ugh Christmas is magic and they are magic so get ready folks
Lily Evans loves Christmas because her dad always told her she was a walking embodiment of Christmas: she was kind and happy and red and green
uniforms be damned, she wore ugly Christmas sweaters over her white blouse, the kinds with 3-D decorations on christmas trees and she charmed reindeers to run across them and they were absurd colors with ridiculous prints but without fail, every December she broke out the bottomless purse in which she pulled out her sweaters and a tree
she put a small tree in her dorm room and every year, Marlene, Mary, Dorcas, Alice, and her would decorate it and enchant christmas lights and make the ceiling and walls look as though snow is falling
basically Lily Evans was the epitome of CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
She would decorate the Gryffindor common room and there would be lights everywhere and stockings for everyone staying at Hogwarts and Christmas music playing through her radio
James Potter had always liked Christmas, but it never seemed to be that big of a deal, it was like every other holiday
but Lily Evans changed that
7th year she knocked on the heads dorms and had a twinkling sweater that was the color of her eyes, with a giant reindeer (she insisted it was a stag) on it, that shook it’s head every once in a while, and her grin could've replaced the sun.
Christmas easily became his favorite time of the year
She would get drunk on firewhiskey and serenade Remus screaming about sleigh rides, and Rudolph could make her cry if it was late enough
Lily and Marley would dress up in santa costumes and sneak presents into all their friends rooms for the twelve days of Christmas
Somehow Alice always got the best gifts for people. hands down. They would be about running jokes from first year, somehow funny and thoughtful and it really frustrated Frank because his gifts always felt small compared to hers
but she loved him and it didn't matter
Marlene dragged everyone outside when it first snowed because “guys the first snow is magical, you can't deny it” and everyone grumbled but it was beautiful and that moment lasted exactly 30 seconds before Remus squashed a snowball into Lily’s face
it was WAR and Sirius tackled Remus while Marlene pummeled him with snow, Peter and James teamed up to take on Frank and Alice and they were pretty evenly matched until Alice charmed the falling snow to become falling snowballs that were somehow all attracted to James and Pete hm wonder how that happened???? Lily made a snow angel until Dorcas caught her attention, and they both surprise attacked Sirius and Marley screaming war cries and Remus was able to get up and he charmed all his snowballs blue so everyone knew when he had won
eventually they were all shivering and no one could tell if they were blue from Remus or the cold so they ran to the kitchens where they got hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows and cinnamon rolls
Remus and Lily had a thing where they both wore Christmas sweaters and he appreciated someone else appreciating them as much as he did
Sometimes they even swapped sweaters just to switch it up
Dorcas and Edgar Bones were always mixing drinks at parties, but during Christmas everything seemed to taste vaguely or peppermint, chocolate, or cinnamon
Sirius and Lily first became friends fourth year because they both stayed for Winter break
Her and Petunia had a bad fight and she was scared to go home, Sirius stayed every year
It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship when her Christmas spirit was infectious to even the sullen rebellious teenage boys
Fourth year was about the time she decided she could knit, and she knitted him a green, red, and black beanie, she called it “edgy” because of the black. He wore it all through December, and every year to follow.
they decided to sled down to herbology once it started snowing because it was much more fun and WORMY YOU WON’T WIN THIS TIME
Peter always beat everyone else down the hill and it made Sirius really angry
Lily made him an award, transfigured from a rock into a trophy where she carved Peter’s name
seventh year Mary decided a holiday ball was in order to boost spirits, and quickly got McGonagall on her side given her natural inclination towards transfiguration and sarcasm.
At first it was going to be 4th years and up, but she decided every age was more in the spirit of Christmas
She spent weeks planning and booking The Wicked Sisters and enchanting complex decorations and the ball was like a dream come true, filled with food and great music and for one night every Hogwarts student seemed to forget about the impending war
Every house was dancing and cheering and laughing and for once everyone was merry
Davey Gudgeon shyly asked her for a dance and between her pale complexion and bright red cheeks, she almost matched the candy canes she transfigured
Sirius amazed all of hogwarts with his electric slide and didn't stop even when the slow songs came on
Eventually they all formed a circle and clapped and Frank Longbottom stood on his head and got down like nobody’s business
Dorcas shocked them all with a intense ballet mixed with contemporary that left everybody speechless
and we ALL know James pulled Lily in and they messily spun around and she dipped him and he spun her out and kissed her nose when his arms wrapped around her
hogwarts felt like the family that it should be