"Perry's winter booties look so cute." Phineas said, watching as Perry chewed on his booties.

"He's just got to take a little time to get used to them." Linda said. "The vet said they might feel strange at first. Animals don't usually wear things on their feet."

Perry yanked hard on the front left foot bootie. It did not come off.

"He doesn't appear to be very fond of them." Ferb said.

"But they have little polar bears on them, Perry!" Phineas said.

Perry growled.

"He has to wear them." Linda said. "Otherwise his feet will get too cold."

Perry slammed his tail against the ground with displeasure.

"Who wants hot chocolate?" Linda asked.

"Ooh, me!" Phineas said.

Perry continued to try and dismantle his booties as the boys ran into the kitchen.

...

"Hey!" Pinky the Chihuahua said. He pointed at an empty chair. "I saved you a seat. And got you some coffee."

"Great. Help me." Perry placed his front feet on the table. "I can't get these stupid bear boots off."

Pinky freed Perry's front paws and handed him the booties.

"Sorry, wasn't a long wait, was it?"

"Long wait for the coffee. The service at this coffee shop isn't so good."

"I gotta go shopping next week." Perry said. "It'll be Christmas soon. Well, not that soon. But in like five weeks or so. Who's counting, anyway…"

"Spending it at home?"

"Yep."

"Cool."

Perry took a sip of coffee and spit it out. "Ack! What did you order me? Essence a la Dirt?"

"Oh, sorry. I must have gotten ours mixed up." Pinky switched the mugs. "You had orange spice cream, right?"

"Thank you." Perry drank a little. "Much better. You didn't drink from this one, though, right?"

"No."

"Good. I hate germs."

"They're everywhere, you know."

"Shut up. I'm worried I won't be able to buy everyone presents. I don't have much money this month."

"You can always borrow some of mine."

"I'm not borrowing your money to buy Christmas presents."

"How many people do you have to get stuff for?"

Perry dug into his fur pocket and unrolled a list.

Pinky whistled.

"Yeah. And I can't cross anyone off. Phineas, Ferb, Candace, Linda, Lawrence, Blubbles, Doofenshmirtz, Carl, Monogram, you, Devon, Darren, Carrie, Peter, Alan, Herman, Trevor, Cecily, Erica-"

"Woah." Pinky said.

Perry stuck his list back in his pocket and shrugged. "Just like last year. I'll figure it out. Do you think I should get Phineas and Blubbles a list of names that do not contain the letter L?" Perry's watch beeped. "Oh, dang. I gotta go. Apparently Doofenshmirtz has just created a discoinator."

...

Phineas looked cranky when Perry returned home.

Actually, livid.

Ferb was doing pirouettes in the living room around a pile of tinsel. He was wearing the tree skirt.

Phineas was seated on the couch, staring straight ahead, fuming miserably. He looked like he wanted to melt the wall.

"He okay?" Perry asked pointing at Phineas.

Ferb shrugged and took a flying leap over a plastic Santa doll.

"We didn't get to put up the tree today." Phineas griped. "Mom said we could."

"There was an antique emergency at the shop and she can't get home until late." Ferb said.

"You can put up the tree tomorrow, Phinny." Perry said.

"I wanted to do it today."

"Your mom doesn't have to be here though, does she?"

"We decorate the tree all together."

"Ah." Perry said. "Did you guys build anything today?"

"We were gonna put together the tree." Phineas grumbled.

Perry patted him gently.

"Don't bother, he's as firm on this as he was on naming the goldfish." Ferb said.

"Why don't we watch a movie?" Perry asked.

"Gingershoes and Mistletoe Save Christmas?" Ferb asked.

"No. I hate that one."

"We can watch the lights on the Christmas tree. Oh wait, we don't have one yet." Phineas snapped.

"Dude, let it go." Ferb said.

Perry jumped into the tinsel and began rolling around in it.

"PHINEAS AND FERB!" Candace yelled from down the hall. "WHERE'S THE TINSEL?"

"Wrapped around Perry." Phineas said.

"Perrywinkle." Ferb said.

Perry growled.

Candace stormed into the room. "I need that pink tinsel for my Jeremy picture tree!"

"Get some at Jeremy-Mart." Perry retorted.

Candace yanked on the tinsel. Perry bit down on the other end and tugged, snorting and snarling happily.

"YOU… ARE… SO… ANNOYING!" Candace shouted.

Perry dug his claws into the carpet as Candace dragged him toward the stairwell.

"Hey, Ferb! I know what we should do." Phineas said. "We should cover the entire tri-state area in lights!"

Candace dropped her end of the tinsel, sending Perry rolling backwards. "Oh, no. NO NO NO. You are NOT going to… you wouldn't dare…"

"Our house will have giant lights shaped like Perry and Blubbles the goldfish on the roof." Phineas said. "And reindeer, of course. And Baljeet's house can have a light up A-plus! And Isabella's can have a menorah, and Buford's can have Biff, his goldfish- Biff will match with Blubbles. And who else are we friends with?"

"We can put light-up pictures of butts on Benny and Jack's houses." Ferb said. "Because they are butts."

"Yes, but that's not very festive, Ferb."

"We'll put Santa hats on top of the butts." Ferb said.

"Huh. Maybe. Or we could just not put lights on their houses because we don't like them."

"Butts would get the message across stronger." Ferb said.

"Were you dumped in the same river as Ned the narwhal was at birth?" Perry asked, shaking himself off.

"Perry, what should we put on Doofenshmirtz's-" Phineas stopped when Ferb kicked him.

"Why are you asking Perry?" Candace's eyes narrowed. "And who's Doofenshmutz?"

"No one. No reason." Phineas said quickly.

"I'm watching you." Candace warned. She snatched up the tinsel and stormed over to her room.

"Close call." Perry said. "And you should put lights shaped like him up. He'd like that. Or something that says 'EVIL' on it."

"I vaguely remember Doofenshmirtz." Phineas said. "Wasn't he the guy with one eye?"

"That was his second-dimension self. Our Doofenshmirtz has two eyes."

"Oh. I remember liking the two-eyed one better."

"Yes. He's much better."

"So we'll put two eyes on his building to commemorate that. And on the antique shop, we'll put a picture of Steve, our pet dinosaur."

"Why?"

"Because it'll be fun." Phineas said.

"Go ahead then."

"I'm happy." Phineas said. "Let's put some lights up now, Ferb."

Ferb and Phineas ran out of the room, leaving Perry alone with the decorations.

Perry found his squeaky reindeer toy in the box of decorations. He picked it up and began chewing on it.

He hoped the boys' electricity bill wouldn't come out of his savings.