A grumpy introvert is forced to wear an embarrassing costume and play Mrs. Claus at a big public event on Christmas Eve.
Beca Mitchell was wrapping up her work for the day as a junior producer at Residual Heat Studios. Just as she was closing her laptop, her coworker Jesse walked into her office with the puppy dog eyes Beca knew all too well.
“What is it, Jesse?”
“What? Can’t I just walk into my friend’s cubicle at the end of the day?”
“Of course, but I know that look. You want something. Spill it.”
“So, do you remember how I mentioned there was a big Toys for Tots event tonight?”
“Yeah. I already donated a bunch of toys,” replied Beca.
“Right,” said Jesse. “But…it turns out we need a Mrs. Claus.”
“Jesse…”
“I wouldn’t ask, but there’s literally nobody else. I just found out she’s down with norovirus, and there’s no way she can come. Even if she stopped throwing up, she’d expose all of those kids.”
“I don’t even like Christmas,” said Beca.
“I didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas, and I feel like I missed out. Hanukkah was cool and all, but not really the same.”
“Well, my holiday memories generally involved a lot of family drama, especially after my parents’ divorce.”
“This is an event for kids. Can’t you just throw on a Mrs. Claus costume for a couple of hours and put smiles on the faces of underprivileged children?”
“Stacie and I had plans for tonight.”
“So, invite her to come along. She can be an elf.”
“Stacie is almost as tall as you are, Jesse.”
“Okay, then she can still help out. I’m sure we’ll find something, and we could use as many hands as we can.”
“Let me text her.”
Beca texted Stacie, who agreed to come along, especially after reading that Beca was going to dress as Mrs. Claus. Beca suggested Stacie wear the costume instead, and all Stacie sent back was a laughing emoji.
Beca sighed and rolled her eyes. “Okay, Stacie’s on board, probably so she can take embarrassing pictures.”
“Excellent,” said Jesse. “I’ll text you the address.”
About an hour later, Beca found herself in the women’s bathroom at a nearby department store holding up a Mrs. Claus costume that was definitely going to be too big. She sighed as she held it up in front of her, hoping someone had safety pins or that she’d be sitting down the whole time. The dress was way too long and was going to drag on the floor.
Before Beca had managed to try to get the costume on, an adorable redhead entered the bathroom, holding up an elf costume.
“Hi!” She said upon seeing Beca. “I’m Chloe. Jesse said your name was Beca. Is that right?”
Beca froze for a moment. Chloe was so beautiful she’d forgotten her own name for a second or two.
Clearing her throat, she replied, “Yeah, that’s me.”
“Awes,” she said.
“Awes?” Beca asked.
“Awesome. I started shortening words back in college, and I guess I didn’t get out of the habit.”
Beca nodded.
To Beca’s surprise, Chloe immediately began stripping in the middle of the bathroom rather than going into a stall.
Beca glanced at the stalls and realized she was going to have to do the same thing; she didn’t want any part of her costume, or worse, her own clothes, landing in the toilet. The stalls were very small. She tried not to stare at the beautiful woman in front of her in her underwear and started stripping.
However, Chloe seemed to notice her staring.
“Yeah, I’m pretty confident about…all this,” she said.
“You should be,” Beca mumbled back, her cheeks flaming.
Once she got into her costume, she discovered it was worse than she thought. It felt like it was a foot too long, but it probably really was only half of that. Thankfully, it had an elastic waist, so at least the skirt wasn’t going to fall.
“I guess the original Mrs. Claus was taller,” Beca said sheepishly. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know how to sew. I don’t even own a sewing needle or thread, much less a sewing machine.”
“It will be fine,” Chloe reassured her. “I have some safety pins. My grandmother taught me how to sew, and she taught me how to hem. I don’t have my machine, but I think I can strategically place some pins so it looks like it was hemmed.”
“Okay, I guess. I don’t exactly have a choice. I mean, I do, but I promised Jesse. He kind of suckered me into it.”
“He said it was ‘for the children,’” Chloe said, doing air quotes.
“Exactly.”
“That’s him.”
“He got me with the puppy dog eyes.”
Chloe winked. “Good to know those work.”
Beca groaned internally. Chloe was adorable, and the wink already had her hooked.
She followed Chloe out of the bathroom and into the store’s stockroom. It was cramped, but it was better than doing all of this in the bathroom. Chloe pulled a pack of safety pins from her purse and asked Beca to stand still. She folded the bottom of the dress and asked Beca to look down and see if she was okay with the length. It was a couple of inches above the floor, so Beca agreed. In a few minutes, the dress was off the floor. She looked down at the dress and saw that Chloe had been true to her word. She could barely see where the dress had been pinned. She reasoned that everyone would likely be looking at Santa, rather than the bottom of Mrs. Claus’s skirt, anyway.
Stacie walked in at that moment and practically doubled over with laughter.
Beca folded her arms. “Stacie, that’s not helping. You know, this costume is probably the right length for you if we take the pins out of the bottom of the dress.”
“Yeah, but you can’t convince me to wear it.”
Beca opened her mouth to say something and then shut it. She’d been friends with Stacie long enough to know that she was right. Stacie had never been one to do anything she didn’t want to do, and it was nearly impossible to change her mind.
“Fine. So, what are you doing?”
“Jesse has me in charge of keeping the kids occupied after their turn to see Santa is over.”
Beca looked and saw Stacie had put on an ugly Christmas sweater and had a festive headband in her hand, figuring she’d put it on when things started.
“Okay, it’s picture time!” Stacie declared, holding up her phone and already beginning to snap pictures.
Chloe soon put her arm around Beca and posed.
“Shouldn’t you be taking pictures of Jesse as well?” Beca asked.
“Already did,” said Stacie. She showed Beca the photo gallery on her phone. Beca had to admit Jesse looked surprisingly at home in the Santa suit.
Beca sat next to Jesse in her Mrs. Claus costume. She tried her best to smile, but the costume was itchy and uncomfortable. She wasn’t comfortable in large crowds, and she wondered how and when to make Jesse pay for this. She figured she’d start with insisting he bring her some coffee first thing Monday morning.
Jesse did an excellent job playing Santa. He had the “Ho Ho Ho” laugh down, and he took the time to listen to the children as they told him what they wanted. Beca’s job was to walk the child to the elf, and she’d direct them to the correct toy bin. Chloe helped each child select a toy and gave them a candy cane if they wanted one. To keep the magic of Santa alive, Santa and Mrs. Claus made a point to tell the children that they could choose an early gift for being on the “Extra Nice List.” Parents were then allowed to choose an unwrapped toy or two to take home to give to their child on Christmas, while Stacie kept the children occupied with Christmas specials, snacks, and crafts in another area of the store.
One quiet, shy girl caught Beca’s attention. She’d spoken so quietly when Jesse asked her what she wanted that Beca had to strain to hear her. Jesse asked her to repeat herself, but even he didn’t seem to be able to understand her. When Beca caught the little girl’s eye, she thought she’d try to take over.
“Hi, sweetie. What’s your name? I need to help Santa make sure you’re on the ‘Extra Nice List.’”
“It’s Amelia,” she mumbled.
“Amelia, right?” Beca asked.
The little girl nodded.
“I see you’re on the list!” Jesse exclaimed. The girl gave a small smile, but she looked directly at Beca.
“That’s wonderful,” said Beca. “What would you like for Christmas?”
The girl shrugged. “I don’t know. Mommy said you might not make it to our house this year.”
“Why is that?” Beca asked.
“Because my daddy left us, and she said Santa might think we live with him.”
Beca’s heart broke in two. She remembered how sad she’d been when her father left, but she’d still received Christmas presents. The girl’s poor mother must have been dirt poor.
“Well, now we know that’s not true,” said Beca. She glanced at the crowd and caught the eye of a young woman who appeared to be signaling the girl to stop, looking embarrassed.
“I’ll help Santa make sure he knows where you are on Christmas Eve,” Chloe added.
Jesse said, “You get to choose a gift early because you’re on the list. What would you like?”
“A Labubu doll,” she said. “And, some Legos and a Barbie doll. But, Mommy said that’s too many gifts.”
Beca looked again at the young woman and tried to express with her eyes that things were okay.
“It’s not too many for someone like you on the ‘Extra Nice List.’”
“Let’s go look at the bin. I have some dolls over here,” said Chloe, leading the girl to the bin of dolls. It warmed Beca’s heart to see the girl’s face light up.
“Excuse me,” she said to Jesse.
She walked over to the young woman and pulled her aside. “You’re Amelia’s mom, aren't you?”
The woman nodded and looked at her feet. “I’m Stephanie. Just a few months ago, her father left me with nothing. He had an affair and left me so he could raise a baby with the other woman. I stayed home with Amelia before that, so I have no money. We had to move in with my parents because the house was in his name only.”
“My dad left when I was young, too,” said Beca. “My mom worked, so we got to stay in the house. But it really sucked. My dad moved across the country with his affair partner. We still talk, but it’s never been the same.”
“Amelia’s father doesn’t even talk to her anymore.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Anyway, we are letting parents take a few brand new toys home to put under the tree for later. I’m sure Amelia will be okay with the other children for a few minutes. Why don’t I show you what we have?”
Stephanie followed Beca to the unwrapped toy area, and Beca encouraged her to take a few toys for Amelia. She smiled when she saw her choose a Lego set Beca would have loved as a child. She chose President Barbie, and she said she’d chosen a career Barbie with big dreams.
Beca headed back to the main event and took a seat with Jesse, explaining that she’d had to take a little break to use the “little girls’ room,” making a lot of the young children giggle, several of whom reminded Mrs. Claus that she was a grown-up.
Beca really hit her stride as Mrs. Claus after that. She listened and engaged more with the children after that, instead of mostly sitting back and letting Jesse and Chloe do it.
As the event wrapped up, she saw Stephanie and Amelia leaving the children’s area. They stopped her on the way to the back of the store.
“Mrs. Claus! Mrs. Claus!” Amelia called, taking Beca by surprise, as the child had barely spoken above a whisper earlier.
“Yes, Amelia?”
Amelia turned to her mom. “She remembered my name!”
“Of course I did.”
She thrust a craft made mostly from green construction paper at Beca. “I made this for you.”
Beca swallowed hard when she looked. The girl had made a Christmas tree, and she’d carefully written “Thank you Mrs. Claus” on it. She’d drawn a picture of herself holding Mrs. Claus’s hand on the back.
“Miss Stacie helped me with the spelling. I wanted to do my very best.”
Beca cleared her throat before responding, trying to avoid openly crying and possibly frightening the girl.
“You did an excellent job,” she said. “May I take this back to the North Pole?”
Amelia nodded vigorously. “Yes!”
“I’m going to put it in the workshop. I am going to be so busy with the elves when I get back that this will remind me to keep doing my best.”
Chloe appeared behind her. “Especially this elf!” She winked at Beca.
Chloe, again, stripped in front of Beca.
“Thanks for your help with my costume,” Beca said.
“It was no problem,” said Chloe. “You were so sweet with that little girl.”
“Amelia?”
“Yes.”
Beca sighed. “I saw myself in her. My dad left when I was a little girl. I never had to worry about getting presents, but I missed him terribly at first. He tried to keep in contact at first, but he was on the other side of the country, so it was tough. I was also really angry and shut him out. And I never did accept Sheila the Stepmonster.”
“Stepmonster?”
Beca shrugged. “She tried to replace my mom when I’d go to my dad’s. She even tried to convince me to move in with them. I wasn’t having it, and I’m pretty sure I remember hearing some rather heated exchanges when my mom was on the phone with my dad. I made amends with my dad when I begrudgingly started college. He taught at Barden, so my tuition was free. He’s still with Sheila, and I’m polite to her, but I’m much happier when she isn’t around when I spend time with my dad.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
The two looked at each other for a few beats.
“So…” Chloe trailed off.
“So….?”
“I…this is probably too forward.” Chloe took a breath before continuing. “I hope my gaydar is correct. I’m bi, so maybe it’s not great.”
Beca smirked as she realized what was happening. She let Chloe stammer for a moment before gesturing to her to continue.
“Would you like to go get drinks after this? Or, maybe a coffee tomorrow if you’re not busy? Wait, are you with Stacie?”
Beca chuckled. “I’m not with Stacie. We’ve been friends for years. We met at Barden, actually. I do have plans with her tonight, but I’d love to get that cup of coffee with you tomorrow.”
“Awes.”
“Yeah, awes.”
They exited the store bathroom and headed to the stockroom to return their costumes. They found Jesse looking at them and grinning. He held up something green and motioned for them to come over to him.
“Okay, you two. I have a mistletoe here that I’m not using, so…”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” said Beca. She pulled Chloe in for a kiss, and she felt the last ounce of dislike for Christmas melt away. Maybe Jesse didn’t owe her that coffee on Monday.
If you need a refresher of the rules or if this will be your first time participating, please check out this post for some helpful information about what is allowed/what will get you coal in your stocking, but disregard any dates mentioned please this is from 2022 and they won't be the same for this year!
Here's the TL;DR for those of you who are familiar with how this goes:
Reply to this post to take part. Reblogs will not be included.
November 30st is the cut off date to sign up. I will endeavor to have everyone assigned by December 2nd.
Posting will begin on December 24th - not a day before! And you have to have your gift finished and posted NO LATER than December 26th.
You don’t need money to take part - just a dash of creativity and the drive to want to do something nice.
Manips, videos, fanfic, and comics are just a few examples of the things you can do!
All pairings are welcome, but I strongly encourage all participants to ANONYMOUSLY message the person they have to ask questions about which they might prefer.
TURN ON YOUR ANONS. I’ve gotten to the point where if your ask box is not set to allow anon questions and your Secret Santa cannot contact you, I will no longer be trying to get in touch - I’ll just remove you from the exchange. So please, even if you’re sure anon asks are already allowed, double check. If you’re not sure HOW to do that, google is your friend.
If you change your name between now and the posting date, please send me a message to let me know. I will not be trying to track people down again, it is very time consuming.
Please don’t leave someone hanging. If you have no intention of doing anything and just want someone to do something for you, don’t reply. It’s not fair and you will get blacklisted from future gift exchanges. (And I’m always looking for volunteers who will write for anyone who might get missed!)
Tag your posts with #merry pitchmas 2025.
HAVE FUN.
That last one is super important.
And, just as an aside, I want to thank everyone who has taken part in this exchange over the years. Ten years is a long time and it's been really awesome to see some of the same names show up for this year after year. I know that fandom can sometimes be fickle or fleeting, that's just the way of things, but to see even a handful of people still hanging around for this makes my heart happy. And a HUGE thank you to @wordsofmyreality for stepping in to take over last year and keep this thing going. ❤️💚
And I thought doing Bechloe Week for three years was a milestone!! Congrats/happy anniversary (not really sure what the terms are for such a thing lol)
I wanted to check whether AI art was allowed as a submission or whether that was a non-starter?
It's really up to you, if that's what you'd like to submit go for it, just make sure you tag it as Ai so others can know just out of respect.
Edit: Your concerns have been duly noted and we will say that Ai work will NOT be accepted during Bechloe Week. The fandom voice matters above personal opinion.
The week will start on the 17th and end on the 23rd being a full seven (7) days
August 17th: Coffee Shop AU
August 18th: "I need your help"
August 19th: Wrong Number Text
August 20th: Apocalyptic World
August 21st: Night Shift
August 22nd: Favorite Hoodie
August 23rd: "She never loved me like I loved her"
Make sure to spread the word and let everyone know Bechloe week is on! Thanks to everyone who has participated so far, and don't forget to add the hashtag (#) "Bechloe week 2025" so everyone can find you work once it's published.
And as always here's a list of acceptable work for each prompt:
Writings
Comics
Pictures
Songs
Animations
Collages
Drawings
LITERALLY ANYTHINGGGG!!!!! Just be creative (or give credit), have fun, and be kind!
Thank you to everyone who's been patient this year, I know things have been slower than normal due to my crazy work schedule and I'm handling things alone this year, but nonetheless I'm making it work.
The official post schedule will be up right after this is posted so look out for that!
Thank you to everyone who voted so far, the results will be out tonight! In the meantime make sure to reblog and spread the news about Bechloe Week so we can get some more traction.
So I might be a day late, my bad!! But voting is now open, you can vote for the following prompts in the ask section on the blog page. Few disclaimers and rules, 1) You cannot be anonymous, your votes/accounts will remain in the safety of the ask messages. 2) You may only vote one, as well as only vote for five (5) of the options. 3) You get one vote per option, do not spam one choice. 4) Voting closes on the 8th at 6:30 PM (EST), votes submitted after will not be included.
With that being said, here are the Bechloe week 2025 voting prompts:
Bechloe Week prompt submissions are open and we’re taking-almost-anything. Here’s a guide to what we’ll accept and how we’ll put them out when it’s voting time.
Do’s:
Quotes
Pictures
GIFs
Themes(Halloween, birthday, food, etc)
Short sentences
Songs/lyrics(credit artist)
Dont’s
Full paragraphs
Overly detailed quotes
Videos
References/crossover ideas
Songs/lyrics(no artist credit)
Please suggest up to seven (7) prompts. When they are all lined up for voting if your suggestion is similar to another they will be put together and counted as one vote. If it is too inappropriate it will not be featured, as well as if it breaks our “Dont’s”. If more than seven prompts are submitted only the first 3 will be counted.
Have fun with it, get creative, and recommend others to submit as well!!
Hey everyone, you might've noticed we changed our username to match the year because we have decided to run it again! It's been a bunch of fun these last two or three years and I'd love to keep it going. Unlike last year though it will be in August like traditionally, so make sure to check back by August 1st for updates and a schedule.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell, Stacie Conrad/Aubrey Posen
Characters: Beca Mitchell, Chloe Beale, Stacie Conrad, Aubrey Posen
Additional Tags: Christmas Fluff, Meet-Cute, Best Friends, One Shot, Christmas
Series: Part 52 of One Shots
Summary:
A series a events during the holiday season.
Merry pitchmas (kinda) to @anotherbechloeshipper
OMGGGGGGG I know I suck entirely too much, I am so sorry for taking this long but it’s finally done. I would’ve finished it way sooner but I came down with a bad cold and it threw everything off, I hope you enjoy and HAPPY NEW YEARS!!
