“Mmmhmm, yeah dude, totally. This is so far out!"

He watched the happy hippie look over the front of the vehicle at the intricately carved symbols and images of Christmas that decorated the wood. It was a slightly odd reaction, given that he'd just met a guy in the middle of the road dressed as Santa with nine reindeer. Especially when the lead reindeer had a rather inexplicably glowing red nose.

The man rummaged around inside the sleigh for a few minutes before emerging with a red and green thermos full of Callie’s home made hot chocolate. Santa saw his arm pop up from beneath the front of the sleigh, holding the flask victoriously.

"Score!" Yelled the hippie, following up his arm by sitting upright.

“Dude, you mind? I'm out here in freakin’ sandals.”

Santa chuckled at that and then shook his head. "No, go ahead. Just don't drink it all or you'll have an elf after you looking for revenge."

"Righteous." He nodded solemnly and uncapped the thermos to take a drink and then hum with relief as the heated chocolate warmed him down to his core. "Man, this is the good stuff. This, a couple of J's, and some candy bars? Heaven.”

“It's important to enjoy the simple things in life." Santa nodded to the man.

The hippie contentedly took another quick drink from the flask before screwing the lid back into place and putting it back where he found it.

Soon thereafter he hopped back from the sleigh and landed in the snow again before walking to stand beside Santa. He took a regular smoke from a pack inside his long coat and offered one. Santa declined politely with a shake of his head.

“Will it bother these dudes?" the guy asked whilst cocking a thumb to the reindeer.

“Someone fired a surface to air missile at us over Russia and that didn't seem to bother them. So I think you'll be fine."

“Awesome.” He lit up a smoke and breathed it out into the night air.

“Thanks for the drink, man. You're pretty cool for a Santa Claus guy."

That got a raised eyebrow. "You meet many Santas in your time?"

“A few." He chuckled and took another drag of his cigarette.

“Honestly?

The last one I met was kind of an asshole."

The big man's head dropped slightly, but then he nodded.

“Yeah, I hear that. Not all of us Santas are really up to the job. I'm giving it the best I've got though, and it seems to be going well so far. I'll pay a visit to the one who's giving me a bad name. Where did you see him?"