I know it's LATE but... I didn't get most of my Hazbin Christmas ideas until after Christmas... hopefully you'll still enjoy it~

Disclaimer: I do not own Hazbin Hotel.

Chapter 6.

Vaggie has been gently trying to calm down her bouncing girlfriend all morning, but by this point she doesn't see much reason to anymore.

So instead of putting her hands on Charlie's shoulders and trying to hold her still like usual, Vaggie opts to let her do as she pleases.

Charlie's bubbling excitement today stems from the fact that she intends to ask the staff of the Happy Hotel if they'd be all right with decorating the place up a bit for a certain special occasion: Christmas.

Christmas - and any other religion-based holiday, for that matter - is a controversial concept down in Hell. For every argument and war people had fought over their religions and holidays back when they were alive, it happened twice as much down here. The only sort of 'good' side to it was that if you got murdered for your beliefs down here - as horrible as it still was - you didn't stay dead for long and could soon regenerate or respawn to argue another day.

The holiday times were always a bit tenser than the rest of the year down in Hell. There was a bit more crime, a bit more hatred, a bit more strife...

But there was also something present that was never, or rarely, present at any other time of year.

There was a tiny, minuscule bit of hope. Of joy. Of happiness.

People who had celebrated their holidays when they were alive would flock to find those with similar beliefs even after death, and in spite of their now-wicked and demon-like appearances, some would still ardently practice and celebrate just as they'd used to.

There was always a half-hearted tree in some houses, a few little lights sprinkled outside the properties, a couple nice songs playing or gifts being opened.

Even when the worst of the worst demons would sometimes steal said gifts and break said lights, overall it was the kindest time of year in Hell - or at least the time when there were the most smiles on the faces of its inhabitants.

Charlie has always loved the concept of Christmas ever since she was little. Being born in Hell, she had never had those beliefs herself, but rather those who had known holidays and joy during their human lives had brought their traditions down with them.

Charlie had learned over the years about these wonderful holidays that spread joy and cheer and good will towards all people, and had fallen in love with them from the very beginning. Her parents had humored her and brought her a few presents during the festivities over the years, and had even gone so far as to set up a small tree.

But as she'd grown older they had stopped all of that, and with her dream of running the hotel realized, Charlie had pushed the concept of Christmas to the back of her mind for a while.

But now that she's finally here, actually in that hotel and trying to make her dream a reality, she lets herself remember the childish joy Christmastime had once brought her.

And so presently, she asks the others if anyone would be offended if she were to decorate the hotel a little bit.

"I-It's okay if we can't," she tells them all in somewhat of a staff meeting out in the lobby; they had to have most gatherings there because Husk only ever left his booth to go to the bathroom.

The others raise eyebrows at her for the proposal.

"Charlie," Vaggie says. "I'm not sure that's a good idea…"

"Aw, quit bein' a buzz-kill!" Angel groans. "Let the girl decorate! Go nuts! Throw up them streamers an' balloons and let's open some presents!"

"It's Christmas, not a birthday party."

"Aw, whatever, y'know what I mean."

While Angel sticks his tongue out at Vaggie and she glares back, Charlie looks to the others for approval.

"What about you guys?"

Nifty, who is already bouncing in place at that point, eagerly agrees.

"That sounds wonderful! Christmas was always such an amazing concept because some big red man would come to your house and bring you presents, and he'd visit everyone in the world in one night! With so much breaking and entering you figure he would've gotten arrested by now…"

As she tapers off, Charlie looks nervously to Husk next. He simply raises one eyebrow from above his newest booze bottle and snorts.

"Do whatever the fuck you want. It's no skin off my nose."

At last, Charlie glances over to Alastor, who typically remains quiet and observant during such conversations, no doubt drinking in the reactions of all involved.

"Al?" Charlie says, clearing her throat. "What about you? Is it okay with you if we set up a tree and a few decorations…?"

As soon as Alastor is being addressed, Vaggie stops in her hair-pulling with Angel to keep an eye on the radio demon. His shoulders shake with a light chuckle.

"Charlie, my dear, if it should help you in any way toward achieving your dream, I say decorate away!"

Charlie clutches her hands together as a wide smile spreads across her face.

"Ohmygosh, yay! Thank you, you guys!" She turns to Razzle and Dazzle who have been on standby and now straighten up, grinning. "Raz, Daz! Can you guys go get the boxes and stuff from the basement?"

The two little goat demons give sharp salutes before scampering off giggling.

Charlie twirls around in her spot, still bouncing up and down and making excited little squeals.

Vaggie forgets her distrust of Alastor, her disapproval of Husk's drinking, and her annoyances with Angel all for a beautiful split second as she relishes her girlfriend's merriment. She pictures Charlie back on earth with her, having a real Christmas. She'd definitely be one of those people who still believed in Santa Claus until she was twenty, or perhaps even longer.

Now, she's pulled from her reverie when Charlie dances her way over to her.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I can't believe we're actually doing this!"

"Easy, hun."

"But I'm so exciiiiited!"

Vaggie sighs, crossing her arms with a hopeless smile. But Charlie must remember that she was the only one who had expressed concern for the idea, and she quickly stops bouncing, smile fading.

"Do you… still think this is a bad idea, Vaggie?"

Vaggie wishes she could wring her own neck. Why does she always seem to be the reason for Charlie's dejection?

"No! No… Of course not, Charlie." She reaches out gently and rests her hands on her girlfriend's shoulders. "I'm… sorry I'm always the one who's stepping on your toes. I'm supposed to be helping you live your dreams, not crushing them."

Charlie cracks a little smile.

"It's okay. You were just trying to be the voice of reason in all this. You're right that decorating for a religious holiday might send out the wrong message about the hotel to some people. But I'm hoping it will send a better message to more! After all, the whole point of this place is to make people happier, to help them toward redemption, right? What better way to do that than to have a little Christmas cheer?"

"You're right," Vaggie agrees, and it's heartfelt. "Maybe we could even work in some Christmas charity into our redemption programs."

"Oh my gosh, you're right!" Charlie squeals. "We could entice clients with the idea of giving secret Santa presents to random people, or singing Christmas carols on the street, o-or giving out free candy! Surely that kind of merriment would check off a few points in the book of redemption, right?"

"I'm not sure how many demons down here would actually go through with any of that… But it's worth a shot. But let's just focus on decorating for now, kay?"

"Right! I'll make some flyers to promote our holiday redemption activities later! But for now…~"

They all turn around as a ruckus announces Razzle and Dazzle's return. They're both now dressed in red and green sweaters with candycane stripes along their horns, balancing a stack of large boxes between them, the largest of all being about a foot taller than Angel.

As they set everything down with an assortment of small crashing noises, the largest box begins to topple. Angel quickly sprouts his other two arms and catches it with all six.

"Phew! Geez, you got a lotta crap for this, huh?"

"S-Sort of…" Charlie chuckles nervously. "I was kind of a Christmas freak. I just loved the idea of spreading joy to the world! Oh! And speaking of spreading cheeeeer~" She zips to the other side of the lobby, digs out several wrapped boxes from behind the couch, and quickly zips back. "Juuuust in case you guys did approve this idea, I got you all a little something to get into the festivities~!"

She hands out a small, colorfully-wrapped present to each of her staff. Everyone tilts their heads in surprise as they're handed presents - probably the first Christmas presents they've received in a very long time, if ever.

Vaggie blinks as Charlie hands her one as well.

"Charlie… you didn't have to do all this."

"But I wanted too!" she sings. "I can't expect to start celebrating Christmas with everyone else in Hell unless I take care of my own staff first, right? Besides, it's just a little something to get you all into the holiday mood!"

Vaggie's heart is suddenly filled with so much warmth it almost aches. She loves Charlie so damn much.

She steps in to stand beside her, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek as she unwraps her gift.

Underneath all of the wrapping paper is a soft, short green dress the color of a Christmas tree. It has white fluff around the collar, sleeves, and base, and a sewn image of a Christmas tree on the front.

Vaggie marvels at it for a long moment. She feels that warmth again, slowly filling her chest with some bittersweet remnants of joy she'd lost a long time ago.

"Soooo~?" Charlie asks, bouncing again. "Whaddya think~?"

"Charlie… I love it. It's beautiful."

All around her, the others are opening similar gifts.

Nifty is given a small red-and-white striped dress with a candy cane picture on it. There's also a green hat with long elf-like ears sewn in.

"Oh my, this is lovely!" she chirps. "I needed something clean to wear!"

Angel is given wardrobe similar to his usual, only now it's got little snowflakes sprinkled on it. On the front is the word "Naughty" written in scratchy red text.

"Ha!" he grins. "This shit's perfect! I've had my fair share of un-holy nights, if you catch my drift~" He lowers his voice seductively and leans over the bar to ogle Husk. There's a warning growl in response.

"Get the fuck away from me."

"Aww, c'mon, sweetie. Y'know what they say; scrooges need screwin'! Then you'll lighten up a bit on Christmas!"

"Nobody says that and I'll fuckin' kill you-"

"Yeah, yeah, save it. So, what'cha get?"

Husk glances unenthusiastically at the box Charlie had passed out to him. Grumbling all the while, he hooks his claw on the paper and shreds it. To everyone surprise, inside is a bottle of eggnog. Husk's ears stand tall, and his eyes flash with just a bit of interest.

Charlie quickly chimes in.

"It's for after your shift is over!"

Husk doesn't react much more than that right away. But he notices another small object that had come from the box. It's a simple little pin of two beer bottles clinking underneath a little mistletoe that reads "Christmas Cheers!"

And it might just be a collective hallucination on everyone else's part, but for a split second, it almost looks like one side of his mouth twitches up into a crooked kind of smile. Still grumbling, he reaches up to secure the pin onto his hat, then takes a long swig from his eggnog.

"Cute," Angel purrs.

Then all eyes go to the final demon in the room who has yet to open his gift.

Alastor holds his red-wrapped present in his claws with his eyes wide in mild wonder and curiosity. Carefully, he pinches the bow on top and undoes it, then slowly unfolds each wrap of the paper without shredding a single part.

Everyone else leans in a bit, admittedly curious to see what the radio demon had been gifted with, and what his reaction will be.

Inside the box is a headband of a soft fake pair of brown antlers with tiny jingle bells on them, as well as a red ball-shaped nose. His smile never changes in any way as he observes the two items, but everyone else in the room (save for Charlie) falls into an awkward and slightly-terrified silence.

Charlie breaks that silence as she clears her throat.

"It's fine if you don't wanna wear them! I just wanted to get you something like everyone else."

Something… unexplained happens then. It's as if time and space themselves distort and glitch all around them, freezing everyone in a corrupted form of reality.

Alastor's eyes burn red static, and his sharp grin flashes yellow as he sends out a silent, threatening wavelength to everyone's ears but Charlie's.

"Should any of you so much as think of speaking a word of this to a single soul in Hell, I can assure you I will personally see to it that you are eradicated as slowly and painfully as physically possible."

And as quickly as it had happened, it's over. Everyone is left rigid in terror for a second as Charlie glances around, puzzled.

"Uh, guys? What's up?"

"Nothing at all, my dear!" Alastor says grandly. "I'm sure they're all just admiring these wonderful gifts you've so generously bestowed upon us! You are quite the charmer, after all." He snaps his fingers and everyone else is brought back into reality and the present, now rendered more or less incapable of so much as looking at him.

Alastor gingerly places the false antlers on his head, then the red ball on his nose. Angel tries his best to bite back a laugh and quickly turns away, covering his mouth with at least three hands. Husk, on the other hand, is a bit too tipsy to censor himself.

"Ha! Who's the fuckin' clown now, huh?"

It's then that several of his booze bottles suddenly levitate and crashed down all around him, shattering in a loud, sobering clatter.

At last, Charlie can finally crack a big smile.

"I'm so glad you guys like them! Then without further ado~" With a snap of her fingers, everyone is suddenly dressed in their festive outfits, including herself in a long red dress with white frills, and a red Santa hat. "Let's get decorating!"

With her declaration given and everyone now dressed for the festivities, they set out to begin.

Vaggie follows her girlfriend to the pile of boxes and starts pawing through them, distributing several wreath-like garlands with tiny jingle bells on them to Nifty, who quickly darts around the set them up on the walls. Alastor helps the little demon out when he can.

At the same time, he hangs up stockings Charlie had made with everyone's name on them on the hearth, and secretly fills Angel's with live insects.

Razzle and Dazzle take some things over to the bar and make it festive with red-and-green streamers as Husk cleans up the broken bottle shards from earlier.

Angel, being the tallest, sets up the Christmas tree in the corner of the lobby, while Charlie and Vaggie help make it look neat. It's old and shedding a lot of pine needles, and it's a bit crooked and dusty.

"We haven't used it in a couple years," Charlie explains.

"Eh, don't sweat," Angel shrugs, nonchalantly picking up Nifty and holding her up so she can dust off the tree. "It'll do."

"He's right, for once," Vaggie says. "It's our Christmas tree now, Charlie."

Charlie's pink cheeks become even pinker, and her smile reaches her eyes.

As they straighten up the tree together and start digging out ornaments, Vaggie pauses for a moment to sling her arm around Charlie's shoulders.

"I still can't believe you managed to find all this stuff, hun. And these outfits."

"I'm just glad everyone's cool with the idea," she replies. "Honestly, I was expecting it to not work out."

Vaggie leans her head sideways and bumps it gently against hers.

"Guess it just goes to show that even the nastiest demons in Hell could use a little Christmas cheer every once in a while."

Charlie hums happily, and their eyes meet. But just before they can lean in, Angel loudly cuts in.

"Hey, save it, you two! I don't even got the mistletoe out here yet."

"Oh, shut up, Angel!" Vaggie snaps, but Charlie ends up giggling.

They all go about adding to the decorations.

Razzle and Dazzle bake some gingerbread and sugar cookies in the kitchen and bring them out to share.

Once Angel has helped set up the tree, he goes around causing mischief, like constantly trying to hang a mistletoe over Husk's head to steal a kiss, and switching Alastor's cane out for a large candycane decoration.

Vaggie has to intervene on his behalf more than once to keep blood from being shed.

In spite of his mood, Husk actually hangs up a wreath at the back of his bar and puts a deer skull at the center.

Alastor strings a few strands of lights across the walls and plays some old-timey Christmas songs from his staff, crackling with radio static. He even joins Vaggie and Charlie in hanging a few ornaments on the tree, though he only chooses the reindeer.

Nifty is babbling away to herself about how she can't believe such a big jolly man could make it around the entire world in one night in a magical flying sleigh as she dusts everything off again and again.

After a moment, Charlie and Vaggie find themselves alone at the tree, hanging up little candycanes and gingerbread men and snowflakes together.

Vaggie can't remember the last time she'd actually had fun on Christmas. She certainly never expected to get to celebrate it again down here in Hell.

But she knows Charlie would have loved Christmas with all her heart if she'd ever gotten to experience a real one, where everything in town was lit up and everyone was happy and joyful.

As Vaggie hangs up a little blue glass ornament, Charlie begins stringing up some lights around the tree.

"Hey, Vaggie?" she asks softly. "Think you could tell me about snow?"

Of course, there was no snow in Hell. Charlie had only ever heard stories and seen pictures drawn here or there from souls who had lived with it before. Vaggie smiles a little sadly and nods.

"Sure thing." She walks over to help Charlie with the lights, walking around the tree with her and settling the little bulbs into place on the branches. "Snow is really fun. You can make snowballs and have fights, or you can build snowmen or forts. It's so cold. Colder than anything you can imagine. Hell doesn't have anything that cold."

"Or beautiful," Charlie sighs. "Tell me about how pretty it was?"

Vaggie nods.

"Snow is gorgeous. Especially when it's enough to cover the streets. When everything is white and sparkling, before the snow plows have gone out to ruin it… It's white and silver and shimmers in the sunshine. You never realize how many branches are on a tree until you see them highlighted in snow. It coats the whole world, and everything is a little quieter, a little softer…"

She tapers off with a sigh as they finish with the lights, now standing together in front of a tree glowing with rainbow colors.

"I wish you could've seen real snow, Charlie. Or a real rainbow."

"Me, too," she shrugs. "But don't worry. This is all more than enough for me! I love listening to you talk about them Vaggie." In spite of the height Charlie has on her, she leans her head against Vaggie's shoulder. Vaggie leans her cheek against the soft fabric of the Santa hat.

"But you know, hun, you're wrong about one thing."

"What's that?" Charlie lifts her head up again to look at her inquiringly.

Vaggie smiles.

"Hell does have one thing more beautiful than snow."

"Aw, shucks, Vaggie…"

With a soft giggle, Charlie leans in to kiss her lips sweetly. Vaggie wouldn't trade Charlie's kisses for all the Christmas cookies and chocolates in the world.

They enjoy their kiss for about three seconds before the sounds of clapping has them pulling back. Angel is leaning over the couch with one arm stretched all the way out to them, and a mistletoe dangling from his fingers right above their heads.

"Aw," he says, still clapping his other hands. "You two's are pretty cute, I'll give ya that."

Vaggie has half a mind to chew him out, but she's too happy.

"Thanks, Angel," Charlie blushes. "Now whaddaya say we finish off this tree, huh?"

He smiles and shrugs. Before long, he's holding up Nifty, Razzle, and Dazzle (in spite of the fact that the latter two have wings and could very easily fly) to the top of the tree so they can put on the last few ornaments.

Vaggie picks out the star for the top and hands it to Charlie, who then hands it off to Angel, who finally passes it to Nifty. With a giggle she secures it at the top of the tree, and the whole lobby fills up with light.

As the tree twinkles in all its rainbow colors, the lights strung all around the hotel begin blinking as well. Even Husk puts his eggnog bottle down for a second to admire the sight. With a shrug, Alastor pinches his fake red nose, and it lights up as well.

Everyone is quiet for a long moment as they get immersed in this strangely-wonderful feeling.

But none more so than Charlie herself.

The rainbow lights all around, the stockings by the warm crackling fireplace, the scent of fresh hot cocoa and cookies, the sound of the radio still faintly playing jingly tunes…

It's the happiest Charlie has ever been. Vaggie's sure of it. She's absolutely beaming, brighter than all of these lights put together, her smile blooming so beautifully it makes Vaggie's chest hurt in the best of ways to see it. Charlie's eyes are sparkling, reflecting all the tiny little rainbows and decorations around the room.

Then, she sniffles and wipes her eyes. Vaggie gasps softly.

"Charlie? Are you okay?"

Charlie sniffles again and nods a few times.

"Yeah… I'm totally amazing, Vaggie. I'm so happy…" In her merriment, Charlie throws her arms around her girlfriend full-force. Vaggie staggers a little but catches her flawlessly, squeezing her back as hard as she can.

"I'm glad. Merry Christmas, Charlie."

The others look on, decently-mannered or touched enough not to ruin the moment.

Angel retreats to the bar and sits to start on his hot cocoa. Nifty scurries up to join him, and even Husk trades his bottle for a mug. Alastor remains standing nearby, tuning his staff and the radio music coming from it until he finds the right song:

'Oh the weather outside is frightful…'

Razzle and Dazzle share a look and a grin before scampering over to gather up all the used wrapping paper from Charlie's gifts earlier. They shred it all up into tiny pieces, and then trot over to their mistress and her girlfriend. Both little goats fly up and begin throwing the paper confetti into the air around the girls just as the radio plays,

'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…'

Vaggie wastes no time in offering her hand, and Charlie gleefully accepts.

They dance together in their matching outfits, sprinkled by paper snowflakes and glowing in so many different colors. They hug and giggle and steal kiss after kiss, fingers curling together as they switch in taking the lead of the dance.

Vaggie used to know the chill of the snow, and Charlie can imagine it to some degree.

But surely that cold was no match for this much warmth.

The warmth of the crackling fire where all of their stockings are hung.

The warmth of all those hundreds of colorful little lights burning all around them.

The warmth of the smell of sweet hot chocolate and freshly-baked cookies.

And the warmth of the friends all around them who had helped make Charlie's first genuine Christmas a reality.

A/N: I know it's so late I'm sorryyyy... But I just had to... I think it'd be such a cute Christmas scene for these guys! I wanted to do more of Vaggie telling Charlie about the living world (in this case, snow), and I wanted to do rainbow lights for Charlie.

Also, I just love the idea of Angel holding up all the smaller demons and wanted to use that again. And I got to throw in one of my favorite ideas of the Alastor playing some nice slow music, and the girls dancing to it together~ I knocked out a lot of things I wanted to do in this~

Hope you enjoyed! Hopefully more to come eventually!

Please review!