In the spirit of Christmas, Cynthia had made wreathes for all of her fellow staff members. She came into the Great Hall hidden behind a large stack in her arms. She carefully set them on the table before she got to work attaching each of the wreathes to the back of their chairs.

Look at how Christmasy everything looked.

Come one, come all and jin us in some holiday cheer! The Great Hall is the place to be for some ornament crafts and Christmas tree decorating! Oh, it looks like the school librarian is just in time for the festivities! Wonder who else'll show up to this festive event...

One of Justin's favorite times of the year. Good ol' decorating and celebrating was gonna be happening as he brought in one of the largest trees in. He had just set it up before starting to open the ornament boxes when he posted the librarian.

"Looks wonderful Cynthia," He said, "I bet the kiddies will love the looks of this." He just loved Christmas.

Cynthia and Justin were already there which made Kay pleased. She was always among the first to arrive at anything. "Hello, Justin, Cynthia!" she greeted her colleagues. Students were yet to arrive which was good. This gave her a chance to admire the wreaths which she had just noticed when she reached the seats.

"Did you two do this? These wreaths are simply wonderful!'' Not to mention the festive looks they brought. But she was here for another reason... the tree decorating. "Are all the ornaments up and ready to go?'' The question was directed to Justin as he had taken care of that when she had worked with him on this a few years ago.

If there was one thing that River looked forward to, it would be Christmas. The season never failed to lighten up the mood, despite the current situation they were having in school right now. Besides, the activity they were about to do has been part of Hogwarts' rich tradition during the Holiday season.

With a grin on his face, River led a dog parade as he pushed open the doors to the Great Hall and made a beeline for the staff dais. Still decked in his full gear, he waved to his colleagues and wondered if the students missed their memo? Where were they? "Hello Kay, Justin, Cynthia." his eyes then fell on the big tree and then gestured his arm towards his dogs, Roscoe and Bumi, carrying all the miniature Christmas trees they collected from his Seminar a few days ago. "I thought it was best to donate these," he started as he unleashed both his dogs from their carts. "Maybe we can put each in a pot and...place them on the house tables?" He wasn't exactly good in decorating interiors, but he thought that was rather a good idea. Trees! Trees everywhere!

Gaston always loved Christmas! Well, maybe not so much the parties - crowds of people made him nervous! - but the food, the decorations, the gift-giving, just the general festive atmosphere this time of year. Christmas in the Marchand household was always a fairly quiet affair... his father waking everyone up early to open presents, his mother force feeding everyone second and third helpings of dinner. He shook his head, trying to force the thought out of his mind. He was getting homesick!

The dark-haired Frenchman entered the Great Hall, levitating a stack of boxes in front of him. Inside were various supplies for making ornaments: glass balls and wooden stars, bells, wreaths, and reindeer for painting; beads and pipe cleaners to make candy canes; clothespins to make into little santa and snowman dolls; sheets of colored paper and various colors of paint and glitter. The hand that wasn't aiming his wand held a large red sack slung over his shoulder. It was only when he set his load down that he saw Cynthia, Justin, Kay, and River already here. Merlin's beard! He wasn't late, was he? No, he didn't see any students here yet. "Hello, everyone," he greeted them; he reached into the sack and handed each of his collegues a chocolate frog. "Merry Christmas!"

He laughed as he saw Roscoe and Bumi with their carts and gave the dogs a quick pat on the head. "I thought reindeer were supposed to pull Santa's sled!" he said jokingly to River, and he nodded in reply to the healer's question. "That sounds like a great idea!" It was only then that he got a good look at the room. It looked nice, but he thought it needed ice sculptures. Those had always been his favorite thing at the Beaubatons Christmas parties. He waved his wand, and four icy reindeer appeared on the house tables, and for the staff dais - Santa in his sleigh! There, now it was perfect!

Cynthia had just finished hanging the wreaths when Justin came in with the tree. "Thank you." she said taking a step back and admiring the seats. "That is a lovely tree, as well. Excellent pick."

Then walked in Kay, who received a nod in greeting. Yes, she did make the wreathes. Following soon after was River. She nodded looking over the trees. "That is an excellent idea. I bet they'd look great on the tables."

There was Gaston, always the show off. But she did agree, the ice sculptures were a nice touch. "Happy Christmas, Gaston." She then looked toward the boxes and the bag. "What have you brought with you?" Unless it was filled with chocolate frogs like the one she was handed.

Receiving a nod in confirmation from Cynthia, the professor turned again to admire the librarian’s work but not for long as another colleague arrived. “Hello, Gaston!’’ Kay smiled broadly. “Don’t you look smashing in that outfit?’’ No, she wasn’t flirting with him. Just giving him a well deserved compliment. She and Rose may be close friends but she highly doubted the other woman would spare her if she flirted with Gaston anyway. “Thank you.’’ She slipped the Frog into her Chisrtmasy shirt pocket. A treat for later. For now, she focused on the boxes Gaston had brought. Opening them up so that the students could see which ornaments they wanted to grab for the decorating.

Hearing noises at the Entrance, Kay turned only to be greeted by the wonderful sight of Ray Palmer’s River’s doggies pulling in some trees. Weren’t they just adorable? “Hello, Roscoe, Bumi!’’ The woman wanted to fangirl? Fanwoman? them but that would be highly inappropriate behaviour for a professor when students could have their eyes on her. “Hello, River. That’s so nice of you. “That sounds like a plan. I’m sure the students will have a lot of fun with this. Paul must have some pots around the greenhouses we could borrow.’’

Sprinting and sliiiiiiiiiiiiding to a stop inside the Great Hall, Derf was a little surprised to see that he was the ONLY student present for the festivities. Not that he minded so much. He was used to attending all sorts of a adult functions with dad while he was still a department head at the Ministry and mum had her fair share of outings as well. Shrugging internally, the first year approached the dais and gave all the trees a bit of a stink eye. He should have known that he was being too optimistic to hope for fake trees like the one he had at home for the holiday. Which was why the bounce in the Hufflepuff's step vanished in an instant and manners forgotten. No offense meant, Hogwarts faculty. The intention of saying hello and happy holidays was there...just buried under some anxiety.

"None of them," he squeaked with a grand wave of the hand at all the trees. "...are fles-s-sh eaters, right?"

Not even the presence of the Healer's dogs was enough to distract him from memory...and THAT was saying something.

Gaston smiled and gave Cynthia a polite nod in reply to her greeting. "Art supplies," he replied to her question about the boxes, "so the students can make their own ornaments." truth be told, Gaston wasn't exactly the artsy type, but he's owled a friend for ideas.

He blushed a little when Kay complimented his outfit! Personally it was a little loud for his taste; he only wore it because it looked festive. Still, it was awful kind of her to say so! "Thank you," he said, running a hand through his black hair and making it stick up. "You outfit is very nice too." He hoped that didn't come across the wrong way! As he and Kay unpacked the boxes of ornament making supplies, his eyes strayed to the doors. Where were the students? He though they would be arriving already! He hoped they hadn't missed the announcement about the holiday activities...

Only moment later, Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne came in. Gaston was pleased to see the boy and gave him a friendly wave. "Merry Christmas, Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne!" he said, but the boy's question caught him slightly off guard. He blinked; now were would he get an idea like that? "Certainly not!" he replied. "All our trees are perfectly safe." He probably should've let Justin or River answer that question, since they were the ones who brought the trees, but he didn't want the little Hufflepuff to be scared!

"Come along," he said, giving Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne an encouraging smile. "We have ornaments ready to go on the trees..." he gestured toward the box Justin had brought in. "... and there are supplies for you to make your own ornament too!" He reached into the big red sack that held enough chocolate frogs for everyone at Hogwarts and held one of them behind his back. "And look! I have a present for you." He handed the boy the candy behind his back. "You don't have to eat the frog if you don't want to," he said, thinking back to the cocoa incident in his class, "but I thought you might enjoy the card." He hoped the card would be the one the boy wanted!

As River unloaded the miniature trees from Roscoe and Bumi's cart, the Healer nodded to his colleagues, obviously glad that they approved of his idea. He didn't want to waste any of the trees he used in his seminar, and he thought it would be a happy reminder for the students who participated in the activity.

As he placed one of the trees on the table, River looked over his shoulder as he watched Gaston and Kay greet his fur babies. "I personally think Newfoundlands are better than reindeers, Gaston. But...they've got something that'll do the trick," River brushed his hands on his trousers and picked up the reindeer headband thing he got from Cami's caroling activity. River then dressed up his dogs, in an attempt to make them look like the real thing.

The voice of a child echoed through the great hall, and was pleased to see Master Derfael of the Chocolate Frogs join them. But seriously though, why would anyone of them bring in a flesh eating tree inside the hall? He wouldn't want to face the wrath of Paul, or the Headmistress'. He will lose his job if he did so knowingly.

After he finished placing the miniature trees on each table, River went back to the carts and collected something from it. "I also have pine cones here. Would you like to decorate these for us, Master Derfael?" He's...not afraid of pine cones, right?