Brittany had insisted on helping Piper decorate her locker for Christmas and, as much as the girl didn't really get all the hype around the holiday, when Brittany sent her those big, sweet, innocent, puppy eyes, she couldn't really deny her much. Besides, it was a good excuse for the two of them to hang out more and, even though they had just officially started dating and neither of the girls knew if any of this would be lasting too long, it felt good, for once, to be able to tell everyone that she was hanging out with her girlfriend.

"There." Brittany smiled proudly, as soon as she was done fixing the battery lights inside Piper's locker. "Last year, I left my stocking up over Christmas vacation and an entire family of mice started living in it. Their Christmas gift to each other was rabies."

"Well, I guess that's not a very nice Christmas gift, huh?" Piper said, leaning against the locker beside hers as she looked at Brittany with a smile.

"What are you asking Santa for?" The blonde girl asked and, at that, Piper gasped, staring at Brittany for a second, trying to figure out if she meant any of this or not.

"I'm sorry?" She said, as Brittany giggled.

"P, the roads to the North Pole are getting treacherous. You need to write your letter to Santa really fast and get it in the mail today." Brittany said, leaning down to press a quick kiss to Piper's cheek as the girl just watched her girlfriend leave with her mouth hanging open. "And remember, even the smallest envelope is heavy for an elf."

And as soon as Brittany was out of sight, Piper allowed herself a moment to gather her thoughts.

"No way." She mumbled, realizing that, in fact, Brittany S. Pierce did still believe in Santa Claus.

***

The New Directions were having fun, singing, dancing and goofing off as they decorated the small tree they had with the stolen ornaments and empty presents. As they did so, Quinn couldn't help but notice how Piper and Brittany constantly ended up finding each other, whether to work on some decorations together or to just laugh together over one thing or another. And every time Brittany made Piper laugh, Quinn felt her stomach turn, so much so that, eventually, she just decided to turn her attention back to her own boyfriend and let him distract her with his impressions that, surprisingly enough, Quinn was starting to learn to appreciate.

"Hey, guys." Mr. Schue greeted then, as he walked into the room, before stopping when he noticed the decorations all around. "What's this?"

"We're trying to get into the Christmas spirit, Mr. Schue." Finn was quick to answer. "Christmas is totally my favorite holiday. And check out this awesome tree. I found it on the side of the road. It must have fell off some guy's car."

"And the ornaments?" Mr. Schue asked, causing Santana to shrug.

"The guy who lives next door finally killed off his elderly mother." She said, as Mr. Schue gasped at the girl. "When they carted him off, they left the house wide open. I think she was a holiday hoarder."

"Hum... And the presents?"

"I lifted them from a display at the mall." Puck said. "But don't worry. They're empty."

"Guys, I appreciate the effort, but this isn't what Christmas is supposed to be like." Mr. Schue said, causing Mercedes to shrug.

"For us it is." She said. "This tree is like a mascot for Glee Club. We won Sectionals two years in a row and according to everyone at this school, we still suck."

"Yeah. They slushied us and Tina and Mike today." Piper nodded, standing beside her best friend.

"I'm pretty sure they just added food coloring to real slush from the parking lot." Mike said.

"You can eat that, you know." Lauren commented, causing Piper to frown at her.

"No." Mr. Schue decided then. "I am not gonna let you guys throw yourselves a pity party. Look, I'm the first one to say that things haven't turned out exactly how I would have liked them to this year. But Christmas is all about being grateful for the things that did."

"I thought that was Thanksgiving." Puck said, slightly confused.

"And this year..." Mr. Schue continued, deciding to ignore the commentary. "Glee Club is gonna lend a hand to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Children and Youth Program right here in Lima."

"How are we gonna do that?" Santana asked.

"The only way we know how." Mr. Schue smiled. "By singing about it. We're gonna go classroom to classroom, caroling, to raise money for McKinney-Vento."

"Oh, God..." Piper mumbled, exchanged a worried glance with Mercedes.

"Wait." Tina spoke up, saying out loud what pretty much everyone had been thinking. "Classrooms in this school with students in them?"

"Well, if there are no students in them there will be no one to put money in the collection box while we sing." Mr. Schue stated, as if it was obvious.

"We're gonna be killed." Quinn mumbled.

"No, guys, it's Christmas, a time for miracles." Finn spoke up, suddenly feeling very brave and causing Piper to frown. "We gotta try this."

"Finn's right." Mr. Schue said, as the kids all sighed, knowing now they had no choice anymore. "So let's start rehearsing. This year, Glee Club's going full Santa."

***

Clearly, that idea didn't work and, not only had them all been harassed by the students, even the teachers didn't seem all too pleased with their small performance. So, after being kicked out of yet another classroom, the kids had given up, choosing to rejoin in the choir room.

"I can't believe that that teacher let those students speak to us like that." Rachel said.

"I can't believe she threw her shoe at us." Puck added.

"I guess we're done caroling." Tina shrugged.

"No, we're not." Finn spoke up as Piper turned to look at him tiredly, unsure on why Finn seemed to be so adamant about celebrating the Christmas spirit this year, or whatever. "Guys, we can't let what just happened ruin our Christmas spirit. Mr. Schue got us this beautiful tree to inspire us. We're gonna practice now and gear up for round two tomorrow."

"Pretty soon, no one will bully us." Brittany spoke up and, as everyone turned to look at her, confused, Piper sighed, all too aware of where this was heading. "Santa Claus can do anything and this year I asked for the Glee Club to stop getting picked on."

At that, everyone turned from Brittany to Piper, who sat atop of the piano and flinched a bit at the way everyone stared at her.

"She's kidding, right?" Lauren asked, causing Piper to jump off the piano and wave the group a bit further away from Brittany.

"Guys, this is serious. Listen up." She whispered, leaning forward a bit so everyone could hear her, except for Brittany. "Brittany still believes in Santa Claus."

"You cannot be serious." Mercedes frowned, looking back at Brittany before looking back at Piper again.

"Last week, Brittany believed a comb had magic powers." Sam pointed out. "This is kind of a pattern."

"She's gonna find out sooner or later." Quinn said.

"Somebody needs to break the news to her." Lauren agreed and, at that, everyone turned to look at Puck.

"Don't look at me." He shook his head then. "I'm cruel and all, but that's just hard-core."

"My point exactly." Piper nodded at Puck before turning back to look at the rest of her friends. "Hear me out... Remember when you were a kid, how excited you would get when you would think about Santa Claus, how awesome it was? Christmas was the highlight of the year. Why wouldn't you wanna keep someone's world magical for a little while longer?"

And noticing the way Piper smiled softly across the room at Brittany, Quinn scoffed.

"She can't believe in Santa forever, you know?" The blonde girl spoke up, causing Piper to snap her head in her direction.

"Would you rather just crush her spirit yourself, Quinn?" Piper challenged, as Quinn scoffed.

"Is about telling her the truth she'll eventually figure out, Piper."

"I thought she was your friend."

Scoffing again, Quinn crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at Brittany as Piper watched her with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought so too."

As Sam watched his girlfriend with furrowed eyebrows, Santana glared at Piper, instead, not at all pleased with the fact that she seemed to be the one making Brittany the happiest the last few days and not her. Noticing the tension in the air, Mercedes coughed, bringing everyone's attention back to her.

"How are we gonna help Brittany, then?" She asked, growing just a tiny bit worried when her best friend smirked at her.

"I've got it all figured out."

***

"Can I be honest?" Brittany whispered at the woman working as an elf in the line to the Santa Claus in the mall. "I don't understand the difference between an elf and a slave."

"Britt..." Piper mumbled, amused, squeezing Brittany's hand a bit before letting go of her to check on the rest of their friends.

"I'm not sitting on that guy's lap." Quinn shook her head, still clearly not in the mood for it at all. "Santas' laps are always really warm, and it's creepy."

"We all have to sit on Santa's lap." Piper argued again. "If Brittany sees that we all still believe it'll make her strong enough to withstand all the Santa naysayers in the world."

"Which is everyone over the age of six." Sam said, as Piper sent him a glare.

"I'm pretty sure this isn't gonna work." Tina said. "That guy doesn't even look like Santa."

"Trust me. All Brittany's gonna see is the suit." Piper shook her head, unsure of her plan as well, but knowing this was her best shot. "She wants to believe in him. Mercedes, get up there."

"Piper Caroline, I..."

"Mercedes." Piper interrupted her best friend with a pointed look.

Mercedes glared at the girl then, but when Brittany cheered her on so she could have her turn, Mercedes knew she was doomed.

So, one by one, even if reluctantly, all the glee kids who had come to the mall took a turn sitting in Santa's lap and telling him what they wished for Christmas. At each turn, Brittany's smile grew wider and her eyes sparkled brighter and, at that, Piper gave herself a mental pat on the back for managing that.

When it was Brittany's turn, however, everything that had been going great, took a sudden turn.

"Ho, ho, ho." The man in a Santa costume smiled when Brittany went over to sit on his lap. "What's your name?"

"Brittany." The girl said, a huge smile still on her face. "You've gotten really tan."

"That's because at the North Pole, there's a hole in the ozone." Santa said, as Brittany giggled.

"You're amazing. I know you're really busy, so I only want one thing for Christmas." Brittany said, causing Piper to perk up a little to hear what Brittany would want for Christmas so she could tell her parents and they could get her the Santa present she wanted, like they had agreed on. "Do you see my girlfriend over there?"

And when Brittany pointed over to Piper, the girl forced a smile on her face as she waved as Santa and Brittany.

"What the hell is she doing?" Mercedes asked, leaning over to her best friend as Piper just shrugged

"I don't know."

"She's been having trouble eating. For Christmas, I want her to be able to eat properly again. Like a whole banquet with me."

And, at that, Piper felt a rush of emotion going through her. After all, as sweet as the gesture had been, there was no way in hell she could have a whole banquet with Brittany by Christmas. Not with her ED acting up the way it had been since Kurt left school. So, looking over at Santa, Piper shook her head vehemently at him when Brittany asked if he could do it for her.

Piper wasn't sure if the man hadn't gotten the clue or if he was just enjoying the reactions out of the kids, but, either way, Piper didn't think she'd ever hated anyone more in her life.

"Sure." Santa said, as Piper groaned. "I'm on it."

"Thank you so much, Santa." Brittany cheered, pulling the man in for a hug.

"Well..." Piper mumbled, as everyone turned to look at her. "Now we're screwed."

***

The guys had come up with a plan to help out Brittany and Piper and as much as Piper thought this idea could be taken the wrong way, she had been racking her brain all day to try and come up with something. So, considering she hadn't, she decided to give the boys a shot.

"Are you guys punking me?" Coach Beiste asked, as she stared at the boys in front of her, sitting in the bench of the locker room as Piper stood off to the side, a bit uncomfortable in that place. "I thought we were cool after you sang me that song."

"This is serious, Coach." Artie assured.

"Remember when you were a kid the way you felt when you came downstairs on Christmas morning and seeing that Santa had come?" Sam asked.

"I do love Santa Claus." Coach Beiste smiled then. "One year I asked him for a full set of free weights. Kept asking my dad, How did Santa get those 75-pound dumbbells down the chimney? Should've suspected something when Dad was in traction until the end of January."

"You've got the perfect Santa body type." Puck said, as Piper widened her eyes at the boy.

"Watch it, Puckerman." Coach Beiste glared at him.

"What Puck meant is... We rented the suit." Piper stepped up before the boys could end up messing up this whole thing. "All you need to do is put it on. Just tell her that you can't give her the gift of me having dinner with her this year."

"That seems so harsh and not at all like Santa." Coach Beiste hesitated as Piper sighed.

"She asked Santa for the impossible... Me eating properly again." Piper admitted quietly, as everyone turned to her sympathetically, all unaware how bad her eating problems had gotten over the last few weeks. "If Christmas comes around and I'm not eating the four course meal she and her parents had planned for us all with no personal explanation from her idol she's gonna lose faith in old St. Nick, and we can't have that."

"Tell her the elves are working on it." Sam was the first to speak, surprisingly being the one to back up Piper so quickly. "They're trying to figure out how to help Piper, but these advances are a few years away."

At that, coach Beiste stopped for a second, turning to look at Piper as the girl blushed a bit under her stare.

"Is it that bad?" She asked her as she shrugged a bit.

"Used to be worse." The girl admitted. "I'm working on it, though."

"Okay." Beiste relented as she exchanged a small smile with Piper

"Great." Artie clapped. "Then we need you to break into her house."

"What?" The coach gasped. "N-No way."

"No, the back door will be open." Piper assured, as coach Beiste visibly relaxed, happy to have at least one person with a functional brain cell behind this whole operation. "I talked to her parents. They really want her to believe too."

"Fine." Coach Beiste sighed as the kids all smiled at one another. "But just this once."

***

"They took everything..." Mercedes told Mr. Schue, as soon as the teacher walked into the choir room the next day only to see the whole thing trashed and emptied.

"Including all of Sue's Secret Santa gifts we were gonna give to the homeless kids." Piper pouted a bit, picking up a small chipped ornament from the floor and playing with it a bit.

"Only further proof that everyone in this school hates us no matter what we do." Rachel huffed.

"It's not the school." Mr. Schue shook his head then. "It's Sue. She did this."

"It wasn't Sue. It was Santa." Brittany said. "A light was out in the tree. He'd fix everything. We need to let him do his thing."

Looking from Brittany toward the rest of the kids, Mr. Schue frowned, when Piper shook her head discreetly, letting him know he shouldn't burst her little bubble. Even if a bit hesitant, Mr. Schue gave in then.

"Okay..." He trailed off. "Are you sure Santa was a boy and not a girl, Brittany?"

"I swear on my life." Brittany nodded. "Santa's a boy. Everybody knows that."

"It was probably one of the boys on the football team." Piper whispered, as Mr. Schue sighed.

"I guess it wasn't Sue." He mumbled.

"So our tree is gone." Finn said, once again trying to keep alive the Christmas spirit despite everyone's sad, longing faces. "So our presents are missing."

"Santa's probably fixing any dents or chips as we speak." Brittany said, as Finn shook his head.

"All around the world today way worse things have happened to people than this." He continued then, as Piper walked over to Brittany and quietly started to help her untangle herself from the mess she had made around her with the Christmas lights. "Sorry, but I'm not gonna let this get us down. 'Tis the season."

"I agree." Mr. Schue nodded, clearly proud of Finn, as everyone got up to start helping fix this whole mess. "Come on, guys. Let's clean this up."

***

None of their singing had worked so far and the glee kids were desperately trying to find a way to raise money for the children. Eventually, they did come up with a plan and, even though no one was really happy about it, they had no other option, really.

"I'm gonna look terrible." Quinn whined holding onto her ponytail protectively.

"No, you won't." Piper spoke up, before she could even really process what she had just said. She widened her eyes, then, looking away from Quinn as the blonde took a second to stare at her, surprised.

Thankfully, Tina spoke up, cutting right through the tension she didn't even notice was there.

"With your bone structure, you could rock the Rosemary's Baby look and still look good." She said. "I'm gonna look like Jackie Chan."

"If Barbra can pull off a bob, so can I." Rachel whispered to herself, as Santana scoffed at the girls, with scissors already in hands.

"Enough yapping." She said. "Let's do this."

But, thankfully, right before Santana could chop off her pony, Mr. Schue walked in and gasped at the scene in front of him.

"Whoa!" He said, as everyone turned to look at him. "What are you guys doing?"

"We're going all Gift of the Magi to raise money to buy homeless kids those school supplies." Finn explained. "The guys are gonna sell their watches, and the girls are gonna sell off their hair."

"You can't do that." Mr. Schue said, as Santana shrugged.

"No, it's cool. Most of this isn't mine anyway."

"I mean, that's not the answer." Mr. Schue shook his head. "There are other ways to raise money at Christmas time."

"No, but we tried caroling, and it didn't work." Rachel said.

"Wait." Artie spoke up. "I thought you and Finn were getting us a new tree."

"We went, but Finn bailed before we could get one."

"Nice Christmas spirit, Finn." Brittany whispered as Finn frowned, offended.

"Wait. Guys, no more fighting." Mr. Schue intervened. "Have any of you ever actually read Gift of the Magi? None of you?"

"You don't have to read Gift of the Magi." Quinn said. "Everybody knows what it's about."

"Well, if you actually read it, you'd know what it's about." Mr. Schue argued.

"Yeah, I know what it's about." Santana spat. "Life freaking sucks."