Wonderful winter gales swept in fresh snow here in the Teforh Forest. This made for a white Christmas and was always something people could get excited for in the middle of the cold season back in the previous world I lived in. It was my goal for this year to make this a reality for the people of this year as well, or at least start the process in the village of Doovlin. The people of this world already celebrated what amounted to the winter solstice but I felt that the general joy spreading of Christmas would fit in nicely.
To help propagate the holiday cheer I had recruited my high priestess and high priest. Together we and the tag-along fairy were going to be passing out presents and simple cookies to the people of Doovlin alongside explaining briefly what the holiday was about. Instead of us traveling all around the world in a single night we were having people come throughout the day to the main hall of the village center where they could collect the items.
Since it was pretty freakin cold outside we also had some hot food to share as well. There was soup, mashed potatoes, the cookies, and honey ham. Pretty basic stuff and nothing outside the possiblities of the general public in this world. The hall was also decorated with plenty of pleasant candles and my “magical” colored lights. There was also a Christmas tree again, though unlike last year it was much more modest and only filled up the hall itself instead of the goddess sized one I had done before.
At the moment I was standing in the main hall with Miya, Timothy, and Duncan. They were going to help me pass out the presents while Salferia fluttered about generally being as little of a bother as I could hope. Jackson wanted to help with the food but had to keep to the inn with his son due to the weather as it was an important building for travelers. His wife Illena and his twelve year old daughter came instead and were more than plenty to handle the food serving as they had lots of experience in the inn. Currently they were a short distance away from us doing the cooking I had instructed them on.
The young girl was named Salome and had darker hair than either of her parents that flowed down to her upper back. She had brown eyes, a clear recessive trait, and pale skin. She was very well behaved and an excellent cook also thanks to all the help around the inn she was used to giving. With her was the small doll I had given to her as a present last Christmas time. She had named it Henna after the goddess that gifted it to her and liked having it around despite how childish having a doll might be.
I along with all my helpers were dressed in red felt suits, white gloves, black boots, and a red dangling hat. It was the classical Santa Claus outfit and while none of these people knew what it meant I was here to explain it to them. It was still midday and the people wouldn't be coming until a few hours from now which gave plenty of time for my history lesson and final preparations. We all looked pretty silly honestly due to how out of place this whole thing was. Looking around one could mistake themselves for being in my world.
Salferia flew past Timothy's face and kicked him in the nose with a giggle.
“You look so pathetic little Timtim! You certainly let this goddess make a mockery of you!”
Timothy jerked backwards when his nose was hit and then frowned in the opposite direction of the fairy. It was clear he had a fair bit of embarrassment.
Miya giggled herself and gave the young man a pat on the shoulder.
“I think it looks pleasantly silly on us all.” She said with a smile. Then with a look to me. “I'm sure our lovely goddess is going to explain these outfits to us.”
I nodded my head with my hands on my hips. Truly with my tiny human height I should really be an elf. But I had decided to keep that particular part out of the holiday here. Partly it was because of the fact elves actually did exist here and it could be seen as extremely insensitive to compare them to what north pole elves were.
“Yes!” I said with my chest a bit puffed out. “As silly as you feel these outfits are an important symbol of the holiday of Christmas!” While I spoke I looked down at myself and patted the wrinkles out of my red coat. “This is the outfit worn by Saint Nickolas, or Santa Claus, when he passed out gifts to children.”
Duncan was rubbing his beard in thought with his right hand. Even though his facial hair wasn't white he looked the part more than any of the rest of us did.
“This man sounds like a very kind fellow.” He commented. “Though I suppose since you told us he was not a god of any kind these outfits and the tradition of Christmas are to honer his legacy and continue it?”
I shrugged my shoulders and lifted my hands up to my sides.
“Well kinda. The holiday we're celebrating here is a combination of the new year celebration and Christmas. Which in itself is a combination of several other traditions.”
Timothy let out a sigh and shook his head.
“Honestly I prefer when traditions are simple goddess.”
Miya sighed with a smile at Timothy before looking to me.
“What other traditions is this holiday from in your world Jenna?”
I started pacing back and forth which I did often when explaining things. My left hand was also lifted up ot my chin as had to think a little to remember all the details I wanted. Sometimes even now specific memories still could elude me like mist drifting over the lake of my mind.
“Well as mentioned the Santa part comes from the human Nickolas that gave out presents of wooden toys and other small things to the children of the nation he lived in. That was adapted together with certain druidic winter rites.” I paused my pacing to look up at them. “Druids are nature mages.”
As my audience nodded with understanding I looked back down and continued both my explanation and pacing.
“Those rites involved celebrating a figure in their religion called the Oak King basically asking him to quickly return. He represented spring while winter was the Holly King. Basically these two godlike nature spirit figures fight each other and when one dies the season of the other begins. Then they eventually come back to life after a few months to fight and win, thus continuing the cycle.”
Salferia fluttered over next to Timothy's head and crossed her arms while looking down at me. There was a slight frown on her face.
“Such a preposterous idea.” She chimed in. “Humans from your world sure were stupid! Here even the dumbest mortal knows no nature spirit could get that powerful.” Then she shrugged and looked away.
I stopped my pacing and gave a little glare her way.
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“Yeah well to be fair they didn't technically exist in that world.” I snipped back. My face then eased up. “Anyway there was another large element of the holiday but its a pretty religious one.” After saying that I looked down with a slump and hesitated. “I'll leave it out for now but it involves my father in heaven.”
Miya smiled down at me and took a step forward to give me a pat on the head. She then stepped back again.
“You don't have to go into it if you don't want to silly.”
Her reassurance was pleasant and a little grin came back over my face as my mood rose in excitement once again. My hands went back to my hips and I stood up tall again.
“Yeah none of that stuff is really as important as what the holiday stands for now.” I said. “Spending time with your family, enjoying warm food in the cold snow, and spreading joy through the darkest period of winter.” I shrugged with a smirk. “Maybe being a goddess of light is pushing me to share this holiday.”
The two young adults smiled and nodded while the adult just looked thoughtful at my comment.
“I think you would have shared this with us even without being a light goddess.” Miya said. “You're just the kind of person to share happiness Jenna.”
A slight blush came over my face and I looked away.
“T-Thanks Miya.” I then recovered from my blush and put my hands on my hips again. “Anyway that's the basic rundown of the history of the holiday. As for the activities there's singing songs, telling stories, and just spending time with people. I'll teach you some songs later as when you're helping spread this holiday around the kingdom you'll need to know a couple.” I grinned again. “There's this activity called caroling where people would go around to each other's houses and sing songs to help cheer people up! I always thought it was pretty lame but what did I know?”
Timothy rubbed his arms and looked to the windows of the hall where snow was swirling around.
“Sounds cold.”
Duncan chuckled and gave Timothy a slap on the back.
“A little cold is a price worth paying to spread this holiday cheer, I think its called, right goddess?”
As he looked towards me I nodded and dropped my arms back down to my sides.
“Yup!”
After my reply I pulled a small package out of red coat. It was a small stone figure of an elk wrapped up in simple brown paper tied up with string. There was no need to involve fancy wrappings as they weren't reproducible in this world yet. I then held up it for everyone to see and they all looked closely.
“Ya'll remember I gave out some presents last year.” I started. “Well I didn't really explain it much in detail back then as it was all still pretty overwhelming for me.”
Miya nodded. “You only gave a brief explication from what I remember.”
I sighed and lowered the present down before continuing.
“Yeah well sorry. But now I'm explaining it more.” I then handed the present over to Timothy and gestured for him to pass it around. “There's a little animal figure wrapped up in there. The wrapping is to ensure whoever you gift whatever your gifting to can't see what it is.” I shrug. “It's just to make it a fun surprise is all. Doesn't have to be wrapped up in anything fancy.”
I then pointed to the large pile of such gifts over by the wall and the smaller indoor tree. There were probably around two hundred gifts there all created by me to be rather simple yet long lasting presents to be handed out to the villagers. Part of my preparations was making individualized ones for all the villagers here though again they were nothing fancy.
“Presents are supposed to be gifts from one individual to another, thus I took the time to make a small and simple gift for each villager. I'll deliver whatever is left over to whoever couldn't make it later.” I then pointed to the one that was being passed around. “That one's for your son Duncan so I'll let you hand it to him yourself. Presents can be as fancy or simple as you want. Its all up to the individual.”
Duncan looked down at the small gift and nodded with a look of wonder. He then looked over to me and gave a small bow.
“T-Thank you goddess!”
I couldn't help but let out a little laugh as I saw the look on his face. After regaining control of myself I pointed to his face and almost shouted in excitement.
“That there!” I exclaimed. “See? That look of wonder. That's the kind of reaction you want to get out of people when spreading Christmas cheer.” I took a step backwards and spread my arms out. “Its a season where your kindness shocks people and gives them enough joy to make their faces look full of wonder.”
Everyone was looking at the poor embarrassed Duncan now and the man looked like he was about to curl up in a ball. He was understanding what I was saying however. He was thankfully saved from his embarrassment when his daughter came over and gave him a big hug.
Miya had a grin on her face as she embraced her father.
“Thank you for giving us such a wonderful example father.”
I acted dismissive partly to help ease his embarrassment but also in a bit of a rude manner as I was distracted with my own excitement. My left hand waved around as my other arm fell to my side. As I spoke my eyes were closed for a few moments as well.
“Yes yes. Thank you.” I said. “The presents are all labeled with the names of who you'll be giving them out too. Generally they're left under the Christmas tree the night before the holiday for people to find in the morning, though we're not acting on a family level like that. This is a village wide thing.” Then I opened my eyes and looked around at my disciples. “If there are any other questions I'll answer them while we do our final preparations.” I grinned again. “After all. After this there's that party at my house!”
Timothy gulped and looked at me shyly.
“Am I invited goddess?” He then looked to Salferia. “And her too?”
I nodded.
“Yes you two are too.” Then I clapped my hands together. “But before then we have Christmas cheer to spread! Lets do this thing everyone!”
My various gathered minions all stood to attention and gave their replies.
“Yes goddess!”
With the troops thus rallied our preparations for the coming evening continued in earnest. There were several basic Christmas carols I had to teach to my helpers as well as how to properly wrap presents. My two cooks were also a bit overwhelmed even with all the prep time we had just because we were cooking enough food for the entire village. Thus I helped out both physically and with magic to ensure everything was finished in time. My so called Christmas minions also gathered up extra firewood to keep the place warm going into the night.
Thus and so the several hours passed until the evening came. Outside darkness fell while large snowflakes still drifted about in the light breeze of the night. People had began arriving by then. It was sort of a come and go gathering where the villagers arrived on their own time and only stayed as long as they wanted to. Even the village hall wasn't big enough to contain everyone in the entire village at once.
As people arrived I had Miya stand by the open doors and welcome people inside as she was a friendly face everyone knew. I helped her out as well of course. We stood in the doorway and beckoned people into the warm building with the light from inside casting out into the swirling darkness of the snowy night. This internal light bringing lift to the darkness was the exact kind of sight one wanted to see on a cold Christmas night.
Inside throughout the even there was plenty of socializing by the various villagers which really showed what a wonderful community it was here. Illena even went home halfway through so her husband and son could come for a brief visit. Everyone has laughing, learning the new songs, and eating a simple meal. This little oasis of light and warmth was truly everything I could have hoped it would be.
The presents also went over well as expected. Everyone who received one was very happy which made me happy as well. It's always a good feeling to give a gift to someone and see the joy on their faces. Once again like last year I refused any presents for myself even though many people wanted to give me material things. Just as before I told them that their love and worship were enough. I stand by this decision as even if I wanted presents it would quickly spiral out of control due to how many worshipers I have all around the kingdom.
This wondering evening and early night seemed like a waking dream with the whole thing passing by me as if immaterial. My general social tolerance also got quite overloaded after a while and that contributed to the overall unreal feeling I experienced. It was still fun of course, just overwhelming.
Because of this near the end of the little celebration I removed myself to sit outside on the roof. It was just for a small break of about ten minutes before I came back down and inside. Then after the last of the villagers were leaving and we were closing it down I helped with the cleanup as well. With a goddess helping it went very quickly.
Once all the cleanup was done I took Timothy and Salferia back to their own home in the capital and said goodnight to everyone from Doovlin. Tomorrow I had my new year party and I really needed some alone time to recharge my mental state. My second year in this new world was almost complete and while the future was scary there was also still powerful hope and excitement in my heart.