Scenes of Yuletide

[Pamela Isley]

[OOC Note: I don't intend this to be a thread where people roleplay with each other, but you're definitely invited to reply showing what your character did for the holidays.]

Christmas was not on the list of Pamela's favorite holidays. She went through great effort to pretend otherwise, attending all of the holiday parties leading up to the day and sometimes spilling into the week afterward dressed to the nines in red or green (both colors that she was absolutely stunning in), exchanging treats and gifts with her friends, and decking the halls of her estate. Well, it was Nettle who handled the decorating aside from the plants, but she told her to do it.

Not that the plants were a minor part of the decor, as Pamela enjoyed having as many of them as possible around her at all times of the year. And especially since she had a very large greenhouse, she had many plants that were especially beautiful during the winter months. This included traditional favorites like poinsettias, which she displayed prominently in the main areas of her mansion so that they became a part of the Christmas decor, but she had many others.

One notable exception was that she did not have a Christmas tree. After all, what could be crueler than cutting down a tree so that it could serve as a seasonal decoration? Even some form of a potted tree was unacceptable to her even though she could have easily afforded it - trees are mean to grow outside with their roots unhindered, after all! A fake tree was also unacceptable because not only was it a mockery of life, the environmental impact of the manufacture of a fake tree was absolutely disgusting. She did have a small, potted rosemary plant with a few lights on it to serve as a poor substitute for a tree, but that was the closest she was willing to go.

Fortunately, her friends knew are respected her views on such things, pretending to admire her dedication to nature even most of them had multiple real trees as a part of their holiday decor - that was the problem with humanity, always paying lip service but unwilling to change. But all of Pamela's interest in the festivities was entirely faked, a show she put on in order to remain socially acceptable. While her friends would absolutely respect it if she didn't celebrate Christmas if she celebrated one of the other winter holidays they respected, if she told them she wasn't interested in any of them the number of people who were already whispering about how eccentric she was would only increase. It was actually less trouble to pretend.

Some of those friends were actually thoughtful enough to remember that she was single, an only child, and had no parents or other close relatives and politely inquired whether or not she was in need of plans for the holiday. She simply informed them that it was taken care of. She felt no need to share in the company of others on a holiday that only reminded her of all her childhood Christmases during which she was forced to spend the day with parents she didn't care for and pretend to be happy about it.

On Christmas morning, she didn't excitedly open presents with loved ones, she went to her greenhouse just like every other morning, cared for her plants, and spent the day in her laboratory, actually enjoying the fact that the whole rest of the world was too busy to bother her. It was only in the evening that her day varied in the least from any other quiet day, as she fixed herself a drink and looked through the pile of gifts that Nettle had unwrapped for her, along with the accompanying list of who gave her what. She used the list to compose a pile of extremely traditional and pretentious 'Thank You' cards, gushing over their gifts and reassuring her friends that they were 'generous' and 'thoughtful'.

Some of them were actually quite nice, as her caliber of friend could afford to throw around quite a bit of money, but she wasn't nearly as enthralled by any of them as her cards would lead the recipient to believe, even the ones she actually intended to keep and use. She could have afforded to buy all of them herself without batting an eyelash and in many cases with much better taste in the selection, at least in her opinion. Still, it was in her best interest to keep all of her relationships on the best terms possible, and being an immaculately well-mannered gift recipient never hurt anything in that regard.

[Jeremiah Arkham]

When Jeremiah had been younger, Christmas and all the parties leading up to it were mere lip service for his family. The only man he’d been happy to spend it with had been his uncle. Looking back, he was an eccentric fellow, but to a child he’d been wonderful! He always gave him the best gifts (thoughtful ones), and his stories had been amazing. The rest had been drudgery. He’d been dressed up stiffly, paraded, and he’d had to pretend to like the people his parents had associated with. Did the higher class ever really change, though?

High society didn’t change, but as he attended the Christmas parties that lined the days until the holidays, he at least enjoyed the ones he attended for his colleagues. They had more in common and many he’d known for his entire career. Even the Christmas party held for the staff at Arkham Asylum had been fun. There had been genuine merriment and laughter. Jeremiah’s holidays were a warm affair, had been since he’d left home for college. When he’d had his son, young as he was then, Christmas had taken on an even deeper meaning.

Nathaniel was grown now, into his own career, but he always came down for Christmas. It may have seemed a rather simple affair as Christmas consisted of the two of them--Nathaniel spent Christmas Eve with his mother--but was always nice. Nathaniel was both alike and different than Jeremiah in ways that contrasted the two of them. They had lively debates, easy conversations, and of course caught up on deeper matters than the ones they spoke of on the phone (like teasing Nathaniel to give him grandchildren). Jeremiah loved Christmas now.

He loved decorating his home with lights. They hung off his eaves like icicles, bordered his windows, and draped over the trees in his yard. His own Christmas tree was real; he went out every year to pick it and cut it himself. It was decked with ornaments and lights collected over the years. His home was even done with Christmas imagery: holly and reindeer, deep reds and greens.


Maybe the Christmases of his youth had been stoic and put-on, but Jeremiah had much to be thankful for now. He had a family, his son and those of the asylum as well. He had much to give and the ability too: he made up food boxes and volunteered to feed the homeless and in need. Christmas was about giving, about warmth, about cheer and now, now Jeremiah enjoyed it.

[Anna Craven]

Anna had always loved Christmas. It meant hot cocoa, gingerbread cookies and houses, it meant snow and sledding (at least now in Gotham), and it meant ugly sweaters! Of course, it had other highlights, but she had to admit the glee she held when she’d don an atrocious Christmas sweater or dressed like an elf and appeared on the afternoon news for GCN. Her favorite news to cover during the Christmas season on air was the homegrown stories, the cooking bits, or the funny things she and her coworkers got up too.

Really, though, she loved winter. It wasn’t just Christmas. She loved watching stores and houses come alive with lights and trees and music as soon as Thanksgiving was over. She loved the freezing winds and chills that let her turn on her fireplace and bundle up. She’d never really had that sort of weather in Georgia. Yes, it got cold and she’d bundle up with her parents and siblings as a child, but snow there had been mostly flurries. Maybe enough to have a day of snow, but in Gotham it came in inches and inches. It had to be plowed and the roads could be perilous (at least they had been for her when she’d first moved), but it made everything so beautiful. And maybe she was just still holding onto her childish wonderment, but someone had to. Gotham could be dark and if she could find some light, she would clasp it.

Enough about her fascination with Gotham Winter, though. Let’s talk about what she did during the weeks leading up to Christmas. There were presents to buy and her apartment to decorate. The latter mostly consisted of framing her balcony doors with multicolor lights and decorating her plastic Christmas tree, the first one she’d bought when she’d come to Gotham and before she had much money. She decorated a side table with fake snow, like cotton, and set a little Christmas village scene too. And then there were the candles, electric and with phrases like “Peace”, “Love”, “Joy”. There was also tinsel. A lot of tinsel.

For presents she found scarves and hats for her little sisters and an air rifle for her brother. Her dad was getting an expensive bottle of whiskey. For her mother she found figurines and her favorite perfume. She met up with Nikki during the week of Christmas to exchange gifts too. She’d gotten her a necklace and matching earrings and little stock stuffers like candy.

Then she was on her way to Georgia where she’d spend Christmas with her family this year.

[Oswald Cobblepot]

Oswald spent the day of Christmas as he always has done ever since his mother finally kicked the bucket, alone.

In previous years the run up to the holiday would be spent attending whatever parties he had been reluctantly invited to as a member of the Gotham high society but even that was no longer an option due to their reluctance to overlook a little thing like being a wanted criminal. He told himself it was better this way, after all it wasn't as if he actually liked any of their company anyway and spending money buying gifts for the ungrateful was a futile chore. His invitation was an obligation that he no longer had to cater to so he could do exactly what he wanted with season instead.

The problem was Oswald wanted nothing to do with the day at all. Even when he had family to celebrate with it had always been a day of forced participation until either his mother stormed out in a huff or passed out drunk bringing an end to a hellish day of arguements and false concern over Oswald's life and business.
Why wasn't he running his own company like Lisa's son? Why didn't he have a lovely wife like Helen's boy? Well now Lisa's son was out of the job since that company failed after an unusual string of bad luck and it got bought by one of Oswald's shell companies for pennies and the lovely wife left Helen's boy for a drug dealer Oswald supplied. How's that mother? How are your friends children squaring up to your loathed son now? What's that? Can't answer? Oh yes, you're dead.

Yes, Oswald hates Christmas and has issues. Bah humbug.

Alone he could at least ignore the day and spend it working, surrounded by his birds in the comfort of his lair underneath one of his warehouses. There were no presents or decorations in his rooms, no tree or festive music. He'd been working all day on one of his umbrellas, fitting a few sets of darts within one umbrella that he could choose between depending on whether he wanted someone tranquilised or dead. He'd barely noticed the time passing as he'd kept the tv off since even the news would probably be full of festive nonsense. Even his phone was silenced so should someone be foolish enough to try and irritate him with the day they were met with voicemail.

Oswald had permitted the gang to do what they wanted and just go away, spend it with family, whatever they wanted for the day so long as it didn't involve bothering him. Some however had stayed, predominately those without family or at least without good families. For them the gang was their substitute family and they celebrated together with drinks and video games. If anything important actually happened they'd tell the Penguin but for the entire day they stayed out of his way until finally in the evening one brave or foolish one knocked on Oswald's door and stuck his head in "Boss? We're getting pizza, y'want anything?"

Oswald raised an eyebrow at the man. The intrusion was unwanted and the offer unrefined but even the higher class seemed to eat pizza these days and a glance at the time it made Ozzy more aware that he had yet to eat anything that day "Anchovies and olives" he said before opening a draw in his desk and removing a credit card to offer it to the man "You may use this for the order" Oswald saw it as a way to ensure an untraceable card was used without connections to the group, he had dozens of them and they cost him nothing. The thug quickly took the card though and ducked back out to bring word to the gang that a Christmas miracle had occurred and the Penguin was paying for dinner.