“Are you ready to celebrate Christmas with us?” Sophia, Chloe, and Steph went to the castle together, and the dog-girl energetically greeted their favorite little princess.

  “Ellie can’t wait for Chrimmas!” She was already jumping up and down in anticipation.

  “Let’s go!” Steph liked her excited reaction.

  “Let’s go!” The little tiger perfectly mimicked her. “Ellie has a question for Plushy first, though!" She then cutely tilted her head.

  “Yes?”

  “What’s Chrimmas?” Ellie knew that it was something good because all three came to invite her, but she was still lacking critical information.

  “Chloe, Steph, and I originally come from a place really far away from here, and Christmas is a really popular holiday over there.” Sophia smiled at her. “We wanted to show it to you because every kid usually loves it~.”

  “Ohh!” The princess got even more bouncy.

  “Shall we head out?” The blonde extended her hand for Ellie to grab it.

  “Yes!” She instantly took the offer and started holding her hand before the four left together after telling Kira about their plan.

  ----------------

  The girls took a portal to Sophia’s domain, but did not go to their cottage as usual. Instead, the group ended up in the cozy log cabin nested in the snowy mountain valley Chloe and Fen had created together a little while ago.

  “Here we are~.” Chloe gently patted the little tiger’s head as they entered the cottage’s living room.

  Every inch of it was decorated with Christmas ornaments. Countless fairy lights were hung on the walls, emitting a warm yellow glow in a twinkling pattern, along with just as many garlands of pine, each with numerous ribbons and other decorations. Each wall had a wreath and Santa prints, as well. Little decorations like snow globes, nutcrackers, and miniature reindeer, as well as pine twigs, were also placed all over the room, together with many burning candles to make it feel even cozier.

  The small dining table was also decorated with another wreath, extra pine twigs, a few flickering candles, and a few nondescript boxes on a white-and-red tablecloth.

  Plushy red and green cushions were placed on the two sofas, which were wrapped in a large red-and-white Christmas-themed blanket with snowmen, reindeer, and snowflakes knit into it. The small coffee table in between them had yet another wreath and candles placed on it, together with a plate of gingerbread cookies.

  Behind the sofas, the gently crackling fireplace, as a fire was burning in it, was radiating a comfortable warmth through the entire room. Naturally, it was just as decorated as the rest of the room. Hanging over it was yet another pine wreath, and the mantelpiece had even more candles, twigs, and figurines, like reindeer, together with four massive red stockings hanging down from it. Lying in front of the fire, Fen was peacefully sleeping on his favorite sheepskin rug while he was decorated with a small red ribbon on his head.

  The centerpiece was the massive, two-and-a-half-meter-tall Christmas tree right next to the fireplace, though. It was covered in countless fairy lights that alternated between red, blue, and green, combined with glittery silver garlands wrapping around the tree. On top of it, it was adorned with dozens of blue ornaments and tinsel. Only the very tip of it was still bare. Below the tree, half a dozen neatly wrapped white and red presents were on display.

  “WOAH!” Ellie’s eyes were sparkling almost as much as the rest of the room. “SO PRETTY AND SPARKLY!”

  “I think we did a good job~.” Sophia looked rather proud as she smiled at Steph and Chloe, who were standing to her right and left.

  “Yes!” The fox-girl nodded a few times. “It was so much fun, too! Though, it took quite a while.”

  “Well, that was mostly because of my most genius addition to all of this!” The dog-girl let out a triumphant laugh as she pointed above the girls. The girls were still standing half in the doorway to the living room, where a mistletoe hung from the frame. "It’s against the law to just walk past it, after all~.”

  “Ahh.” The other two looked up and paused for a second.

  “You know what that means!” Steph gave them a thumbs-up. Afterward, she and Chloe leaned closer to Sophia between them and gave her a quick smooch on the cheeks each. Letting out a short sigh, the tiger then returned the favor.

  “Hey!” The little princess sounded extremely jealous. “What about Ellie?!”

  “Of course.” Sophia then lifted her up in her arms to get the small tiger on the same height as everyone else to shower her in all the attention she wanted.

  “Ehehe~.” Once she was standing on her own feet again after the cuddling session, Ellie let out a happy giggle. “What is so special about that plant thingy?” She then pointed at the door frame above them.

  “That’s a mistletoe.” Sophia smiled at her. “It’s a custom in our old home to hang one of those somewhere during Christmas. “Whenever two, or more, people walk under it together, they have to kiss. Though, Steph insisted on hanging it first, so it was quite the hold up whenever we carried decorations into the room.”

  “I regret nothing!” The dog-girl just smirked at her sister.

  “Obviously.” Sophia and Chloe had the same reaction.

  “Hehe.”

  “Ohh!” The princess energetically clapped her hands. “Ellie wants to put one on every door in the castle!”

  “Great idea!” Steph gave her a thumbs-up. “We’ll do that once our Christmas party is over, okay?”

  “YAY~!”

  “I’m happy that Menzor isn’t going to be mad at me for a change~.”

  “I mean, he could still blame you for not stopping your sister, right?” Chloe lightly shrugged while looking at the blonde.

  “Shush!” She glared back at her. “If he tries that, I’ll attach a mistletoe to his forehead!”

  “Ellie likes that idea!” She then looked at the older tiger with expectant eyes.

  “I’ll think about it.” It was impossible for Sophia to say no to her.

  “Yay!” Did yet another happy bounce. “What is Chrimmas about? Just cuddle?”

  “You spend time with family and or friends and eat lots of good food. You also be lazy and eat a literal ton of chocolate and cookies. There are presents, too.” Sophia added a little more detail.

  “CHRIMMAS IS THE BESTEST!” She liked that.

  “You also go outside and play in the snow.”

  “Yes, that part is mandatory.” Chloe and Steph had their own addition.

  “CHRIMMAS IS THE WORSTEST!” She disliked that.

  “Don't scare her like that!” Sophia glared at the two before patting Ellie’s head again to calm her down. "Don't worry, that part is very optional.”

  "Really?" The little princess relaxed again. "That was scary!"

  “Yes, I know.” The blonde nodded a few times. “They’re quite mean, aren’t they?”

  “Super mean!” The little tiger felt the same.

  “You spoil her too much!” Steph glared at her sister. “A little snow isn’t bad for anyone!"

  “Nuh-uh!” The two tigers vigorously shook their heads.

  “Haa…”

  "Can you come with me for a moment?" Chloe smiled at the princess while pointing at the big window on the other side of the room. “Don't worry, I just want to show you something from the warm inside.”

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  “Okay!” The little tiger had no issue with that.

  “Great~.” The fox-girl grabbed her hand and walked her over to the window.

  “WOAH!” The living room hadn’t been the only decorated place. Steph and Chloe, as there was no way Sophia had helped them, had installed thousands of blue fairy lights on every single needleleaf tree around the cottage. Combined with the area's amazing permanent night sky and its glowing northern lights, the view was the example of a winter wonderland.

  “Sophia might not agree, but decorating the outsides and spending time outside watching them is a big Christmas activity.” Steph also moved over to the window.

  “…” The blonde couldn’t say anything there.

  "Very pretty! But… Ellie has a great view of the sparklies and glowy sky from in here! No need to go in the cold outside!” The inner cat inside the little tiger still wasn’t convinced yet.

  “True, if you’re lucky enough to have something like this right outside of your window, staying indoors is a tactic for some.” Steph couldn’t fault her logic too much. “You’ll miss out on my favorite winter activity, though.”

  “Mhhm?” She took the bait.

  “Making snowmen is so much fun!” The dog-girl’s eyes were sparkling.

  “Ohh!” Chloe clapped her hands. “Great idea!”

  “What’s that?” The princess tilted her head.

  “You can build all sorts of fun stuff with snow because you can form it so well." Steph pointed out of the window and to their right. "See that big round pile of snow over there, Chloe, and I built an igloo the other day. It’s basically a small building made out of snow. Snowmen are funny figures of people you make by rolling up snow into big balls and decorating them.”

  “Mhmm.” The little tiger went back to grumbling.

  “Almost every kid from where we are loves making them!”

  “That’s true!” Chloe helped sell it to her.

  “Even Sophia loved making them.” Steph smirked at her sister. “We made countless of them when we were little.” After all, before Sophia turned into a tiger, while she always was cat-like, the cold weather wasn’t nearly as much of a bother for her.

  “Really?” Ellie turned her attention to the blonde and looked at her with big, expectant eyes.

  “Err, yes…” She awkwardly scratched her cheek because there was no way she could ever lie to her.

  “If So…phia thinks it’s fun, Ellie wants to try it, too!” The little tiger went back to being bouncy and excited again.

  “Checkmate.” Steph’s expression turned smug as she smirked at her sister. “Or are you going to turn her down now?”

  “I hate you.”

  Naturally, she was unable to say no to Ellie, so everyone got dressed and left the log cabin. As Sophia obviously had a set of extra warm winter clothes for a child in her storage, they didn't even need to return to the castle first.

  ----------------

  “Hmm, it’s a lot less cold than Ellie had thought!" The girls went outside, and the princess hugged her puffy pink jacket. “It’s warm even!”

  “I’m using magic on us that makes the temperature hotter around us.” The blonde patted her head again as she looked around. “We can enjoy the pretty lights without suffering that way.”

  “WOAH!” She got even more excited. “So…phia is the bestest!”

  “Ehehe~.”

  "Ellie needs to learn how to do that before next winter!"

  “I’ll teach you once fall comes around.”

  “Yay!”

  "I really would've preferred if the leaders of this world had been snow leopards instead of tigers…” Steph let out a sigh. “If we have to stay feline, that is.”

  “Haha.” Chloe let out a small chuckle.

  “By the way, what are those black lines?” The princess got closer to one of the snowy trees and noticed the cables connecting the fairy lights as well as the ones leading away from the trees.

  “Those are cables and magic runs through them to make the lights sparkle.” The girls were using Christmas decorations from Earth, and they all ran on regular electricity, which they were getting from camping batteries. Not wanting to explain that, Sophia decided to use the next best explanation for electricity. “Having them all connected makes it easier to feed them magic.”

  “Ohh!” It was enough of an explanation for the little tiger. “It’s sooo pretty!” She concentrated on all the glowing pine and fir trees again. “It should look every day like this!”

  “You’re not wrong, but if you see it every day, it eventually stops being special.” Chloe smiled at her. “It would make you stop looking forward to it.”

  “Hmmn.” She tilted her head while thinking about it. “Ellie disagrees, but Ellie also knows it’s okay when others are wrong, so it’s okay.”

  “Ouch!” The sisters had the same reaction as they looked at the destroyed fox.

  “Fair enough.” Chloe had nothing to add.

  “Okay, time for the snowmen!” The dog-girl clapped her hands to get the little tiger’s attention. “By the way, before you get confused, the men part isn’t literal. It doesn’t really look like men or people in general. It’s basically more like three balls of snow on top of each other with some decoration to make it feel a little more like people.”

  “Ellie can’t really imagine how that looks.” The princess naturally got a little confused.

  “Let’s show her!” Steph looked at her fox-girl, who nodded in return.

  “Sure.”

  The two then immediately got to work. They quickly rolled up three balls of snow by moving it over the ground, so it could pick up more and more snow that stuck to it. Afterward, they placed the three balls on top of each other, with the largest at the bottom and the smallest at the top.

  Sophia also gave them some black marbles, a scarf, and a carrot to decorate it. Marbles, because even Sophia, surprisingly enough, didn’t have any coal in her storage. Chloe wrapped the scarf around the neck of the snowman while Steph pushed some of the marbles into the middle ball to recreate the buttons of a coat before using the remaining ones to give it some eyes and a mouth. At last, the fox-girl attached the carrot for its nose while the dog-girl fetched two sticks from a nearby tree to give the snowman a pair of arms.

  “Tada~.” Once the two were done, they faced Ellie while looking rather proud of themselves.

  “Weird!” The little tiger was a blunt one. “But also cute!” She seemed to like the snowman.

  “Good enough for me!” Steph was okay with the outcome. “Do you want to make one together with us now?”

  “Mhnn…” The princess started grumbling again as she looked at her thick winter gloves before facing the blonde. “Can So…phia use magic to make it impossible to feel cold and wet snow through Ellie’s mittens?”

  “Of course~.” Sophia gave her a thumbs-up.

  “Snowman!” That was all she needed to hear.

  “Great!” Chloe was happy that she liked their activity. “How tall do you want to make the snowman?”

  “YES!”

  “It’s pretty clear that you spend a lot of time with her.” The fox-girl stole a quick glance at the blonde.

  “Ehehe~.”

  “Do you know how to roll up snow so that it sticks and forms into a ball?” Chloe wanted to find out whether she had been paying attention earlier.

  “Ellie has never done it because she’s an indoor tiger when cold, but Ellie watched, so it’s fine!” The little tiger nodded a few times.

  “Alright, then show us how it’s done~.”

  “Ellie will!” The little tiger raised her arm high in the air. “Woah! So weird that snow isn’t cold!” Her expression quickly changed once she gingerly pressed her mitten-covered hands into the snow.

  "Do you want me to make you feel cold after all?" Sophia showed her a cheeky smirk in return.

  “N-O!” She vigorously shook her head.

  “Don't worry, I’d never do that to you.”

  “Good!”

  Afterward, the girls spent the next hour creating three more snowmen, two for practice and a last, massive one that was over three meters tall because that's what the little princess wanted. Ellie was still suspicious about the not-cold snow for the longest time, but the fun of playing with it eventually overruled the odd feeling. Sophia was the same because it still looked cold, and the right mood was just as important for her, but seeing the little tiger having fun was more than enough for her to enjoy it, too. She even ended up helping with decorating the snowmen at the end.

  ----------------

  The group eventually went back inside, where Ellie directly threw herself on one of the sofas after she got rid of her winter clothes, before hugging one of the plushy pillows.

  “Did you have fun?” Chloe smiled at the comfy-looking princess.

  “Yes!” She reacted with a big nod. “Snow isn’t as bad if not cold! Ellie still thinks she prefers looking at the outside sparklies from the inside, though!” She was still a tiger, so her inner cat was hard to overcome.

  “Very true.” The other tiger, the blonde one, nodded a few times. “How about a hot chocolate to warm up our spirits?”

  “Hot chocolate?” The princess tilted her head. “Ellie knows and loves chocolate, but… hot?”

  “You put chocolate into hot milk, add some vanilla and cinnamon, and turn it into a creamy drink. If you want to, it also comes with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on top to make it extra rich.”

  “?!” She was unable to react in spoken words at first. “That sounds forbidden!” The little tiger then raised her voice. “Mama always says that if it sounds too good to be true, it is! Ellie has never heard anything as good as this before!”

  “Don't worry.” Sophia gave her another thumbs-up. “Hot chocolate is legal during Christmas time.”

  “Chrimmas is the bestest!”

  The sisters then went ahead and prepared hot chocolate for everyone, since their memories of it were still the freshest.

  “WOAH! YUMMY!” The princess immediately jumped at the hot chocolate the moment Sophia handed it to her and took a careful sip. Naturally, she was unable to hold back her excitement as she wiped away the chocolate sticking to her lips. “Ellie now knows why it’s only allowed in Chrimmas! Hot chocolate is too powerful!”

  “I agree.” Chloe took a sip of her own. “Hot chocolate is one of the few acceptable hot things.”

  “Yup.” Steph reacted with a big nod. “Hot chocolate and hot girls are the only exceptions~.”

  “Haha.” The fox-girl let out a chuckle.

  “By the way, there’s one more activity for Christmas we can do.” Sophia smiled at the little tiger. “Well, there are several more things, but I have prepared one more.”

  “Mhmm?” Ellie, who was busy with her drink, needed a moment to react. “Yesh…?”

  “Let’s make a gingerbread house together.”

  “What’s that?” She lightly tilted her head.

  “Gingerbread is, uhh… a traditional Christmas sweet, which is kinda cake-like…? It's made with traditional Christmas-like spices and sweetened with honey before being baked. More or less, that is.” Sophia didn’t really remember what exactly it was, either. "A gingerbread house is a small model house, kind of like a dollhouse. Only that it's made entirely out of sweets. Gingerbread as the walls and roof, sugar icing as a glue and decor, together with an assortment of colorful candies to make it look pretty!”

  “W-A-I-T!” The little tiger’s eyes grew wide. “Not only hot chocolate, but you make a dollhouse from sweets on Chrimmas?! Ellie can't believe it!"

  “Do you want to try it out?” Sophia gestured at the decorated table with all the boxes on it. “We have so much gingerbread, icing, and candies that we could make a whole miniature city~.”

  “Can Ellie eat her gingerbread candy house when it’s done?”

  “Ellie has to eat her gingerbread house once it’s finished.” The blonde smiled at her. “We don’t waste, after all.”

  “Chrimmas is the absolute most amazingest holiday ever!” Ellie was having the time of her life.

  Afterward, the girls spent the rest of the day building and decorating a couple of gingerbread houses together. The little tiger had a great time, even though the girls had to stop her multiple times from eating the decorations before they were done with them. Before Christmas came to an end for her, everyone also had a present for her, and the princess went home with a whole bunch of new plushies for her collection.