December 25th.
That was Derek's favorite day of the year, believe it or not.
Growing up, Derek and his family celebrated Christmas hardcore. They may have been a little tight on money being a 7 person family, but they all managed to buy presents for everybody.
When Derek's father died, that shook Christmas for a little while. Dereks dad, Mike Shepherd, loved Christmas. So when he was gone, it was hard to celebrate that without him.
But when they moved on, they celebrated it in honor of Mike. And that made it even more special.
Meredith, on the other hand, never really celebrated Christmas. Growing up, before thatcher left, he always bought her everything she wanted.
But then he did leave.
And Meredith was left with her mother. Since she was 5, Meredith spent probably about 3 Christmas' in total with her mother. Ellis was always at the hospital. Meredith never really got presents, either.
Christmas for Meredith was kind of just kind of another day. It wasn't anything special for her.
Derek woke up early, Meredith snuggled in his arms. "Merry Christmas." He said cheerfully. Meredith groaned and pressed her face into his chest.
"Come on, let's open presents." Derek said. He was quite literally, a kid on Christmas morning. If Meredith wasn't so exhausted, she would've found it adorable.
"Derek it's early." Meredith whined. "But it's Christmas." Derek said with a big smile. "You're lucky I love you." She mumbled to her husband as she sat up.
"I'll go make coffee. You can get ready but be down soon." Derek said happily as he slid out of bed.
Meredith giggled to herself as she watched her very happy husband go downstairs quickly. She got out of bed as well and went to the bathroom.
She went to the bathroom and then brushed her hair and got ready before walking downstairs as well.
"Here." Derek said with a smile, handing her a cup of coffee. Meredith smiled at him. His hair was all messy after waking up, but apparently on Christmas morning he did not care.
They grabbed their presents and sat down on the couch to exchange them. "You go first." Meredith said as she pulled a blanket over her legs.
He handed her a small box first. Meredith tore open the paper and pulled open the top. She gasped as she saw the beautiful necklace.
"Derek, i love it." Meredith said In awe. "Flip it over." Derek said eagerly. Meredith did so and she smiled. "This is forever." The engraving read, an info tou signed on the end of it.
"Thank you. I love it." She said, leaning over and hugging him tightly. "I'm glad. Do you want me to give you all of mine or alternate?" He asked.
"Alternate." Meredith replied. She grabbed one of them which was a long wrapped package. Derek shook the package and she laughed.
He tore it open quickly and grinned widely when he saw it. "You got me a new tackle box?"
"You were complaining about your other one a few weeks ago." Meredith explained. "Thank you, Mer. You know this means your gonna have to come fishing with me now, right?" Derek grinned.
"We'll see about that." Meredith giggled.
•••
After presents, the two of them decided to relax on the couch. It wasn't a typical Christmas, but it was their first Christmas together just the two of them.
Meredith insisted on the movie Elf. In her opinion, it was the best Christmas movie. Derek, on the other hand, wanted to watch die hard. But Meredith wasn't convinced it was a Christmas movie.
But Derek being Derek, he couldn't say no to his wife. So Elf it was.
"When did you stop believing In Santa?" Meredith asked randomly as she rested her head on his shoulder. "You mean he's not real?" Derek asked, faking shock.
Meredith smiled and nudged him slightly. "For real." she said. "I don't know. Probably around 10. Maybe 11." He shrugged. "Why?"
She shrugged. "No reason. Just wondering."
"What about you?" Derek asked softly. "I don't know. 6 maybe?" Meredith guessed. After Thatcher guessed, Meredith rarely got presents from Ellis.
"My mom told me I think around after my dad left." She added as an explanation. Derek smiled sympathetically.
"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to know that so early." He said, kissing the side of her head.
"What did you and your family celebrate Christmas like?" She asked curiously.
Derek smiled. "Ah, well, Amy would get us up the earliest. 5am. My parents would make us wait until at least 7. We would open presents. It would take forever with all of us, but it was super fun. Then afterwards my mom would cook a big breakfast and my cousins would come over and we just hung out all day. At night though, when we were really little, our parents put on a Christmas movie every time and we'd all fall asleep during it. It was kind of like a tradition." Derek explained.
"That sounds nice. I wish I had traditions." Meredith sighed. "I wish you could've had a better childhood ." He admitted. "Me too." She replied.
"But you don't. We can make our own traditions. Like watching Elf every Christmas if that's what you want." Derek grinned.
"And we can share them with our kids some day." Meredith added. Dereks smile grew even bigger. "Yeah. With our kids." He said softly.
"I love you. You're the best present I could ask for." Derek said, kissing her softly. "I love you too. Merry Christmas." She replied.
"Merry Christmas." He said softly.
Hey guys!! Here's a late Christmas oneshot because why not. I hope you all enjoyed and hope your all doing well. If you have any ideas you want me to recreate or whatever let me know and I'll see what I can do. Thanks for reading.
