shepard walks around in a santa hat at all times and refuses to listen to any criticism like the true aries they are.
kaidan and ashley reminisce about christmases on earth and manage to get their hands on authentic candy canes. kaidan gets teary-eyed and leaves one in shepard's hoodie without telling them. ashley finds an old recipe for eggnog and they sit drinking and chatting until the early hours of the morning.
wrex refuses to partake. it's a dumb earth tradition and he can't find it in him to care. however, when shepard seems dejected, he begrudgingly attends the dinner and eats with them. he doesn't wear tinsel though. that's where he draws the line.
grunt is dubious at first but with some prompting he joins in. it turns out he loves the festivities, and he spends most of the time starting loud play fights and games. he finds red cloth and drapes it over himself to look like santa.
tali and liara are both absolutely fascinated by the holidays and ask a long string of questions about how traditions differ in different cultures and parts of the world. liara is particularly fascinated by the religious aspect, and spends copious amounts of time researching pagan traditions and where the concept of yule and the marking of the change in season originated. tali is more interested in how it's celebrated, and does her best to make the celebrations multicultural, adding her own quarian spin to it and adding some cool, tecchy lights to brighten up the Normandy.
garrus pretends not to be interested, but he can't help but watch the light return to shepard's eyes when they recount their own christmas experiences over time. their joy and bittersweet celebrations are contagious, and he finds himself humming along to the strange human carols they're singing. when shepard is rosy cheeked and drunk at the end of the day, they tell him all about how they've always celebrated. he doesn't care about the holidays themselves, but shepard gets so wistful and nostalgic, and he's transfixed. they stay up late comparing cultural celebrations and end up celebrating like turians: sparring.
miranda rolls her eyes at the tradition and thinks it's a waste of time. jack sees it as an excuse to get drunk, and boy does she dance when she's had a few. it brings miranda to the party, and despite her derision she finds it's all worth it to have shepard dangle mistletoe in between miranda and jack. she finds herself laughing properly for the first time in a while, and when jack says she's "not as robotic a princess bitch as i thought", there's something a little fond about her tone.
jacob finds an unexpected friend in thane, who is baffled and bemused by the celebrations and keeps out of the way to meditate. samara joins them for a peaceful moment's prayer among themselves, away from all the ruckus. when they find all the trash in the morning, they bemusedly and kindly tidy for the others, though ask any of them and you'll get complete ignorance.
mordin takes so many notes it's ridiculous. he wants to examine different behaviours and how different species respond to very human celebrations. he tries to stay on the sidelines, but vega refuses to let him and draws him in to a festive game of cards. when vega gives up to go and flirt, miranda challenges him to an arm wrestle and puts him on the floor to give him some humility. for the rest of the evening vega is starry eyed about her. quietly, jack takes him aside to tell him to back off, and even threatens to show him an extra good time if he dares go there.
javik refuses to participate in anything. it's, in a word, primitive. liara leaves a gift for him outside his door, however, and the next morning she finds it gone. there's a prothean artefact in his room the next time she visits. he never mentions it, but she smiles at him a little more all the same.
legion doesn't really understand it, but it joins in as much as it can. shepard gives it some N7 armour and although it can't make sense of gift giving or its purpose, it seems to appreciate it all the same in that synthetic way.
joker is the life of the party. he drinks, he dances (as much as he can), he jokes at everyone's expense. he explains the concept of mistletoe to edi purely as an excuse to kiss her, and she is a bit more lenient with him than usual. she finds the festivities interesting, having already learned all there is to know about human culture. experiencing it is different, however, and she confesses to shepard that she feels a strange, human sense of belonging during the celebrations.
harbinger and sovereign get drunk and bitch about shepard for another 50,000 years.
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