Author's Note:
Here we go, the first one shot!
I apologize if there's any mistakes, I didn't really have the time to edit it because I just wanted to get it out before Christmas.

I hope you like it :)

Also since there's some differences between how we celebrate Christmas in Sweden (for example we celebrate the 24th, open the presents in the afternoon and Santa comes knocking on the door and comes inside instead of coming through the chimney at night) and in America.
My knowledge about the American way to celebrate Christmas is 100% based on the Christmas movies I've seen so if there's any details wrong or something it's entirely on me.

Other than that I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays if you don't celebrate Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Celebrating Christmas with Neal was something that both Peter and Elizabeth had been looking forward to.
They just couldn't wait to decorate the tree with their child, to have him help Elizabeth bake gingerbread cookies and they couldn't wait to see his joy as he ripped open his presents.
They had already given him a chocolate calendar when December came along and the kid had almost cried with joy because he had never ever had one before.
The boy treated the calendar as if it had been made of glass, carrying it carefully as if it would break if he was too rough with it.
He always opened it on the evening when they watched TV together and he took really small bites ,making him look like a squirrel, in order to make the little chocolate piece last as long as possible.

Normally the Burkes took care of their Christmas shopping early in order to avoid all the crowds but this year they waited with a couple of things just to have an excuse to go to the mall.
The real reason was that they wanted Neal to meet Santa.
Peter and Elizabeth walked hand in hand through the sea of people while Neal ran in front of them, somehow managing to not run into someone else.
The Burkes hadn't even bothered to tell him to slow down since they knew that their kid wouldn't listen anyway and Neal used to stay within their sight.
It was the week before Christmas, which was why the mall was filled to the brink with shoppers, everyone stressing to buy their Christmas presents.
Neal suddenly came to a halt, causing a grumpy middle-aged man to almost bump into him.
The middle-aged man looked like he was going to yell at him but when Peter glared daggers at him, the man huffed and continued walking.
They reached Neal and saw that the kid had stopped because he had spotted the mall Santa, sitting on a chair with a small girl in his lap.

" Do you want to see Santa, Neal?"

Elizabeth asked and the child looked up at them with uncertainty written all over his face.

"I don't know."
"Come on, wouldn't it be fun to talk to Santa? And I would love a picture of you two together."
"Okay."

Neal said with a sigh as if he didn't want to do it and just said okay for Elizabeth's sake.
The adults looked at each other before shrugging, both of them writing it off as him being shy.
They walked over to the mall Santa and got in line.

It felt like they stood there forever, surrounded by kids who were either jumping around, screaming, crying or just being loud.
By the time it was their turn, both of the adults felt like they could collapse from exhaustion but they kept smiling.
Neal clutched Peter's hand tightly and he had been since the start, he had probably been the only child who had been calm and quiet.
Peter gave him a gentle push towards Santa and the boy hesitated before he slowly started to walk towards the bearded man.
As Neal walked towards the man, Peter mouthed his name and the Santa nodded.

"Hello there, Neal."

Santa greeted as the kid reached him and Neal turned around and looked at the adults, looking shocked at the fact that Santa knew his name.
Santa then reached out for Neal and carefully lifted the six-year-old onto his lap.

"Have you been a good boy this year?"

Santa asked and Neal just shrugged, causing Santa to let out a hearty laugh.

"What do you want for Christmas, Neal?"

He asked and while the other kids mostly wished for expensive toys and a puppy, Neal just mumbled that he wanted chocolate and some art supplies.
Then they took a picture of him with Santa which Elizabeth were given in an envelope.
As they left, a young girl dressed as an elf also gave Neal a Christmas present.
Peter and Elizabeth thought that the visit with Santa went great and they couldn't wait to show the picture to Mozzie, June, Jones and Diana who would all find it absolutely adorable.
At least they thought the visit went great until they were walking towards their next destination and they heard the unmistakable sound of Neal crying, something that caused the parental instincts to take over completely.
The other people around them didn't exist in that moment and they just rushed forward to Neal and Peter spun him around to see tears running down his cheeks.

"What's the matter, kiddo?"
"I don't deserve this."

Neal said in between sobs and looked at the gift he had received from the elf.

"Of course you do, sweetie."
"No I don't. That's not the real Santa because the real Santa doesn't give me any gifts. The real Santa knows I'm not good."

Neal sobbed while the people passing by kept glaring at them, mad that they had not only stopped in the middle of the walkway but also had a crying child.
The kid gave the gift to Elizabeth before he threw himself in Peter's arms.
Peter lifted him up and tried to console him but no matter what he or Elizabeth said, the child wouldn't stop crying and they decided to do the rest of their Christmas shopping another day.
Peter guessed that his was James' doing, based on what he knew about Neal's biological parents he was sure that it was his father who had been cruel enough to let Neal believe that it was his fault he didn't get any gifts.

The Burkes had been unable to convince Neal that he was deserving of gifts and they had feared that because of this he wouldn't have any Christmas spirit but they were wrong.
Neal loved decorating the house and the tree, squealing with joy when Peter had lifted him up and let him put the star on top of the tree.
He had also love making gingerbread cookies, apart from the regular shapes he was also given a knife to cut his own shapes.
Neal showed his artistic abilities and made a big dog who was supposed to be Satchmo, all the letters of his name, a hat and a big square that he later wrote FBI on with icing, claiming that it was his badge.
Peter had jokingly accused him of forgery and Neal had flashed his gingerbread badge before arresting Peter for slander, which basically meant that Peter was banned from the kitchen and had to sit on the couch, something that he didn't mind since there was a game on.
His favourite part was when he made his own Christmas decorations, cutting snowflakes and drawing Christmas themed drawings to decorate the fridge.
They also made sure to watch a lot of Christmas movies, Neal's favourite being the movie "Elf" where Buddy made him giggle all the time, while his least favourite was "How the Grinch stole Christmas" because the Grinch kind of scared him.

Finally the day they had been waiting for was arriving and as they went to bed the evening before Santa arrived, it was actually the adults who had a hard time falling asleep while Neal fell asleep immediately.
They had bought a lot of gifts for Neal, and they had to stop themselves from spoiling the kid too much especially since they knew that the kid would receive more gifts from their friends.
They woke up early and went down the stairs to start breakfast while they let Neal sleep in.
The tree had several presents underneath it and on the coffee table was the milk and cookies they had convinced Neal to put out the night before.
The milk was gone while there was only half of a cookie left on the plate.
When Neal came downstairs they both looked at the boy excitedly, hoping to see some sort of reaction from him but he just walked past the tree as if it didn't even exist.

"Did you see that Santa's been here?"

Elizabeth asked and Neal nodded, looking completely indifferent.

"Don't you want to see if he left something for you?"
"It's no use, Peter."

The boy answered and Elizabeth slumped her shoulders, looking defeated but Peter didn't give up that easily.

"Well can you get one of my presents then?"

He asked and Neal sighed before trudging over to the tree and picked up the first gift he saw.
The six-year-old froze as he read the tag and they could hear him whispering every single letter several times, as if he didn't believe that he read the name on it right.
Neal slowly turned around and walked towards them, clutching the gift close to his chest.

"This says Neal."

He told him with a confused frown before showing the tag to Peter so he could read it as well.

"Merry Christmas Neal from Santa."
"Looks like you've been a good boy this year, sweetie."

Elizabeth said and Neal's face lit up as he realized that Santa had actually left him a gift.

"Do you think there's more?"

He asked and they both shrugged.

"Why don't you go look?"

Neal ran back to the tree and started to go through all of the gifts, letting out a shriek of joy every time he came across a gift with his name on it.
Soon he had organized all of the gifts into four separate piles, the biggest one was his gifts, the two smaller ones was for the adults and then finally there were a small pile for Satchmo as well.

"Look! Sachmo's been a good boy too!"
Neal exclaimed, causing the dog to wag his tail.

They all opened their gifts together and Neal took his time to look at and appreciate every single one of his gifts.
There was one simple gift that actually brought him to tears and that was a chocolate bar, the exact same kind that his mother used to give him and the same kind that he had shoplifted a while back.
He had, between sobs, asked how Santa knew that his mother used to give him this chocolate and Elizabeth had been quick on her feet and said that Santa knew all of the angels, which made the boy cry even harder because he was so happy to know that his mommy was an angel.
After all of the gifts had been opened and all of the tears had dried, Peter left the room only to return with the gift that the elf at the mall had given him.

"You kept it!"

Neal exclaimed before he opened it up, no longer believing that he didn't deserve it.
Inside the box was a fluffy dog plushie.
Neal looked over at Satchmo who were happily chewing on a bone he'd been given.

"I already have a lot of stuffed animals but Satchmo doesn't have any."

Neal said before he crawled over to the dog.
The adults shared a worried look, knowing that the reason Satchmo didn't have any stuffed animals was because he tended to rip it to shreds in the matter of seconds.
To their surprise Satchmo accepted the toy and gave it a gentle lick instead of slaughtering it.

When the first guest arrived Elizabeth was in the kitchen cooking their dinner, Peter were assisting her and Neal were setting the table while loudly singing Jingle Bells.
The kid immediately abandoned his task when he heard the doorbell and skipped over to open the door for June and Bugsy.
The dogs immediately started to happily play with each other while June and Neal put the gifts she'd brought under the tree where they would sit until after dinner.
It didn't take long before Jones and Diana arrived, Jones wearing a Santa hat and Diana wearing golden, glittery reindeer antlers.
They even brought a couple of reindeer antlers for Neal who excitedly put them on before running around, telling everyone that he was Comet, which apparently was his favourite reindeer.
Finally Mozzie arrived, wearing an elf hat.
While they waited for the food to get ready, Neal showed the guests what he had gotten from Santa and it was clear to everyone in the room that the child was having the best Christmas of his entire life.
Peter and Elizabeth looked over at the guests who were laughing at something Neal had said and then they looked at each other.
Last Christmas it had only been Peter, Elizabeth and Satchmo which had been cozy but also kind of lonely.
Their wonderful little child had not only made their Christmas better but he had also managed to bring all of these people together.

After dinner, when everyone's stomachs were hurting from too much food and way too much laughter, they walked over to the tree.
They had all gotten Christmas gifts for each other, Peter had been surprised to see that even Mozzie had participated and bought gifts for the FBI agents.
Yet again, Neal's pile was the biggest.
June got him several expensive, top quality art supplies and an art journal where you each day of the year got a challenge to draw something.
Jones got him a book about dinosaurs and the movie "Disney's Dinosaurs".
Diana got him a hoodie where the hood looked like t-rex head and the back had scales as well as a pack of Legos.
Mozzie gave him a couple of books, some of them regular children's books while some of them was about art, and a lock picking set, something that made Peter shake his head and mouth "really?".
After opening all of the gifts they watched the Disney version of "A Christmas carol" and "Home Alone" together before they moved to the kitchen table to play board games.
The FBI agents had to keep an eye on June and Mozzie when they played Monopoly, since they both were caught both cheating and teaching Neal how to cheat.
They moved on to Trivial Pursuit where Neal sat in Peter's lap and rolled the dice for him and eventually managed to answer one of the easier questions.
They put out the gingerbread cookies they had made and while the adults were served mulled wine, Neal was happily sipping a hot cocoa.
Eventually Neal couldn't stay awake anymore, no matter how much he wanted the day to last forever, and he dozed off in Peter's lap.
They paused the game so that Peter could carry the boy up the stairs and put him to bed.

"This was one of the best days ever."

Neal mumbled as Peter tucked him in.

"I'm glad to hear that."

He said and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.

"And guess what, pal. New Year's is just around the corner."
"Can't wait."

Neal mumbled before he fully gave in to sleep and Peter smiled before he left the room and went down to join the rest of the adults downstairs.
If New Year's was going to be anything like today, Peter couldn't wait either.