Twelve Days of Christmas

A/N: This the first in a series of holiday centric one-shots I wanted to do. They're going to be loosely related intertwined with a story I started up here. Just as a warning I default to canon couples, because I really only ship one couple, but I'm a big fan of the friendships in the club so it is ensemble focused. Expect to see lots of characters as I'm going to do my best to include everyone. Each new update will be tagged with the main character/ major player of that one-shot.

On the first day of Christmas...

Rachel had big plans for the first Christmas as a one half of a couple. They were plans that were inspired by seeing how her parents were so affectionate with each other. From the kisses when they thought she wasn't looking, to those rainy days when they curled up on the sofa watching Daddy's favorite vintage movie musical.

That affection plus a lifetime of analysis female leads and their various paramours led her to realize that Christmas was the ultimate romantic holiday only second to Valentines. Which meant that there were several things a girl needs to do with her boyfriend in the Christmas season even if said was of Jewish faith.

Making a list she placed down various moments she wanted to recreated, and started putting her plans in action.

But first she had to find her glitter.

The next day, she approached Finn with advent calendar each day marked with a certain moment she wished to recreate.

"What this?" he asked staring as she placed it in his locker right above their cat calendar.

"It's an Advent calendar. They're very popular in England, each day you open it to find a different gift waiting for you lasting to Christmas Day. But in this case I altered it to make it things we can do together."

"But you're Jewish," Finn stammered, "you were going about this holiday I had to come to see at your house this week."

"And you will," Rachel said gently tugging at his jacket. "It doesn't mean I appreciate some of the more secular traditions, and anyway while I mostly identify with my Jewish heritage my other dad is Christian and I can't help to enjoy some of the benefits of partaking in the holiday."

"Isn't it a bit weird," Finn said staring at the calendar, "and I don't think that there's so many things we can do in a month."

"You'd be surprised," Rachel said assuredly as she thought of the bunches of mistletoe she had stored in her locker, and her strategic places to position them. But it might take more than mistletoe to get him really excited about it. Pecking him on the cheek, Rachel went off to enlist the others to help.

Quinn and Sam blew her off, Puck was out of the question, Mike quickly ducked out of the way into the astronomy room, and Kurt kindly reminded her he wasn't driving up two hours to help her put nargled ingested plants on the ceiling. She almost got Brittany but she was dragged off by a very determined Santana. That left…

"I'm telling you it looks like Hogwarts," Artie said adamantly to Tina and Mercedes as he turned his laptop towards them as they sat in the choir room. "Look at those decorations!"

"I told you," Mercedes said to Tina, "not to let him have a Harry Potter marathon. Kurt's going to kill him when he comes back for the break."

"We still haven't figured out how he's going to be part of Secret Santa without someone knowing he had sent the present." Tina said.

"We could just have everyone send it by post, with no return address." Artie proposed.

"Are you kidding me?" Mercedes interrupted, "My uncle-"

"You're doing Secret Santa!" Rachel squealed jumping up from around the piano.

Last year Tina and Artie would have averted their eyes ignoring her, and Mercedes would threatened cut her or claim something else stereotypically threatening. But today, they merely looked up in surprise at the box of in her hands.

"I thought Mr. Schue fully the deck the holly in this place," Tina said looking at the decorations that graced the rooms, "are you going to put a menorah in here?"

"Not exactly," Rachel said, "I need your help, I got an Advent calendar for Finn and myself to celebrate the season."

"And you need our help," Mercedes cut in, "we're not your elves."

"But we will help you," Artie put the laptop aside and rolled up to reach for the box on top of the piano Rachel lifted it up out of his reach.

"Nevermind that, I want in."

Tina frowned, "In what?"

"Secret Santa." Rachel said adamantly.

"Gurl, yo crazy," Artie remarked.

"Why not?" Rachel said putting her hands on her hips, "It's perfectly reasonable question."

"We're just doing it with the four of us," Mercedes said, "that way Kurt wouldn't get suspicious we were trying get him to celebrate Christmas."

"I like Kurt too," Rachel protested, "and ever since he went off Dalton it hasn't been the same…" She gasped, "Why doesn't the whole club do it, A New Directions Gift Exchange.! We can draw names out of hats everything! This could be the thing to lift our spirits to get in gear for Regionals!"

Artie looked to Tina who looked to Mercedes who shrugged at Artie.

"If we tell her no," Artie said, "she'll tell everyone."

"I'm not afraid of them," Tina said quickly, "Except for Lauren."

"Why not though?" Mercedes said, "We'll be buying most of them presents anyway."

"So it's settle then," Rachel said clapping her hands together, "next Glee Club meeting I'll pass the hat around, I'll tell them it was your idea of course, as we'll have until the last day before break to get our presents. This is going to be great! Maybe we should have a party too-"

"No!"

Rachel turned to them, and felt her smile drop. She was overdoing it again. She promised herself she wouldn't keep doing this. Not when she was sure they were just pretending to like her.

"We'll do the party," Artie blurted out, as Tina stared at him. Mercedes covered her face, muttering something her breath. "You're Jewish anyway, why should you plan a Christmas party?"

"As almost offensive as that is," Rachel beamed her good spirits returned, "thank you very much." She dropped the box in his lap.

"You're welcome." He said wryly picking up a pair of reindeer antlers.

Rachel left the choir room, with a slight bounce in her step giddy as if she sung her favorite Barbra ballad. Maybe she might not get to have the prefect romantic holiday with Finn but if she could celebrate something with the club it might be just as good! She would need someone to recount of her early days as a rising Broadway star after all.

"Rachel."

Finn stopped her in the hallway holding a necklace in front of her. "Happy Hanukkah. I was going to wait for Christmas since you kinda of celebrated it and I was talking to Puck who as going on and on how he had weighted dreidels and was going steal the pants off his cousins, and realized tonight's the first night. And thought you should get it now before I forgot the rest of the nine days." He placed it her hand. "You'll wear it right?"

Rachel smiled as she clutched the star in her hand, trying not to tear up at the fact he cared enough to make sure it was a six pointed star.

"Thank you," she said quietly before stretching on her toes to kiss him. "It's eight days actually, but that's okay. And you can forget about the advent calendar, I was just going to extremes again we can do something with just the club-"

"I'm actually quite excited about it," he said interrupting her as he wrapped an around her shoulders, "I peeked ahead, and I always wanted to make a gingerbread house, it's like cake right?"

... I received a gold star under a clump of mistletoe.