JATP: Carol of the Phantoms

In my heart is a Christmas tree farm

Author's Note

Hey, I know this is kinda out of the blue, but I had been thinking about doing this all month and wanted to make a Christmas special but didn't think I had the time. When Julie and the Phantoms got cancelled, I figured "why not?" So I called ratbekah and we made a plan last week to do this. This is just something fun for Christmas and we hope you enjoy it. Also, this is in no way related to my other book, but this does take place several years in the future. The guys are still dead, but to make it a little more realistic to audiences in the story, they do age. Otherwise Julie would be "out-aging" the guys and it would be pretty strange. Lol. I'ma stop rambling now.

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Narrator's POV

Five years after Julie met the phantoms and they all formed a band, they started feeling pretty confident that they could do anything they wanted. For some time, they'd been wanting to expand their music to other genres, like the wide variety of Christmas music. As the unofficial official songwriters of the band, Julie and Luke took it upon themselves to write all the music, and Christmas music couldn't be all that different, right?

December 15, 2025

Luke's POV

Julie and I are currently in the studio working on a song for our gig next week. We decided to do our last gig of the year on Christmas Eve because we thought it would be fun to make a Christmas song this year since we've never tried it before. It's harder than it seems though, because every five minutes, Reggie comes in and starts belting out lyrics to classic Christmas songs as "inspiration." Though all he's actually doing is making us lose our train of thought.

"GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER, WALKING HOME FROM OUR HOUSE CHRISTMAS EVE, YOU CAN SAY THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS SANTA, BUT AS FOR ME AND GRANDPA, WE BELIEVE-"

Reggie comes in and starts singing again and I can't take it anymore. I get up to go over to my guitar and turn up the amp to just barely louder than normal. No reason to break Julie's eardrums. I play a chord, getting Reggie's attention as he stops singing immediately. I set the guitar down again and reset the amp's settings.

"Reg, you've gotta stop doing that. We can't concentrate," Julie says as I go sit back down on my couch. Reggie looks at her like her nose just started glowing, so she explains further. "I know you're just trying to help, but it's really just distracting and we can't focus. We haven't written anything original." Reggie's face saddens and I decide to cheer him up.

"I bet Alex would love to hear you sing those songs though." Alex is hanging out with Willie at the museum right now and he'd get so mad if Reggie did that. Part of me kinda wants to see his face when Reggie starts scream-singing Christmas songs from our childhood in his ear, but the thought of it will have to be enough to get me by right now because Julie and I really have to get this song done.

"Oh, okay." Reggie poofs to the museum immediately and Julie and I sigh out of relief in unison. 

"Well now that that's done, what do you say we figure this out?" She asks from behind her keyboard. I nod and pick my acoustic up again. I start thinking about the songs Reggie wouldn't stop singing and started strumming different chords from different songs. Shortly after, Julie starts singing softly and I listen to her as best I can until I can hear her more clearly. I follow along, adding little background vocals every now and again. I keep up on guitar, doing a fairly basic rhythm over and over again. 

As we get to the end of the song, Julie adds more power to her voice to prepare for the last note. When she sings it, I stop playing, unable to focus on both at the same time. I really gotta work on that...

Christmas Eve

Julie's POV

The guys and I are all backstage, about to go perform our first ever Christmas song. I start thinking about it more and more and realize that maybe we shouldn't do this after all. Maybe we aren't supposed to be making Christmas music. What if people don't like it? Or worse, what if they hate it? I feel a hand on my shoulder and spin around to see Alex give me a reassuring smile. 

"We're gonna be fine," he says and I stare at him like he's crazy. How did he know that I was freaking out anyways? "I know what stress is like. It was my entire life just about." He cracks a smile, causing me to smile too. I can't help it, his smile is contagious. 

Luke and Reggie come over too, and all three hug me, creating a group hug. It tightens so much though to the point where I feel like I can't breathe anymore. I tap someone on the shoulder to get them off so I can breathe again, right as someone comes backstage.

A stagehand comes over and tells me it's time for us to go on and we all nod. I go on first, placing the mic into the stand in front of the keyboard that's been set up.

As soon as we finish our song the guys vanish, but out of the corner of my eye, I notice them peeking from behind the curtain to see the audience's reaction. The crowd stays quiet for a moment and I start to worry the worst will happen but breathe a sigh of relief as they start clapping and screaming excitedly. I get off stage and the guys wrap me up in another hug. I hear Alex say 'I told you so' and I laugh and shake my head, happy our song did so well.

Narrator's POV

As the band celebrated their new song's instant success, they all thought that maybe they should make more Christmas songs. So that's what they did. Year after year, they made more and more Christmas music, but what if that turned out to be their biggest mistake? What if, by doing that, they ruined both their friendship and their band forever?