"I mean, it's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what they did, there's all kinds of accounts. General consensus is that they'd cut down an evergreen and bring it home to decorate to honor their gods. It was called a 'heathen tradition' for a long time until hey, all of a sudden, sixteenth century rolls around and Western Germany decides it's totally cool to decorate a tree because this time, it's celebrating the Festival of Adam and Eve. Only at Christmastime, though, otherwise it would just be weird."

He rolls his eyes because none of it really makes sense but then again, Newt had always loved Christmas--Weihnachten, rather--because it had meant two holidays, the 25th and 26th, in a row. Plus presents and the roast he'd always help his papa make, one he thinks he'll probably attempt this year for Kate even though he hasn't tried in in years, since long before he'd joined the Jaeger Academy.

"Y'know," he says, observing her eat her two cookies with amusement, "if you're only good for a couple before you're stuffed, you've already screwed yourself over. That's way more pressure to keep the rest of this party light than you ever needed. I'm kind of at an unfair advantage, I'll be honest with you. Two cookies is probably about a solid tenth of how many it'll really take to get me full."