Christmas on Earth

“Hey Quixly, remember the last picture we took on our first major photography mission we went on?” Captain Finnian asked his friend as they sat together eating lunch on their spaceship.

Quixly nodded, his mouth full of Plibbzar noodles. After swallowing he responded with a huge grin on his face, “Of course, Captain! We took a picture of a gorgeous sunset on that planet called Earth. That was stunning!”

“Yeah, that was a great picture,” Captain Finnian said fondly. Although he had taken hundreds or even thousands of pictures with his co-captain Quixly, he wasn’t surprised that Quixly immediately remembered that one. It was a special picture. It also didn’t hurt that Quixly had an exceptional memory.

“Do you remember what I said about the earthlings when we took that picture?” Captain Finnian continued.

“I think so.” Quixly replied. “Didn’t ya comment on the fact that they were all inside watching little screens instead of spending time enjoying the beauty of their planet?”

“Yep.” Captain Finnian said, now with his mouth full of Plibbzar noodles. Once he swallowed, he continued. “For a while I viewed earthlings as small minded and selfish. However, I’ve been learning more about them recently.”

Quixly nodded in interest, his mouth too full to say anything. Captain Finnian continued.

“It turns out that once a year they have a huge celebration they call Christmas. They emphasize kindness and peace and love, and they put up fun decorations and play uplifting music and give each other gifts. Their celebration is happening now, so I thought maybe we could go check it out and take a few pictures of it, kind of as a way to honor the good side of earthlings after my short sighted first opinion of them.”

“That’s a great idea!” Quixly said. “Do they have good food at Christmas too?”

“Oh yeah,” Captain Finnian said with a grin. “And lots of it.”

“Well gee wizzy dizzy, what are we waiting for, let’s go!” Quixly replied, and jumped over to his control desk to start the navigation. Captain Finnian took one more bite of his lunch and then ran over to join his friend at the control desk as they flew to earth.

Two days and three wormholes later, the friends came out of hyper speed and saw a beautiful blue and green planet in front of them. After taking a minute to admire the view, Quixly turned to his friend. “Alrighty, Captain, where to now?”

Captain Finnian tapped a few times on his screen and pulled up a list of cities and towns. “From my research, these seem to be the best places to celebrate Christmas on earth. Let’s just choose one at random and check it out!” He clicked on a random one, pulled up the directions, and then pushed forward on the thrusters to get there.

Before they knew it they flew up to a snowy little town that was covered in lights of red and green. Captain Finnian landed their ship in a secluded spot a little ways away to avoid frightening the locals, and the two friends put on their communication meshes.

These were small invisible meshes they wore like masks that acted as universal translators. In Quixly’s case, it also was a disguise as it changed his appearance to be more human. Captain Finnian looked human enough that he didn’t need the disguise feature.

Once they were ready to go they walked towards the town square where they had seen everyone gathered when they flew in. As they approached they heard joyful music being played by a local band and choir. The closer they got, the more happy sounds they heard, such as children playing and friends and family laughing together. When they finally walked around the last building and the large town square came into view, they both stopped in their tracks and stared in amazement.

They were looking at a large open area surrounded by warm looking buildings and booths. Little lights were hung up everywhere, coloring the place red, white, and green. Large green trees that resembled Ghlojanim trees were decorated with more lights and other fun decorations. And there were people everywhere, talking, laughing, playing, singing, eating, and even gliding across the ground in a small fenced off circular area. Every single person looked as happy and bright as the lights, and they mostly wore the same colors of red and green.

“Wowza, this is beautiful.” Quixly whispered after a few moments of watching. 

“Wowza is right.” Captain Finnian replied. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” He pulled out his camera and took a few shots of the wonderful scene ahead of him. He specialized in space photography, but he couldn’t miss an opportunity like this.

“Ho ho ho!” Came a joyous laugh from right next to the friends. They had both been so absorbed in the scene in front of them that the didn’t see this large, jolly man approach from the side. He was dressed in a large red coat with gold trimming. A big black belt with an impressive golden buckle wrapped around his protruding belly, and a tall red hat topped with a white ball of fluff finished it off. His long white beard seemed to fit the outfit perfectly, as did his warm eyes and friendly smile.

“Ho ho ho!” He said again. “I don’t recognize you folks, are you here visiting?” 

“Yes, we are.” Captain Finnian replied. He suddenly felt underdressed and wondered if that man’s outfit was the current earthling fashion.

“Well, it’s wonderful to meet you both!” The round man said with a grin. “My name is Chris, I’m the mayor of Holly Town, home of the best Christmas celebration around! You guys were smart to visit on Christmas Eve, this is my favorite day of all.”

“What do you suggest we do while we’re here?” Quixly asked, excited to do more than just watch.

“Ho ho ho, great question! Interact with the locals, buy Christmas gifts for your friends and families, take pictures, sing Christmas songs, and above all else, go get a slice of warm homemade pecan pie from Mrs. Carol before it’s all gone!”

“Thank you, sir. I think we’ll do a little bit of all of that then.” Captain Finnian replied. Quixly was already looked towards the booths trying to find Mrs. Carol’s.

“Have a great evening boys, and a very merry Christmas! Ho ho ho!” He gave each of them a small red and white striped cane shaped object (they’d later learn it was candy), and then he walked off towards a group of kids who were yelling “Santa!”

“Santa? Isn’t his name Chris?” Captain Finnian asked.

“Who cares!” Quixly replied. “Let’s go find that pecan pie!” They both laughed and then walked into the crowd.

Everyone they passed gave them a smile and said “Merry Christmas.” They caught on quick and started to return the greeting. As they approached the food booths several mouth watering smells filled the air, and they picked up their pace. Right before they got there though a woman stopped them.

“Just what do you think you’re doing!?” She demanded. Not knowing what they did wrong, they both just froze.

“It is Christmas Eve and you’re both dressed for Comic-Con. Come with me, we need to get you proper Christmas clothing.” She then grabbed them each by the hand and dragged them towards a small building covered in snow and twinkling lights.

When they walked in the building they got hit with the warmth from a roaring fire in a large central fireplace. They also noticed the catchy Christmas music loudly playing, and the racks and racks of clothing.

“Merry Christmas, Ivy!” A young man said as they entered. “What can I do for you today?”

“Merry Christmas, Nick.” Ivy replied, still pulling Captain Finnian and Quixly along. “Our new friends here need some clothes fit for Christmas Eve. Do you have anything that would work?”

Nick smiled. “Do I ever! I’ve got just the thing, come with me!”

A few minutes later the two of them left the shop dressed for Christmas in new clothes their friend Ivy purchased for them. Quixly was dressed just like Chris, minus the beard. And Captain Finnian was wearing a sleek green coat with silver trimming and some red earmuffs. Decked out in their Christmas gear they headed back towards the booths to find some homemade pecan pie.

It wasn’t hard to find, as the booth had a big sign that read “Mrs. Carol’s Pecan Pie”, and a line of people excited to try some. Captain Finnian and Quixly chatted with some locals while they waited in line. Once they got to the front Mrs. Carol greeted them with a smile.

“Hello boys, and merry Christmas! I haven’t seen you before, are you here visiting?”

“Yes ma’am.” Captain Finnian replied. “And merry Christmas!” He hurriedly added on in an effort to be polite.

“Chris told us that ya make the best pecan pie.” Quixly said. “We’d love ta try some!”

“And I’d love to share some!” Mrs. Carol replied joyfully. “Since you’re both new here you can each have a big ol’ slice, on the house.” She cut two huge slices of pecan pie from a steaming pie tin, and put a big dollop of whipped cream on each one, which she handed to them. 

“Thank you!” Captain Finnian said.

“And merry Christmas!” Quixly piped in. They took their pie to a nearby table with a heater next to it and started eating.

Quixly’s eyes got huge. “Wowza! This is amazing!” He turned to the family sitting at the table next to them. “Have you guys tried this pecan pie! It’s incredible!” He then dove right back into it, sighing with pleasure as he ate.

Captain Finnian chuckled at his friend, but didn’t say anything as he was also too busy stuffing his face with the delectable dessert.

After they finished eating, Captain Finnian decided they needed to take a picture to remember the moment, so Quixly pulled out his old ARV-3500 camera and took a picture of both of them with their empty plates. The ARV-3500 printed out the picture, and they quickly grabbed it to take a look at it.

“Hello! Would you like me to take a picture of you?” Came a friendly voice from another table nearby. A cheerful young woman walked over and introduced herself as Mary. “I know how hard it can be to take a picture of yourself on a camera like that, let me take it for you!”

“Sure, thanks!” Captain Finnian replied. Mary took the camera from them, looked at it quizzically for a moment, then seemed to figure it out and snapped a few pictures of them. She was surprised to see the pictures then print out and fall in the snow.

She hurriedly picked the pictures up. “Sorry! I didn’t realize this was a Polaroid.” 

“A what?” Captain Finnian asked.

“You know, a Polaroid camera. A camera that prints pictures out. I mean, yours is obviously a different brand, but you get the idea. Anyway, I’ve still got to go buy some Christmas gifts, but have a merry Christmas!” She then hurried off to catch up with some others walking towards the booths.

“Hmm, we should buy Christmas gifts too.” Captain Finnian said. “Let’s split up so we can get something for each other.”

“Good idea, Captain!” Quixly replied, and they each headed off to buy some gifts. Fortunately, Ivy had given them each some spending money earlier for this very reason, as they didn’t have any earthling money of their own.

A little while later the two friends met up again in the middle of the square. In addition to the gifts they bought for each other (which they learned the needed to wrap and open the next day), Quixly got some ice skates for his girlfriend Xankandria, and Captain Finnian purchased a small wooden nativity for their mutual friend Bronxin.

“Apparently it’s a depiction of their deity’s birth, which is what they’re really celebrating at Christmas.” Captain Finnian explained, relaying what the shop keeper had told him. “It’s a really cool story, actually.”

After discussing their gifts, they both took one more look around the place. The lights, music, food, and gifts were all exceptional. But the most amazing part had been the people. Every single person was kind and thoughtful and generous. They were so glad that they came back to see what human kind was really all about.

Early the next morning, back in their spaceship, Captain Finnian and Quixly gave each other their Christmas presents. Quixly opened his first, a heavy package wrapped in red paper. Inside was a large bag of pecans. 

“Wowza, is this what I think it is?” Quixly asked, his eyes wide in excitement.”

“Yep!” Captain Finnian smiled. “Enough pecans to make dozens of pecan pies! The rest of the ingredients are similar to things we can get most anywhere, but the pecans are unique to earth, so I made sure you had plenty. Oh, and I included Mrs. Carol’s recipe in the gift as well.”

Quixly jumped up and down with delight at the thought of being able to make such an amazing dessert whenever he wanted now. “Thank you, Captain! Thank you thank you thank you!” 

Quixly’s excitement quickly turned though towards wanting to give the gift he bought.

“Here ya go!” He said to Captain Finnian as he handed him a smaller gift wrapped in green paper.

Captain Finnian opened it up and looked at it curiously. “What is it? A toy camera?” 

Quixly laughed. “No, it’s a Polaroid camera, like Mary talked about. I know you’ve always loved my ARV-3500, and now you have your own earth version!”

“Wow! Quixly, that was so thoughtful! Thank you!” Captain Finnian said.

“You’re welcome!” Quixly said with a grin. “Now let’s go find Xankandria and Bronxin, giving gifts is so fun!” He ran towards the control room, and Captain Finnian heard him yelling “Ho ho ho, hi-dee ho let’s go!” 

With a chuckle Captain Finnian ran to join his friend, and off they went, spreading Christmas cheer and laughter all around the universe.