P.T. Barnum's 12 Days of Christmas

A/N: I'll be taking some creative liberties with this story. For example, I only recently discovered that the "12 Days of Christmas" are actually December 25 (or the day after) to January 5 (or the day after, the Feast of Epiphany). However, seeing as Caroline and Helen want to show the circus troupe the traditions of the holiday season, I have it so that the 12 days lead up to Christmas, with December 25 being the 12th day of Christmas.

Religion is a significant part of the holiday for many people, but I did not include it in this story, because this story is more about sharing holiday traditions with people you care about.

In other chapters, there will be some historical inaccuracies, simply due to lack of information, or because Christmas traditions that are common now didn't necessarily start until after the 1850's.

Prologue…

December 13, 1851

"Hi, Lettie, hi, Phillip, hi, Anne!" The three performers looked up to see Barnum's little girls bounce with excitement into the circus tent.

"Why, hello, girls!" Phillip picked up Helen and twirled her around. He would've done it to Caroline, too, but apparently she was, "too old for that now." Shame.

"You girls are in good spirits!" Anne commented. Helen beamed.

"There's only two weeks until Christmas! Aren't you excited?" The three adults looked at each other.

"I'm excited for snow," Anne admitted. "It's too warm for snow in the South, and I didn't really get to enjoy it last year. As for Christmas," she shrugged, "W.D. and I have always spent it together, and it'll probably be even more fun with lots of people around." Phillip nodded.

"Christmas was always a pretty stressful time in my house, actually. My mother had to decorate the house just so, and all my relatives turned gift-giving into a competition. So I'm looking forward to something less tense this year." When he finished, the girls looked to Lettie. She frowned as she said,

"Not to dampen your spirits, girls, but Christmas is mostly just another day to me. Should I be excited about something?"

Helen and Caroline looked at each other. They hadn't really been seeing eye-to-eye lately - Caroline was reaching the age where she wanted to grow up and be more independent, while Helen still wanted to copy everything her older sister did - but this just wouldn't do. They needed to show their circus family what a real Christmas was like.