and left the porch, ready to enjoy all the festivities of the holiday season.

*For this final scene, click open a new window and pull up "Santa Claus Lane" by Hilary Duff and play it while you read.

In one of the few stores still open that day stood a window display featuring a line of mechanical elves doing a festive jig.

"Hey, what are we all doing?" In the line stood Mina Loveberry, now six inches tall and dressed in the appropriate attire. The non-mechanical addition shook her head. "Why are we all just dancing when there's nobody to watch?" Not getting a response, she scoffed. "Ugh, you bunch of ninnies, I'll show you real dancing! Watch this!"

She rolled her arms in a circle, then swat and wiggled her knees, then followed it up with some twerking, and finally finished it all off with an upward disco point.

"Ha!" Not seeing any reception, she rolled her eyes and went right on dancing.

"Hey humans, you ever seen an elf do this?" She twerked her butt. "Hahahahaha! Hey where you going?! Yeah! Whoo!"

THE END