Christmas is always chaos at my house, so I'm going to keep this short- this came to me last night, took forever to write, and I only had time for a quick edit, so sorry for any mistakes. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to you all!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except this new laptop I'm typing on, courtesy of Santa himself. Yay!

Playlist: First Part: Jingle Bell Rock, Second Part: My Grown-Up Christmas List, Third Part: Let It Go (it's almost hilarious how well that song describes Nico in HoH)

Warnings: Brief Santa spoilers and mild language.

Enjoy!

Traditional

-In which the children of the Big Three start some new Christmas traditions. Percabeth, brother/sister Thalia/Jason (no incest), Jasico friendship, with tiny hints of Jasper, and one-sided Perico. Merry Christmas!-

Snowflakes aren't exactly an uncommon occurrence for New York in December, but it still surprises Percy when he wakes up only to realize that there's pretty much a full blown blizzard going on outside his cabin. The surrealism of the situation floats around in his head for a minute, as his subconscious mind struggles to pinpoint what exactly is so strange about this situation, before it finally hits- Camp Half-Blood never has snow.

Well, except for one day every year, in which Mr. D lets natural systems wreak havoc on the land, meaning today must be that lucky day or Leo angered another snow goddess.

However, seeing as Khione's probably cursing Canada with some frigid ice storm or something at the moment, the only logical explanation is that today must be December 25th, also known as every kid's favourite time of year.

Christmas, of course.

Camp Half-Blood seems to take a particular fondness in the holiday as well, seeing as many of the kids came from poor homes where Christmas wasn't a top priority, or even on the list, for some. The Demeter kids covered the entire place in evergreen and holly (and possibly some mistletoe, if you were lucky), the Hermes kids stole presents for all of the younger campers, and Mr. D would dress like the Grinch and Chiron would be his reindeer/dog (Percy was never too clear on that one). The Athena kids would figure out the precise trajectory needed for the snowball catapult that the Hephaestus kids would build and the Ares kids would proceed to use to deliver crushing, icy blows to unsuspecting victims, while the Apollo cabin sang carols all around.

So, in Percy's opinion, it's fairly safe to say that Camp on Christmas day is one of his favourite places in the whole world. Plus, it's his first Christmas with Annabeth as his girlfriend, seeing as for the last one he had no memory and was on the other side of the country (thanks again, Hera). But now Gaea's defeated, Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood are on friendly terms, and Percy's pretty much recovered from his and Annabeth's journey into Tartarus. All of his friends are alive, and everyone from both camps came up for the holidays.

However, as much as Percy loves his new life and all of his friends and his beautiful, amazing girlfriend, he can't help but think back to the Christmases of his childhood, the ones where Gabe would go and get wasted the night before at some party and sleep the entire day, meaning it was just Percy and Sally. Those were the days where Santa was a real man living at the North Pole, when there were stockings filled with blue candy and little cars, and when there was one present under the tree, one his mom had worked extra hours for to buy. Percy would love it, eating blue candy all day and playing with his new toy while his mother watched fondly. It was simple times. Peaceful times.

And now… he hears the early morning ruckus as the younger campers begin to wake up, racing saying outside much to the chagrin of sleepy counselors. In the middle of Camp, near the fireplace, someone's erected a large pine tree, gifts spilling out from underneath. There's one tiny thing for each camper, and although the sentiment is still great, he can't help but picture the little plastic tree shoved into the corner of their tiny apartment, two presents underneath. It's so different from the world he's living in now, although he can't exactly say he's upset with all of the surprising changes that made his life a whirlwind since age twelve.

There's a knock at his door, and Percy almost falls off his bed at the loud sound, managing to catch himself at the last second, but successfully entangling himself further into his blankets. Annabeth enters, decked out in red and green, a Santa hat with an owl emblazoned on one side propped jauntily on her head. She grins at the dopey expression on her boyfriend's face, walking over to him and giving him a quick kiss. "Come on, Chiron wants all head counselors in the pavilion half an hour early to get dressed."

"Get dressed? What?" Percy had spent most of the last counsellor meeting helping Connor cover his brother in wrapping paper (something about an early present for Katie Gardener), and therefore wasn't exactly listening to Chiron's speech at the same time. "I'm in my pyjamas. Isn't that good enough?"

"We're supposed to be Christmas elves for the younger kids," Annabeth scowls, glaring down at Percy in a way that reminded him uncannily of Athena herself. "Honestly, don't you listen to anything said at those meetings?"

"I was busy!" Percy protests, pulling his girlfriend down into bed beside him. "And anyways, most of the time I'm too busy staring at you to think about anything else." Annabeth blushes, wrapping her arms around Percy's torso, covered in lean muscle from years of training. He leans his head on top of hers, idly tracing patterns into her side as they snuggle closer.

"You're such a flirt," Annabeth mutters, but pecks him on the cheek nonetheless. "Although I must say, I'm liking this new Christmas morning tradition a lot better than venturing out into the cold with everyone else."

Percy grins, kissing her properly on the lips, not a desperate, fast kiss, but one conveying all of the unspoken words flying between the two. It's not a kiss of longing, but one of passion, of happiness, of joy that even after everything the world has thrown at them, they've remained strong and stuck together.

"Percy, Chiron sent me in here to get…" Leo trails off, seeing the somewhat compromising position Camp Half-Blood's resident lovebirds have gotten themselves into. "A! Mis ojos inocentes!" He yelps, patting out a few stray flames that have leapt up from his mass of curly brown hair. "Okay, um, since you've just permanently damaged my virgin eyes- not that Piper and Jason didn't do that enough already- I'll just go now and leave you two to… whatever you're doing." Leo grins elfishly, racing away and leaving the faint smell of smoke drifting through the air.

Annabeth flushes red as the door slams shut, rolling over to face Percy. "Well, that was awkward. And we really should get going, you know!"

"One more minute," Percy protests, pulling his girlfriend back towards him. "You know what, I think this may be one of my favourite Christmas mornings in a long time."

So maybe it isn't the Christmases of his childhood, tiny tree and one wrapped present- and Percy doesn't think he'll ever forget those days- but as far as new traditions go, this one isn't half bad.

o-o-merry-christmas-o-o

The Zeus/Jupiter cabin at Camp Half-Blood isn't half bad when he isn't alone, Jason reflects, as he pointedly ignores the giant statue in the middle of the room. Turning back to face his sister, who's curled up in the tiny alcove flipping through pictures, he can't help but feel a twinge of remorse for all of those missed years he could have spent with his family- his sister.

However, they're finally together, and even though it's five am on Christmas morning, Jason and Thalia are flipping through an old album she grabbed from the house before she left, one of Jason's first Christmas. Thalia laughs as she comes across a picture of Jason in a bright red onesie, rolling around on the ground and playing with piles of wrapping paper. He scowls at her, causing the older girl to wink with electric blue eyes so similar to his own. "Just embarrassing you like my position as your sister allows me to," She quips, grinning and flipping the page. However, upon seeing the next image, her smile falters, a tiny "Oh," escaping her lips.

Jason peers over her shoulder, confused. "What? What's wrong?" He, too, looks at the image before falling equally silent. "Oh."

The image is a full page shot, one obviously taken in a hurry. There's a mother and father, arms wrapped around one another, smiling from one side of a large red chair. On the other side of the chair stands a girl around eight, gap toothed grin on her face and eyes sparkling, surprisingly happy for once. And in the center, seated on the chair, holding a blonde baby in his arms, is none other than the man from the North Pole, the famed toymaker, Santa Claus himself.

It's evidently a mall Santa, judging by the cheap beard and frayed suit, but it still feels like an anvil's striking Jason's heart as he stares at the once happy family. "Is… is that us?" He manages to choke out, staring at the image in shock.

"Dad was around for one Christmas, and Mom was over the moon," Thalia says flatly, fingers tracing over the face of the happy eight year old as not daring to believe her eyes. "She insisted we all went to the mall and got a picture with Santa. I was happy because last year I had asked for a family, and now I had one. We did all of the cheesy Christmas crap everyone hates- baked cookies, woke up early on Christmas morning, sang carols. It was pretty much the happiest we'd all ever been. Well, for five days, before Dad- Zeus- took off again, Mom went back to the bottle, and I became sole keeper of you."

"We all look so happy, though," Jason muses, almost not believing that this family, this happy, smiling family looking like they just stepped out of a magazine, was his own. In all of his time growing up in Camp Jupiter, he had various foster parents, but mostly they all loved him due to the fact that he was the most powerful child in camp, not necessarily because he was theirs. But seeing this picture, seeing his mom and his dad happy and alive and smiling, and Thalia and him together…

"Yeah, well, things can be staged and faked," Thalia says softly, turning the page with a light rustle until she comes across another picture of her and Jason, the former dressed in a bright pink dress, scowling furiously, and the latter laughing. They place almost identical expressions on their faces now, as Jason doubles over in hysterics at the mere thought of Thalia wearing such a horrendous clothing item now days. "That's not funny," She mutters, the family photo forgotten.

They flip through images for a while longer in silence, the only sounds being the occasional flipping of thin paper pages or a chuckle on Thalia's part at a particularly memorable moment. The last picture in the album is one of a sleeping Jason spread out on Thalia's lap, their mother smiling from the background. Thalia stops on that image, looking up at the statue of Hippie Zeus with angry eyes. "Sometimes, I wish our family could have stayed together," She mutters furiously, wiping away a stray tear that falls on her pale cheek. "Why the hell do we have to get the most messed up demigod family in the world? Percy has his mom and his stepdad, Annabeth has two parents and two siblings as well… even Luke's mom didn't give up on him after he ran away. What makes our mom and dad so messed up?"

Jason's shocked, not only by Thalia's outburst, but by the fact that she mentioned Luke. Everyone had mentioned to him various instances before that Luke was a strictly taboo topic around the daughter of Zeus, and up until this point he hadn't ever even strayed close to the topic. Now, however… "Well, maybe Camp Half-Blood's our family?" It's a weak argument at best, but he feels like he needs to come up with some kind of response.

Thalia snorts, looking at her brother incredulously. "First off, I already tried a demigod family. It ended with me becoming a tree and Luke being possessed by an ancient Titan. Also, you're a Roman, and we're both children of the King of Olympus. Do you really think you fit in at camp? I have my hunters, I suppose, and you have your girlfriend," –here Thalia nudges Jason's shoulder playfully, before returning to her tirade- "but a family? Really?"

"We're a family, though," Jason blurts out, his voice sounding horribly childish. He clears his throat, continuing in a more mature tone, "I mean, it doesn't matter that we weren't together for the past thirteen years or so. We're actual blood family Thalia, siblings. And no matter what you say, the rest of camp is our family too. We're a godly family, messy and weird, but we'll all stick together. Today's Christmas, you know, and I'd really love to spend it with my sister and the rest of our relatives, no one sulking or moping, but having a genuinely good time."

Thalia stares at her brother in shock for a few minutes, before leaning forward and ruffling his messy hair. "How is it that you're younger than me but you're so much wiser?" She mutters, setting the album aside on the ground and stretching. "Come on, let's go outside. Everyone's probably waiting, and I think it's about time we started some new family traditions."

o-o-merry-christmas-o-o

Nico di Angelo stands on top of Half Blood Hill, shivering in his ripped, muddy aviator jacket. True to his word, he disappeared right after bringing the Athena Parthenos back to Camp, leaving no traces of where he went. It pained him, in a way, to leave behind Hazel, his friends, and especially Percy, but in the end, he knew it was the right choice. He's a son of Hades. He doesn't fit in anywhere, especially when surrounded by happier, friendlier demigods.

Christmases haven't been fun for Nico for over seventy years now, as there was no official Christmas in the Lotus Casino and after Bianca died, there was no real room for celebrating. He has vague memories of his life as a little boy back in Italy, but some Christmases stand out in his mind- his mother and father, lifting him up to place an ornament on a tree, hanging a sock by the fireplace with Bianca, hoping to get a tiny scrap of chocolate in it the next morning, sitting in church and fidgeting throughout the service, kicking the pew in front of them must to the disdain of everyone else in the building, and the one time he had Christmas turkey, how delicious it was, how his mother had laughed when the juice ran down his face. That was the happiest part of Nico's life, memories he'd never be able to relive.

Bianca and his mother are dead. His father doesn't care. Nico's alone, Christmas just another mundane day of shadow-travelling and grabbing food when he can. It's a day of tuning out happy voices and ignoring parades, pushing past crowds of shoppers and refusing to even venture near any kind of church. Carols are as good as dead to him, and praying? That stopped a long, long time ago, when he realized no God or Goddess could ever bring back what he wanted the most.

But now, after a rouge hellhound attacked him back in New York City, he has no choice but to return back to this place, trying hard to staunch the bleeding from his side. It's late, around five thirty, and even from this distance he can see the pavilion lit up in red and green, hearing laughing children and the sound of cutlery scraping on plates. Nico steps over the boundary line, wishing for a second that he wouldn't be allowed back in, that he wouldn't have to face all of his demons head on. But the blood slowly trickling down his side says otherwise, so, with a reluctant sigh, the son of Hades begins to walk over the camp, feeling the snow crunch beneath his feet as he approaches the fire near the center of camp. It's empty. Probably even Hestia is up on Olympus with the rest of the Olympians, reveling in the pleasantries and celebrating the birth of Christ.

"Who's there?" Someone's voice, utterly feminine and warm, calls out from the storm, and Nico hesitantly steps forward, wincing as a light's shone directly in his face. The girl holding the flashlight gasps suddenly, rushing towards him and engulfing him in a bone-crushing hug. "Nico?"

Nico jerks back, more than a little surprised about the surprising display of affection after being alone for so long. The girl examines him at arm's length, and through the gloom Nico can make out choppy hair and the hood of a snowboarding jacket. Piper. This surprises him even more, as the girl was never all that affectionate with him while on their journey to the House of Hades, yet he hesitantly finds himself hugging her back, never realizing how much he craved human companionship until this point. Although he's travelled on his own a lot, each time it comes with a feeling of loneliness that even he can't completely disguise.

"What… what are you doing here?" Piper asks him, already dragging Nico towards the dining pavilion. "Not that I'm not glad to see you, though. Oh, Hazel will be ecstatic, she was so torn up after you left, and same with Jason- he blamed himself, for some weird reason, as did Percy…" Piper continues to ramble, but Nico feels like someone's punched him in the chest at the mention of Percy. He had hoped that the time away would have distilled any feelings he may have had for the son of Poseidon, but evidently that isn't the case.

Piper drags him over to the bronze brazier in the center of the pavilion, watching as silence falls as more and more people realize the son of Hades in their presence. Hazel's the first to surge forward, grabbing her brother in a bone-crushing hug before kissing him quickly on the cheek. "Nico!" She practically squeals, taking in his gaunt form before realizing the crimson staining his side. "Are you hurt?"

"Merry Christmas," Nico manages to choke out between her hugs, dodging her bigger question as Leo and Frank clap him on the shoulder, exchanging short, happy greetings with the smaller boy. Jason's next, grinning so widely that it looks like his face is going to split in half, followed by Annabeth, who surprises everyone by hugging Nico tightly and telling him, very threatingly, to never do anything like that ever again. The last person of the Argo II crew to approach is Percy, and he stands awkwardly for a moment, before his eyes begin to get a little misty and he hugs Nico so hard he almost goes flying backwards.

The rest of the campers begin coming up, most just saying kind words, but a few giving hugs or threats if he ever disappears again. Nico notices that some kids remain sitting, obviously not totally on board with the idea of having a Hades kid in their midst, but he forces himself to not focus on them, instead directing his attention to the ones actually paying attention.

Eventually, the crowd begins to disperse, and he's rushed off to the infirmary, the bite from the hellhound beginning to seriously throb. Finally, though, the Apollo kids have finished treating the wound, and they leave him on the sterile white bed alone, racing off to go and lead Christmas carols by the campfire or something. Nico sits up, fingers idly running over the thin paper sheet underneath him, both pleased and annoyed by the lack of human beings around. On one hand, it was horrible to have so much affection thrown at him the second he got back to camp. On the other, it was nice to see people actually show affection towards him, not caring about who his godly parent was.

"That's the most white I've ever seen around you," Jason comments, standing in the doorway and grinning just as wide as he was during dinner. "Good to have you back, man. And I'm sorry we made you leave."

Nico sighs, rubbing a hand through his hair tiredly. "I made myself leave. Believe me, it needed to be done."

"Yeah, well, if you just wanted to come back for a week or something, there's a lot of people that would really appreciate it," Jason walks further into the room, and Nico realizes that him and the son of Jupiter may now be bordering on something close to friendship. "Myself included. We were all really shaken up when word reached us that you had taken off, you know. You aren't alone."

Nico scowls. "If you came in here to give me some inspiring pep talk, too bad," Seeing the other boy's upset expression, however, he relents. "Five days. That's all I'm staying for, and that's just because I need to let this damn cut heal."

"Whatever," Jason scoffs, hugging the younger boy and giving him a brotherly clap on the shoulder. "You can come in now, guys!" He calls out to behind him, and suddenly the rest of his friends enter, all decked out in Christmas colours and carrying cookies and presents. Nico gapes at all of them, hardly able to believe his eyes. One by one, they all sit down around him, grinning widely at the dumbfounded son of Hades.

"What are you all doing here?" He manages to get out, still in a state of shock. "Shouldn't you be at the bonfire?"

"Yeah, well, we figured that you might want some people around," Leo says, spewing cookie crumbs from his stuffed mouth. "You know, after being all resentful and moody and alone for so long. So we stole- er, borrowed- a whole bunch of treats and came to visit you, cause there's no better party than a demigod infirmary party, in my opinion!"

"Leo, that isn't even a thing," Hazel admonishes, swiping the Latino boy on the arm before turning to face her brother with a grin. "Plus, we really missed you."

Nico looks at them, eyes expressing the gratitude he would never be caught saying aloud. But these seven people understand the look in his eyes, and all that it represents to him, so they all merely grin, digging back into the treats and catching Nico up on all of the drama he missed during his extremely long absence.

So maybe all of these demigods aren't celebrating Christmas the same way they did at a young age. For most of them, their lives may never be able to go back to that simplicity. But sometimes, change- whether it be in our habits, our relationships, or our world- can be a good thing, one that teaches people new lessons about life in general.

And maybe that's what Christmas is really about. Celebrating tradition, whether it be ancient or very recent. It's about forgiveness, change, togetherness. It's a time for giving, for being together, for loving one another. It's about accepting that change, growing from it, and forming new traditions to suit whatever life may throw in your way. Christmas is a learning opportunity for all, a chance to embrace your fate and run with it.

So there's really no such thing as a 'traditional' Christmas. Christmas is whatever you make it, and, in the end, that's all that really matters.

fin.

I tried to make this happy, I really did, but it turned out slightly bittersweet. And come on, we all needed some semi-happy Nico ;).

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

-Jace ;)