The clock slowly ticked towards midnight… A shining, excited pair of eyes were locked on the slowly moving hands, reflecting the twinkling multi-coloured lights that decorated her hearth…

Tick… tick… It was almost time…!

“Three… Two…!”

Tick!

“Merry Christmas… Eve!”

She laughed eagerly and twirled in a circle there in her little hut. The fire gave a cheery snapping and the tree branches rustled softly with the overly-excited wagging of her tail.

Yes, it may have been a bit silly to wait up all night just for the day before Christmas, but Holly couldn’t help adoring this season with all her heart. Even her name seemed prophetic for how giddy she got at the end of the year. She was so preoccupied with her dance of excitement that she disregarded the tangle of lights hooking around one foot and making her…

“Woah! OOF!”

...thump into the small cushion in the corner, with one leg tightly entwined and twinkling…

“Whups… Heh. Guess I should be a little more careful, especially since…

She hefted herself up once more, grunting as she did. Her heavily pregnant belly did its best to keep her pinned, where she should have been resting. Holly insisted on standing anyway. After all, it was the eve of her holiday! And there was still much to do before the clock struck midnight again...
She curled herself around and grabbed the string of lights in her teeth, carefully unwinding it before winding it back around the section of tree it had come off of reverently…

“There. It’s all gotta look perfect~ I can’t believe I managed to have a litter this close to Christmas…”

She glanced down at her squirming, clenching middle, and its blatantly over-sized shape that occasionally scraped it against the ground…

“Now I’ll have two reasons to celebrate this time of year… So long as everything goes…”

She gasped and arched suddenly, as her complaining middle demanded her attention. She bit her lip and looked back, her ears twitching softly as she heard the ominous groan of her muscles beginning to strain… And then she gasped and yelped as she felt a soft ‘tunk’, like some had lightly smacked her middle...

Her thighs dampened as her opening drooled. Her face paled…

“...perfect.” she huffed, as she turned in a circle a few times. She was trying to inspect her middle, but only succeeded in making herself dizzy. She flopped to a sit once more, as her middle clenched and her opening drooled another soft gush of fluids…

“...Really…? Nhhh… I di-didn’t think you’d be born on Christmas Eve… That’s… H-Hah, that’s more than I could have expected…!”

She breathed hard and then hefted herself up, standing and preparing to find a willing creature to help her push her children out… And then she paused and glanced up at the clock ticking on her hearth once more…

“...you know what’s more special than Christmas Eve though…” she said, with a mischievous and wild grin spreading across her muzzle…
When she later awoke and stretched, she gave a yawn and a soft squeak of discomfort. Now that she was lucid once more, her gravid, heavily hanging midsection ‘cleared its throat’ to remind her of the strain on her spine, and the bulging kicks of her litter of pups…

“Ohh… What a n-nightmare… Nnhh, I dreamed of getting way too many gifts this year…” she muttered blearily, as she shook herself off, and then winced as the motion made her middle clench again, this time in a demand…

‘Let them out, let them out! It’s time! You’ve been waiting for months!’

But Holly merely grinned, albeit perhaps a bit less confidently than she had before. She hefted her gravid shape, waddled to bathe, and then emerged with her fur floofy and her scarf around her middle. No amount of poofiness could hide the distinct curve, and what a delightful thought to the festive foxy female…

“H-Hrr… Okay, what do I have t-to do today, on a glorious Chrimmus Eve…” she muttered, flinching as her middle tightened again…

“I have to deliver… gifts. I have a few friends waiting…”

She paced, despite herself. Her body didn’t want to sit still…!

“I-I have to b-break my… my wood pile out of the ice tha-that no doubt formed last night…”

She licked her muzzle nervously as her stomach gurgled ominously…

“And the oven is ready… I-I mean, ready to make all the sweets I have to make tonight…! Ah, I can’t forget… I need at least a few cookies, e-eh?”

She grinned, and then shuddered in delight as her pups kicked in agreement...
“Well then… Ahh…” 

She peered out of the window. By now, the lazy season’s light had sloughed its way over the horizon to begrudgingly give a little warmth among the endless white expanse that the land had clothed itself in. It was nearly noon… And if she was committed to her mad plan, that meant…

“...roughly twelve or so hours before… Nhh… Before we get to open gifts~”

Her middle swayed and rocked frustratedly underneath her, as if her pups could understand they were being denied. It was cramped and they wanted to stretch their legs, perhaps romp about in the snow their mama loved so much!

Donning a knit cap and booties, she ventured out into the overcast afternoon and hummed a little carol to herself as she trotted along. At first it was almost exhilarating; feeling so overburdened and with an occasional pulse in her abdomen to pull her back from wandering admiration of the frigid countryside. But as she made her way around her hut and found her frozen woodpile, the clenches didn’t stop… The kicks were not the usual, playful kicking of the kits responding to her cheerful, jolly voice…

“This… might all end up being a big m-mistake… Hnn…”

She gripped the shaped club lying against the wood pile and swung it a few times. The impact traveled up the club and through her teeth, which she was used to… But she wasn’t near as used to feeling it along her spine, nor rattling her very core…

“Okay, OKAY… I-If I don’t get the wood clear, we won’t have any warmth for t-tonight… And boy will I need it too… Nhhh!”

She struck again, the ice cracking bit by bit with her efforts. Something else was cracking as well, and Holly tried to ignore the idea that it was her nerves. After all, she could call it off any time...
She dropped the club from her teeth and panted, glancing back at her belly. Already, having barely walked from her front step, her wide tummy had its underside coated in snow… And the cold only seemed to make it tighten worse…

“Heh! Hah, okay… Mmn…”

She paced there, her paws and pacing make a small circle on the ground below. She clicked her jaws and growled as her pregnancy requested again and again that she go to the climax…

“No! I’ve never opened a g-gift early, even when I was a tiny pup! I… Nhhh…!”

She picked up the club once more and swung it fervently, thumping the ice again and again until it cracked, splintered, and suddenly fell away from the rest of the snowy stack.

Holly pulled away and spat the club out, arching her back and shuddering in excitement as her belly contracted fitfully once more…

“E-Easy… EEEEASY! NNNHH, I’M DONE! NO MORE ICE! Please c-calm down, puppies…”

She stood frozen with her legs in a wide stance. After a few moments of feeling their myriad kicks against the insides of her womb, she relaxed slowly and sighed a puff of mist into the air…

“...r-right… Hoh… You’re not even born, and you’re already keeping me on my feet… Heh…

She looked at the pile of wood, and sighed softly. At least she wouldn’t have to carry any more of THAT from the town. Wood was heavy, and worse when you were already so… laden...
“...alright… Hmph! Let’s keep it up… Twelve hours will go by like a snap…”

On the first hour of Christmas Eve, Holly spent the time finishing with her firewood; she took a good amount of it into her hut, ignoring her kits’ petulant protest with each step. When she was done, she tugged an old toboggan out into the snow, and then…

One by one, she daintily sat prettily wrapped packages on it. She stacked them with supreme care, her mind reeling excitedly with what lay await inside each shimmering box…

“OW.”

She grunted in quiet annoyance, as she was setting the last present down, and her relentless labour squeezed at her once more. She ignored her middle, and then bit the reigns before trotting along the trail and towards the town in the distance…

“...bout an hour’s walk… Mnnh. I should be…”

Clench…

“...SHOULD be fine… Nnn…”

On the third hour of Christmas Eve, Holly finally reached the town. She hadn’t accounted for how much dragging her belly around would slow her down, especially since she was almost literally dragging it for its size. By the time she shuffled into the cozy cluster of huts and shacks that made up her snowy alpine hometown, she was shuddering with each step..

“Gonna form icicles that hang off my haunches, I sw-swear…” she muttered, as she glanced back. Her middle was already unwilling to give her a break; now it felt near constantly contract inwards, and occasionally her body hit with one that threatened her yuletide promise…
“And… We’re not even… Heh… Close to being done…! Hnn…”

===

Holly shuffled through the town, her face reddening as the other creatures walking along inevitably turned and raised their eyebrows at her condition. She tried to ignore them all, but each eye that stared as she tugged her little gift-sleigh dutifully made her cheeks a bit more pink. Worse yet was her inability to stop her little whimpers and moans as her kits writhed and her body demanded…

“N-No, I’ll be okay, they’re just giving me t-trouble as usual…!”

She laughed nervously, but kept moving on before she could be properly questioned…

“L-Labour…? Ah, I certainly wasn’t due today!”

She was due yesterday, and Holly knew it, but it wasn’t technically a lie, and it made the concerned eyes reluctantly turn away from her…

“...g-gotta make sure no one actually figures it o-out…”

She bit her bottom lip and waddled onward. Her eyes darted away from each curious muzzle pointed her way… Even the ones who got a bit too close, and pressed their cold noses against her tummy…

“T-Tight? Yes, indeed, I… I’m probably going to have them soon!”

CLENCH!

“...ha-haha! Sooner rather than later if the pups have a-anything to say about it…!”

She hurried on as quickly as she could, her breathing becoming a bit more heavy as her contractions built once more… They had begun reasonable when her water broke, but even so ‘early’ as this, they were beginning to become hard to ignore…

On the fourth hour of her Christmas Eve, Holly gave to her friends her various, meticulously wrapped gifts. She waddled from hut to hut, acting as the jolly spirit of giving this year, (and every year, honestly). With as much aplomb as she could muster as her womb rebelled, she presented each gift and giggled excitedly as her friends lit up in anticipation…

“A new scarf?” a sandy coloured female asked with a hint of sarcasm. Holly went a little red, and could only give a strained smirk as her babies made a show of her swaying tummy…

“Socks, I bet. I always get socks…” huffed a maned fox, though she couldn’t help but grin. Holly wriggled happily to cover up the fact that her belly was going mad in that moment, becoming tighter and tighter with a flurry of activity. She feared it simply wouldn’t stop, but the pressure finally relaxed and allowed her to chuckle alongside her friend…

“I can tell by the shape… It’s a new set of paints isn’t it~” a particularly sunny fox laughed, as he nuzzled Holly. She blushed and glanced away, but that was mostly because she couldn’t even speak at this point… Everything was so tight, and…

...and she wasn’t even halfway there…

She kept trotting between the huts, and her sled emptied of its gifts one by one. On the sixth hour of her Christmas Eve, Holly finally slumped against a snowbank and panted softly…

“F… Finally… W-Why do I have… So many good friends…”

Her litter firmly kicked her insides about, reminding her. She shuddered and pressed her face into the snow, trying to ignore the steam curling off of her body…

“...w-well they’re… delivered…” she kicked a leg and winced as her belly clenched again… “Guess that means I sh-should refill... my sled…”

She stood and lightly shook the snow from her fur. Even the softest wriggling made her belly sway almost violently from side to side, and made her stumble with all the internal sensations… But she gripped the reigns of her sleigh without complaint and tugged it along, tail swaying…

Holly found her way to the grocer and picked out a few ingredients she’d need to make her holiday sweets. She was usually a brisk shopper, always eager to get to the fun part of making baked treats… But here, she had to take it as slow as she could… She carried a basket down the aisle of the little market, all too aware of the sensation of her taut tummy grazing the displayed goods on either side. She was careful not to embarrass herself further by letting her babies kick something fragile to the floor...

One nerve wracking and somewhat embarrassing waddle later, she let the store manager load the needed supplies onto her sleigh. She gave a nervous chuckle and a polite decline when offered help carry them back to her hut, but as soon as she had taken a few steps away, her expression turned excited once more at the feeling of the slush re-coating her underside. The chilly sensation had begun merely uncomfortable, but as she pressed herself along the frigid trails and felt the cold clench muscles that were already clenched impossibly tight, she couldn’t help but shudder. 

Yet she pressed on, yanking her sleigh through the snow as more of it began to drift from the cold sky above…

On the eighth hour of Christmas Eve, Holly was just about ready to give up…

“Just… Lift your tail, you foolish fox… And let your kids out…”

She grinned softly, her teeth chattering as she crested a hill and spied her hut.

“...Except lifting your t-tail was what got you here in the first place, eh?”

She chuckled as merrily as she could at her own joke as she waddled, her hips barely cooperating for how far they’d been shoved apart… She dragged her sled into her hut, dropped the reigns, and then fell heavily to a sit…

She groaned softly as she leaned to pick up the fireplace poker and nudge the embers of the old flame, until warmth once more seeped through the hut. Her soaked tummy began to drip, and with the wet fur plastered to her hefty shape, the squeezing of the contractions was easily visible…

Clench… Clench… CLENCH…

Holly set her jaw… And then lifted her muzzle to look up at the clock on the mantel…

“...f… four more hours…” she whispered to herself. Another grin crept across her face, as she stood, and began to take the ingredients she’d bought to the kitchen…

She busied herself as best she could to distract from the dull and constant ache in her tummy. Often, she had to pause and lean against a counter as her body threatened to take her to the ground if she didn’t. But the entire time, she had an almost euphoric smile on her face… She had been dealing with these pains all day, and now her ears were swiveled towards the fireplace, its crackling flames, and…

...the soft ticking of the clock…

On the tenth hour of Christmas Eve, Holly gave in to her urges. With the cookies squared away and pushed into the oven, she finally moved to the cushion in the main area of her hut and flopped down to her side…

“Two hours til Christmas… Two more… It c-can’t hurt to… Just…”

Part of her was scared that she was going to be too sore or worn out to actually get them out… And so, this little experiment was not entirely a selfish one… Still, as she released her tight hold on the first pup that had been lined up for hours, you wouldn’t guess ‘fear’ by her expression. She bared her teeth and hissed in excitement, stretching and kneading the ground with her paws. When her head flopped down, and with the baby just a little lower in her body than before, her tongue fell from her mouth as she panted desperately...

“I-It doesn’t exactly feel GOOD, but… Hah…!”

But her babies were going to be born on Christmas… And more importantly than that; SOON…

“Sooooon…!”

She clenched firmly again, so as not to make a mistake. It took her a few long moments to realize how much more pressure she felt with the baby that low…

It was going to be a long two hours…

Two agonizing hours of clenching, of feeling her pups kick and squirm and demand, to the point where even they with their boundless energy were tiring out. Holly remained there on her side, her eyes fluttering as she stared first at the clock, and then her gaze had drifted to the dancing flames…

She began to see foxes dancing there in her fireplace… Orange pelted foxes, with very large tummies… Larger than hers…? No, couldn’t be. Her belly felt like she had a creature six times her size in it… Like it encompassed the world… No, the galaxy! Everything!

And then she was brought back down from the hypnotic dance of the flames by the gentle chiming of bells…

“...o-oh my gaw… hhnng… is it t-time…?”

Holly lifted her head confusedly, and stretched. She winced in pain as her belly cramped especially badly…

“...Ah… AH?! Oh no, I fell asleep…!!!”

She struggled to a stand, her gravid tummy dragging her back down the entire way. Her eyes snapped first to the clock, and she found herself with mixed feelings upon seeing it wasn’t quite midnight yet… Not quite Christmas…

But then the bells brought her attention back, and she realized they weren’t sleigh bells in her dream with a soft gasp… She trotted quickly back to the kitchen and stopped the timer she had set up…

“Gah… I woulda missed midnight AND had nothing but coal lumps on a baking tray to show for it… Though, couldn’t say I wouldn’t deserve the coal… With how naughty I’m being...~”
She pulled the cookies from the oven, set them down, and sighed in relief. They were a perfect shade of golden brown, and once they had cooled,  Holly decorated them carefully and set them out on a plate…

She had slept up until nearly the final hour of the day… Now she sat patiently, not trusting herself to lay her head back down despite exhaustion creeping at the edges of her vision…

“Little bit longer… Just a bit longer…”

Tick… Tick… Her stomach roiled and gave its final attempt, but it was no use… Holly’s ears were straight, her eyes focused and dewy, reflecting the glimmering lights on the tree…

Tick… Tick… Mere minutes away… A triumphant smile spread over Holly’s face… She breathed out hard, and lifted her hips, stretching out her kinked spine and groaning as it nearly snapped with the action…

She felt her baby slip just a little lower. She bit her bottom lip, and locked her eyes on the clock… Really… If she just pushed now, no would ever question their birthday…

...but she’d know. And lying got you no presents this time of year… What kind of example would she be if she was always on the naughty list…?

“Just… A bit… L-Longer… And it will be…”

TICK!

The clock chimed a happy little tune. Outside, the snow had stopped, and the moon shone with blue light through the wintery midnight…

A distant squeal of excitement rang through the otherwise silent and still landscape… And it wasn’t the last that would come!
On the first hour of Christmas, Holly gave birth to a slightly over-sized litter of healthy fox kits. Forever after, she would tell the story when the holiday came around… Yet, she could never speak aloud the lengths she’d gone to to orchestrate their convenient birth-date…  But in the moment, none of that was on her mind. As the scent of burning pine and cookies filled the air, she curled around the fruits of her efforts… She had done it…

And she could think of no better gift for her favourite day. As she settled her tail over her litter, she yawned heavily, and chuckled… She was mentally scolding herself for even attempting so foolish… And yet…

“...Well… It’ll be awhile before these precious little presents are grown… But after that…”

Her contented smile gained just a bit of mischief, as she once more melted into the dreams the foxes in the flames gave to her…