Summary: Xander and Anya observe a Christmas tradition (takes place within the Season 6 canon)

Disclaimer: Xander, Anya, Willow and that entire universe belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and so on. The ‘Peanuts’ characters, television specials, and all that belong to Charles Schulz’s estate. I am borrowing the characters and scenarios for my own amusement and the enjoyment of others. No harm or infringement intended. (I absolutely ADORE Charles Schultz and his work, so my little twists with ‘Peanuts’ are meant with the utmost affection.)

***

"Thank you for your business, and please come back when you have any more gifts to buy."

Anya was in her element. It was the 20th of December, which meant that people were finally getting around to their holiday shopping. The Magic Box was filled with shoppers looking for that "perfectly unique gift." People weren't coming in to buy relatively inexpensive candles or herbs but fancy (and expensive) baubles. And when the money was coming in, Anya was a happy shopkeeper.

Her head snapped towards the door as she heard people enter. The cheery greeting on the tip of her tongue was swallowed when she realized that it was just Xander and Willow. No need to waste her holiday cheer on them; they weren't customers.

"I can't believe you actually bought an ornament of a raccoon in a sleeping bag!" Willow laughed as they closed the door behind them.

"Well, it wouldn't be Christmas without a sleeping bag. At least this time I won't be sleeping in it outside," Xander replied.

"Are any of those for me?" Anya eyed the bags Willow and Xander were sorting on the table in the middle of the store. "Because I have gifts for you, which means you have to buy gifts for me."

"That's my fiance, ever the advocate for equal rights." Xander hurried over to kiss her on the cheek. "And no, those are not for you. I'm not letting your gifts within ten feet of you until Christmas morning."

Anya pouted. "But how am I going to shake and rattle them in an attempt to guess at their contents?"

Xander grinned. "You're not."

Willow laughed. "Ok, we need to head over to Buffy's. I promised Dawn we'd decorate the tree tonight, as tradition demands." Willow looked over at Xander. "Speaking of traditions, are we still on for 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' Sunday night?"

"No way am I missing the Snoopy Dance!"

"The 'what' dance? On Sunday night? That's the last late night of retail shopping and I'm working; Xander can't go dancing without me."

"Ahn, honey, we're just celebrating an old tradition. Willow and I have watched it together ever since we were kids. You didn't seem interested when I mentioned it last week, so I figured we'd do it while you were working so that you and I wouldn't miss a minute of Anya-Xander-Christmas-togetherness."

"Yes we will! We were supposed to be together for the important stuff, and that's one of the biggest sales nights."

Xander sighed. "That's not exactly what I meant. I was thinking you, me, a fire…"

"... and many orgasms?" Anya perked up. Willow cringed.

Xander closed his eyes and shook his head. "Um, yeah, and that too. But that's between you and me, remember?"

"Ok, fine. You can have your night with the video. You're still an amateur when it comes to sales." Anya went back to her cash register. "I never understood the point of all that fluffy cutesy stuff, anyway. Christmas is about gifts and decorations and cheery music and some religious thing."

Xander gave her a quick hug. "Thanks sweetheart. I'm going to help the ladies with the tree. See you at home after you close up?"

Xander didn't get an answer; Anya was already busy wrapping an engraved hourglass and chatting up the customer. Shaking his head, he grabbed his share of the bags and followed Willow out of the store.

"So you and Anya are really going to spend Christmas alone? No visits?"

"Pretty much. Buffy doesn't seem to be in the spirit this year and you and I are doing our thing Sunday. We'll be over for dinner, and to deliver gifts, but other than that, I need some peace and quiet."

"Doesn't sound like that's what Anya has in mind. Do you think she'll be calculating profits in between orgasms?"

Xander swatted Willow on the arm. "Oh not you too! This is so not fair."

"Yeah, but you know that she'll be thinking about it."

"I know." Xander heaved a sigh. "I just wish that Christmas wasn't all retail stuff with her. I've waited so long to celebrate in my own place with someone I love..."

"What about last year?"

"Don't even go there! It was her first holiday season working in the shop - I had to bribe her with her presents to get her to come home. But mention caroling or a big dinner, and she went blank."

"Maybe she just doesn't know." Willow looked thoughtful, then grinned. "You need to teach her! Stockings and cartoons and carols and sweet movies. Oh, I know! I know! You need to play her the video and show her the dance! Then she won't feel so left out."

Xander hugged Willow. "This is why you're my best friend! You have the best ideas. And I think I know just the perfect way to arrange this."


**Christmas Eve Night**


"Why do you bother? You aren't religious. I've been reading up on this, and it's a religious holiday." Anya closed her account book and put it away.

"Hon, that's not the point - yes it's a religious holiday, but who doesn't like the thought of peace on earth and goodwill to man? Besides, it's TRADITION to celebrate it."

"I thought you said that Christmas with your family sucks."

Xander sighed. "I did. But that's just my family. There's other stuff that makes it worth while. Donating toys, singing carols, shopping, goodies, parties, gifts, mistletoe, watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with Willow..."

"So you've mentioned about a hundred times. What's so special about this show?"

"The only way you're going to know is to watch it. And guess who bought the DVD today?"

Anya seemed to give up as Xander reached for the remote controls. "Can we do the mistletoe thing tonight?"

"One tradition at time," Xander grinned at his fiancé and turned on the DVD. "First you're going to see why this is a classic."

It seemed that Xander's plan to show Anya the magic of the cartoon would work… for all of thirty seconds. The animated kids had barely begun to ice skate to the song "Christmas Time is Here" when the comments started.

"Oh, I know this cartoon. The guy's first wife called me when their marriage fell apart. She wished that he would die along with his comic strip. Well, I had a little fun with that one. I -"

Xander paused the DVD. "One minute. Are you telling me you cursed CHARLES SCHULTZ??"

"Well, his wife wanted vengeance. That's what I did, remember? Like I was saying, he was such a sweet man that I went easy on him. Instead of making everyone hate his comic strip and then having him die along with it, I simply told him face-to-face that his life would be tied to that comic strip. When it stopped, he'd die."

"Anya, this is not exactly comforting."

"Why not? I didn't make him die until years after that encounter."

"Um, yeah, well, let's just get back to the DVD."

The story continued, and so did Anya's comments.

"That's not a beagle. Beagles are brown and white," when she first saw Snoopy.

"Now this Lucy gal has the right idea!" when she watched Lucy rave about the "cold hard cash" she got from Charlie Brown at her psychiatric booth.

When they finally got to the part where the kids were dancing to the theme song, Anya finally figured out the earlier reference to dancing.

"Dancing? That's not dancing! I've seen corpses with more rhythm than that. If this is what you and Willow were getting all excited about, you can have it." She got up from the couch and started heading towards the kitchen.

Xander jumped to his feet to intercept her. "Ahn, hon, wait a minute. You're not getting this at all. Yes, that is the Snoopy Dance, and yes, it is very silly, but that's not the point."

"And I suppose you're going to tell me the point. Can't we move on to the mistletoe now?"

"No. This is one of my favorite traditions, and I want you to understand it. Just let me explain it to you and then we can… um… go to bed. Ok?"

"Fine," Anya answered as she let Xander lead her back to the couch. "But I've worked a very hard retail season, and I deserve to get my way too."

"This won't take long," Xander assured her as he turned off the television and put a CD into the player. "And you might even find that you enjoy it."

Anya snorted, but otherwise kept her peace.

"Ok, the first thing you need to know is that this song isn't call 'The Charlie Brown Song;' it's 'Linus and Lucy.' This will separate you from the ignorant masses." Xander pressed PLAY and the joyful tune flowed from the speakers. He grinned and shook out his arms and legs.

"Now, the Snoopy dance is supposed to be fun. Snoopy doesn't have a care in the world, so he's not worried about how he looks; he's just having fun celebrating being alive. Thus, the dance!"

With that, Xander started bouncing up and down, looking almost like he was running in place, but with almost no regularity to his steps. His arms were down by his sides, everything below his elbows flapping up and down with abandon. His head was thrown back, his eyes were closed, and his lips held an even goofier grin than usual.

It was all Anya could do NOT to laugh. She knew her Xander was no Fred Astaire, but this dance was more awkward than anything she'd ever seen him do. Still, under all her complaining she understood that this was all somehow very important to her fiance, and she wanted to be supportive. Even if what she was supporting was him being a fool.

Her self-control disappeared as the song hit its rhythmic middle section and Xander started bounding all around the room in his bare feet. A giggle escaped her throat and quickly became a full laugh.

Xander didn't seem fazed by her laughing; he just wiggled his eyebrows at her and bounded back to his starting place in front of her. He unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, stretched his arms over his head, and took a couple of deep breaths as if he were gearing up for another round.

The music seemed to melt from the jaunty, playful tune to something a bit mellower. The piano was joined by strings and a saxophone. Anya recognized it as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from that Kenny G CD Xander had insisted they play at home all month. What did this have to do with Snoopy?

Xander slowed down his movements and began swaying to the music instead of hopping around. His grin melted into a sensual smile as his hands went back to the buttons of his grey long sleeved shirt. Thank you Willow for mixing the CD, Xander thought. He gently popped each button out of its hole while rolling his shoulders in time to the slinky saxophone. When he reached the bottom button, he tugged the shirt out of his pants and slid it off to reveal a crisp white T-shirt and muscular carpenter's arms.

Anya blinked, and became very still.

Xander smiled widened as his hands slid down to his waist. He slowly undid the buckle of his belt and made a grandiose show of pulling it out of the belt loops and flicking it up and over his shoulder. His hands went back to his waist, crossed themselves across his body, and peeled off his shirt inch by oh-so-slow inch. It too joined his belt and long sleeved shirt in the pile that was collecting behind him.

Anya's eyes roamed greedily over Xander's suntanned chest. She had always loved the way he looked when he was working out in sun gleaming with sweat, but the sight of the Christmas tree lights highlighting the play of his muscles took her breath away, especially when she realized that his hands were back at his waist and undoing the button of his pants.

Xander took a couple of steps to close the gap between him and his fiance. Looking her square in the eye, he undid the zipper and swayed his hips as he dragged the denim down his thighs to reveal a pair of deep garnet silk boxers.

Anya inhaled sharply in appreciation. Xander bent down to kiss her, but she gently put her index finger on his lips and stood up face to face with him. She trailed her finger down his chest, hooked it in the elastic band of his boxers and began dragging him across the room.

"Uh…." Xander was a bit confused.

Anya nodded to the mistletoe hanging over the door of their bedroom. "We have to uphold tradition after all."

"And never let it be said that I stood in the way of tradition," Xander grinned and pulled the door closed behind them.


Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Winner of the Dragon*Con Buffy Track's 2003 Fan Fiction Contest for "Best Comedy."