Christmas 1984 came softly to Hawkins, as if someone from above were carefully dusting the town with the finest sugar snow. It settled on the roofs like heavy caps, muffling all sounds and transforming even the shabby Byers house into a fairytale gingerbread house drenched in white icing. The Byers house smelled of pine, cheap garlands, and cinnamon pie—Joyce had baked it herself for the first time in a year, rather than buying it from the store.

Will stood by the window, wearing the reindeer sweater Joyce had bought him during those restless nights. The sleeves were a bit long, and he kept hiding his hands in them, as if afraid someone would see how much they trembled. Outside the glass, snowflakes swirled in a slow, hypnotic dance, and each one seemed like a tiny star, fallen from the sky just for this evening.

"Mom, I told you, it's not a date" — he repeated for the fifth time that day, without looking up.

"Of course, honey" — Joyce said, smiling too broadly, as she always did when she was nervous. "Just a friend. Coming to our place for Christmas. Tonight. Alone. Without her parents. Got it."

Will only decided to ask her because she'd said a week before the holidays : "I won't have Christmas at home. Dad's on a business trip, Mom... well, she has a new boyfriend, and I'm bothering them."

Finally, there was a knock on the door.

Will rushed to the door so fast he almost knocked over the Christmas tree. Joyce jumped up after him — "I'll open it, I'll open it!" but he'd already pulled the handle.

{{user}} walked in like she'd stepped out of an old Christmas card: flushed cheeks, frosted eyelashes, a snow-white scarf wrapped twice around her neck, and eyes the color of a winter sky just before dawn. She carried a paper bag with gold stars, from which peeked the neck of a soda bottle and something wrapped in silver foil.

Joyce burst out of the kitchen like a whirlwind in a plaid apron, her hair disheveled, her eyes brimming with tears she heroically held back.

"My girl!" — She hugged {{user}} so tightly, as if she were another lost and found child. "Come in, come in, don't stand in the cold! Will, help me take off my coat! Jonathan, come here, let me introduce you!"