The holiday season was always hard on demigods, and Percy was no exception. Even before he learned he was a demigod, Percy hated the holiday season. His mother struggled all year long to provide them with what they needed, so there wasn’t much money to be spent for Christmas. Not that Percy wasn’t thankful, he was so grateful for all his mother had done. He just always wished for a year where she didn’t have to stress over making sure he had a “normal Christmas.”
Then, when Percy learned he was a demigod, he wasn’t sure if he should still celebrate a supposedly Christian-based holiday. Percy knew, and even met, multiple gods from different religions, so he wasn’t quite sure what to believe.
So, when Annabeth asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he didn’t know what to say. Did he even want to celebrate Christmas? Did she want to celebrate Christmas? She could tell there was something on his mind and started to prod him to tell her what he was thinking.
“Well, I just,” Percy said with a sigh, “why should I celebrate Christmas? I’m not even sure if Jesus is real. I didn’t even like Christmas when I was younger!” She was silent, which he took as his cue to continue his rant. “My mother worked all the time to make ends meet so we couldn’t afford much for Christmas. Whenever I went back to school, all the other kids showed off their expensive new clothes or cellphones and talked about their ski trips.”
Percy took a deep breath, then continued. “I’m over it now, I know it sounds like I’m not but I promise I am. I just don’t want anyone, demigods, especially, to have to experience what I felt.”
Annabeth waited to see if he was finally done with his rant. She completely understood where he was coming from and while she loved the idea of Christmas, she wanted him to be have a reason to be happy this time of the year, too. So, she said, “Okay, Seaweed Brain, I have an idea.”
“You always have ideas,” Percy responded, smirking, but then Annabeth glared at him a bit.
“Let’s make our own holiday, that other campers can choose to celebrate. What parts of Christmas do you actually like?”
Percy thought for a moment. “I like decorating. I like getting cards. I really think gifts should be optional and shouldn’t be anything expensive. Wait! All gifts, if you decide to give some, should be handmade.”
Annabeth found some scrap paper from her bag, took a pen off the desk in Percy’s room and started writing notes based off what Percy was saying. Percy noticed a few scribble marks where she started to misspell a word that she then crossed off and he grinned to himself. He loved that despite her dyslexia and ADHD, she could still take pride in her intelligence.
“Anything else?” she asked and Percy shook his head.
“I don’t know anything else about other holidays so I don’t want to act like I do, and then change them for this. I want this to be a very easy, stress-free holiday. Demigods of all religions, or no religion, can bend our ideas to fit their means and beliefs.”
“Okay, and what would you like to call your new holiday?” Annabeth asked, locking her storm-gray eyes onto his. Percy just shrugged.
“Maybe it doesn’t need a name. We can think of one later.”
Camp Half-Blood is usually pretty empty in the winter, but New Rome is always full. Percy and Annabeth were on break in Camp Half-Blood so they decided to start spreading the news of their new holiday there as a start and then possibly share it with Reyna and Frank for next year, depending on their success this year. They made up a flyer describing it and explaining that is was open to anyone to follow and decided to each take a row of cabins to talk to. They had gotten permission from Chiron to use the dining pavilion for their festivities, that would take place later that day, December 22nd. They would hang up decorations made from craft paper and would attempt to bake cookies from scratch.
“The main principles are all up to change,” Percy explained to Leo.
“This is a great idea, hombre. I’ll tell the rest of my cabin.” He closed the door and Percy went on to the next cabin, then the next and the next. Some people had more questions and showed more interest than others, some cabins had no people in them at all. But Percy didn’t care about the quantity of people that celebrated his holiday, he just wanted the people they did to enjoy it. He really hoped he wasn’t letting a lot of people down.
Only the first batch of their cookies had burnt, so there were still plenty for the campers to eat. As Percy and Annabeth finished decorating the pavilion, Leo and a few of the other Hephaestus campers showed up.
“Hey, amigos, is there a place for gifts?”
As Percy turned to answer him, he noticed there was a group of four campers, all holding small metallic gifts. Percy smiled and pointed to the head table. A few more Athena campers strolled in with more baked goods. Soon, almost all the campers had arrived at the pavilion, some carrying cards, others had small, homemade gifts.
Leo handed out a few of his creations and they turned out to be collapsible instruments. The few Apollo kids that decided to come sprang into action and immediately began playing some songs they had been working on.
Percy walked the circumference of the pavilion, watching everyone have a good time. He found a cookie with blue frosting and took that with him, nibbling at it every few steps. Annabeth corned him after two trips around and handed him a blue envelope.
“Happy…. whatever, Percy,” she said and he smiled.
“That’s it! That’s the name,” he replied and then opened his envelope. Inside was a card made from construction paper, decorated like the ocean. Percy open the card and noticed Annabeth had colored it to look like sand. She even included “A+P” enclosed by a heart in the sand.
“Thank you so much, Wise Girl.” Percy pulled her close to hug her, but then Annabeth pointed above his hand, where she had hung mistletoe earlier. When he looked back down at her face, she said, “You didn’t say anything about it, so I decided it was fair game. I asked the Hecate campers to put a spell on it so it would only appear above people in love.”
Percy grinned and decided that this was the best Whatever holiday ever. Then he kissed his girlfriend under the mistletoe and enjoyed the rest of his holiday party.
