“Who is this guy?” Sirius said as they walked through the shopping centre. “He’s everywhere!”
“That’s Santa.” Remus stared at him. “Santa Claus? Father Christmas? St Nicholas?”
“Father Christmas?” Sirius screwed up his face. “Is there a Mother Christmas?”
“Well, he’s often depicted as having a wife, but she tends to be called Mrs Claus.” Remus reasoned. “But then there’s Mother Nature but no Father Nature.”
“Maybe Father Christmas and Mother Nature are together,” Sirius said. “What’s Mother Nature?”
“Oh, that’s a whole other thing. Not related to Christmas at all” Remus laughed, “Let's just focus on getting Christmas presents, and hot chocolate and then go home.”
While Fleamont, Euphemia and James had pre-booked plans to visit family in Goa during the Christmas break, Hope and Lyall Lupin had invited Sirius to stay at their home with Remus. He would have been happy to remain at Hogwarts, but Remus promised him all the muggle Christmas delights he could ask for if he came home with him, so who was he to say no. Plus, spending time with Remus, just with Remus was something he found himself craving more and more. But he tried very hard not to think about what that could possibly mean.
So here they were, walking through the German Christmas Market, hands brushing occasionally, sending shivers up Remus’ spine, and down Sirius’.
“So, Father Christmas.” Sirius started. “Whose father is he? Is this to do with that chap Jesus? Is he Jesus' dad?”
“It’s not… He's not Jesus' dad, no. It’s a lie that muggle parents tell their kids. That Father Christmas or Santa brings them presents on Christmas Day, but really, the parents buy them. They say that Santa lives at The North Pole and magically can fit all the presents into a sleigh and deliver them all over the world in one night.”
“Well, he could be using an extension charm and apparating. It’s not so far-fetched.”
Remus sighed, “Yes, but muggles don’t know about those things. They just go ‘oooooh it’s magic and get on with it, not asking any questions.”
They walked up to the Hot Chocolate Stall and Remus got them each a hot chocolate with the commemorative mugs. It would be nice to take them back to school and have matching mugs in the dormitory. An image of the two of them curled up in bed together on a cold morning, clutching matching steaming mugs made him choke on his hot chocolate.
“Hey, easy!” Sirius chuckled as he rubbed Remus’ back gently.
They sat down on the stone wall that surrounded the fountain nicknamed by locals as ‘The Floozy in the Jacuzzi’ and Remus took another sip of the hot chocolate. It was incredible. He hummed in contentment, not missing the look Sirius gave him as he did so.
“I can’t believe your family never did Christmas,” Remus said softly. “I mean, I could rant for the whole of December about consumerism and capitalism ruining muggle Christmas, but it’s such a wonderful time of year. I used to love writing my letter to Father Christmas. Circling things in the Argos catalogue.”
“In the what?” Sirius asked, “Argoscatalogue?”
“Oh, there’s a shop called— Never mind. It was like a big book with everything you could ever want in it. Jewellery, tools, clothes, toys, musical instruments, furniture. And there was a new one every year, and a lot of muggle parents, like my mom, would bring home one of these books and get kids to look through for ideas of what they’d like Santa to bring them.”
“So you just wrote this man a letter saying ‘please give me these items’?” Sirius blinked at him. “And this is a genuine muggle tradition, not just a strange Lupin one?”
“Well, yes I guess that’s the long and short of it.” Remus nodded, “But it’s also a bribery thing. Santa only brings toys to good kids, and there’s a song about it that literally says ‘he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.’.”
“That is… the most terrifying thing I've ever heard. ‘Hey kids, this old man is watching you sleep, but it's ok because he’s going to bring you presents’?”
“Well when you word it like that, Padfoot...” Remus laughed, exasperated. “I think it’s just one of those things that is so ingrained into muggle culture. Well, some muggle culture. Not everyone celebrates Christmas but that is most definitely a conversation for another day. I’m not getting into muggle religion with you in the middle of town.”
“So how do people know what he looks like?” Sirius asked as they got up, put the mugs in Remus’ bag and walked towards the shops. “Because everyone has him looking the same. Wearing the same thing even. Are you sure he’s not real? Maybe he’s a wizard, and just doesn’t want people to know he’s real.”
“Yeah… maybe you're right,” Remus said wearily.