I decided to write this story for the holidays. Merry Christmas, guys! Hope you enjoy your holiday! 🎅
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Little Michelangelo blinked his baby blue eyes open, awakening from his sleep. He sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes sleepily, then yawned, his mouth stretched open wide.

Suddenly, his heart stopped as he realized what day it was.

"Guys! Guys!" Mikey exclaimed. "Wale up! It's Christmas!"

He grabbed Leonardo and shook him until his blue opened, opened one of Donnie's red-brown eyes with two of his fingers, and jumped right on top of Raph, who let out an indignant grunt.

"Mikey!" he growled into his pillow, pushing his little brother off. "Get offa me!"

"Yeah, Mikey," Leo groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "Why'd you hafta wake us up?"

"Because," Mikey said, looking like he would burst with excitement, "IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!"

"Oh!" Donnie sat up. "He's right! It's December 25th, also known as Christmas Day!"

"Thanks for the newsflash, Brain Boy," Raph muttered.

"C'mon, guys!" Mikey jumped out of bed. "Let's go wake Daddy up! Then we can do whatever people do on Christmas!"

He charged out out of their bedroom toward Splinter's room, and his brothers ran after him, hearts pounding with excitement.
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"Daddy? Daddy, wake up!"

Splinter awoke to four little voices speaking to him in excited tones. He groaned tiredly and opened his eyes to see four green little masked shapes standing over him, eyes sparkling with excitement. They all looked like they were ready to burst with enthusiasm.

"Merry Christmas, Daddy!" they chorused.

Splinter sat up in his bed, smiling at his sons.

"Merry Christmas, my sons," he said.

"C'mon, Daddy!" little Michelangelo squeaked.

He took Splinter's hand in his little green one and tugged as hard as he could.

"Let's go open our presents!"

Splinter remembered how excited his sons were about getting Christmas presents. He stood up with a smile and allowed his little son to pull him out to the main room of the lair. The other three turtles ran alongside them, their little hearts bursting with excitement.
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As soon as they stepped into the main room of the lair, the four little turtles all gasped at what they saw, eyes wide.

The entire room had been decorated; strings of little leaves ran around the walls of the room, a wreath hung over the fireplace,which had four little (worn out) stockings hanging on its mantel. Splinter had been planting a little tree in a flower pot all year, and now it had grown big enough for them to decorate.

By the flowerpot containing the tree, a pile of five wrapped presents had been left on the floor, wrapped in wrapping paper of all sorts of colors and patterns and accessories with ribbons and bows.

Splinter grinned as he looked at them. He remembered sneaking out into the city every night in his disguise while his sons were asleep, going to stores and buying presents for his little turtles to open on Christmas Day. He'd spent other nights in his room wrapping the gifts, using all of his effort to make them look perfect and hiding them in his closet.

As he looked at the gifts now, he felt pride swelling up in his chest.

"Whoa!" the four little turtles breathed, their eyes wide with awe.

"Well, my sons?" Splinter said. "What are you waiting for? Go and see what I have gotten you."

The four little Turtles gasped and bolted toward the potted plant; Michelangelo was in the lead, of course, barely able to contain his enthusiasm. He reached the presents first and began digging around eagerly in the pile, looking for a present with his name on it. His brothers followed close behind, doing the same.

Leonardo found his first; it was wrapped in blue wrapping paper that matched his mask, decorated with green ribbon. He carried it over to a less-crowded spot and carefully opened his gift. He removed the wrapping paper, lifted the lid to the box, and gasped at what he saw inside.

It was the entire first season of Space Heroes, on DVD.

"Space Heroes!" he cried, taking the DVD case and staring at it in awe.

"Yes, my son," Splinter told him. "The entire first season. Now you may watch it whenever you please. But there is something else I have gotten you."

Little Leo looked back down into the box and gasped again.

He'd also gotten a Space Heroes mug, with Captain Ryan on it and a background of lots of planets and stars.

"Wow!" Leo breathed. "My own Space Heroes cup! I can drink out of Captain Ryan!"

Splinter grimaced, then smiled.

"I suppose you are right, Leonardo," he said.

"So Leo got stupid nerd stuff for Christmas," Raph remarked. "Whoop-de-doo."

"Raphael!" Splinter said, warning in his voice. "Stop that this instant."

"Sorry, Dad," Rapg muttered.

The second-oldest turtle took his present-wrapped in bright red wrapping paper and decorated with green ribbon-out of pile. He carried it over to his own space, sat down, and ripped the red wrapping paper off of the gift, tossing it aside.

He lifted the lid off of the box, tossed that aside as well, then stared into the box. His green eyes lit up when he saw what was inside.

It was a toy, a little dark red monster truck with black lightning-bolt patterns and big, pitch-black tires. On one side of the truck, the words Red Fire were scrawled in an interesting font.

Raphael stared at the toy truck. He'e seen the commercials for it all over television, and while he made no big deal of it, Splinter could tell by the fascination in his son's eyes that he'd really wanted it.

And now he had it.

"Wow, Raph!" Leo remarked. "That's really neat!"

Raph didn't respond. He just stared at the truck, then placed it on the ground and began playing with it, rolling it gently along the floor. Splinter smiled.

"Donatello," he said, turning to his second-youngest son. "Let us see what you have gotten."

Little Donnie picked up his gift-wrapped in a pretty purple and draped in green ribbon-and settled down on the floor with it. He removed the wrapping paper carefully, tearing the tape taping it down off and removing the wrapping paper without even ripping it. He removed the lid from the box...

...and gasped out loud at what he saw.

It was a brand new, much bigger, much thicker dictionary; it was almost as big as Donatello himself, with a bright, shiny cover and at least a hundred pages.

"Wow!" Donnie breathed, his brown-red eyes sparkling with awe. "A brand new dictionary! Whoa, look how big it is! And it says here that it's the revised edition! That means it's brand new."

Raphael rolled his little green eyes, but he refrained from saying anything.

"That is not all, Donatello," Splinter said. "Look what else I have gotten you."

Donatello looked back into the box and gasped again.

There was another book in there-an encyclopedia.

"An encyclopedia!" he gasped. "My very own encyclopedia! I've never had one of those before!"

"Well, you have one now," said Raph. "So can you-"

He cut off as Splinter gave him a warning glare and returned to playing with his toy monster truck. Donatello opened his brand new encyclopedia and began reading it eagerly, eyes wide with excitement.

Splinter turned to his last son, who was just now opening his present.

Michelangelo.

The little turtle ripped the orange wrapping paper off of his gift eagerly, blue eyes sparkling with excitement, and took the lid off of the box, tossing it away. When he saw what was inside, he squealed out loud with joy.

It was a brand new art set, complete with crayons, colored pencils, paints, and an assortment of three paintbrushes.

Splinter smiled at his youngest son. He knew how much little Michelangelo loved art; the orange-clad turtle was always drawing pictures and taping them to the walls of the bedroom he and his brothers shared. He'd worn nearly all of his crayons down to a nub with all of his drawing, and Splinter figured he'd need more soon.

"Wow!" Mikey cried. "New crayons! Ooh, and color pencils, too! Ooh, and paint! And paintbrushes! This is the best gift ever!"

He stood up and charged toward Splinter, knocking into him and squeezing him in a bear hug.

"Thank you, Daddy!" he cried.

The other three turtles climbed to their feet and ran over to join in, wrapping their little green arms around their father and hugging tight.

"Thank you, Daddy!" they chorused.

"You are welcome, my sons," Splinter smiled as the four little turtles let go of him. "And now, what have you four gotten me for Christmas?"

"We'll go get it," said Leo. "Stay here, Daddy. And close your eyes."

Splinter grinned and closed his eyes, covering them with one hand. His ears pricked as he heard the sounds of four pairs of big feet shuffling away. The little turtles sounded like they were heading for their room.

There were a few thumps and noises, a little bit of mutters and shushes, and then the footsteps sounded again, getting closer to him. Something that sounded like paper flapping sounded, and then everything was quiet.

"You can open your eyes now, Daddy," Leo told him.

Splinter opened his eyes..

...and let out a little gasp at what he saw.

It was a drawing, but not just any drawing.

It was a true masterpiece.

Little Leonardo was holding up a giant piece of paper, so big it went up to Splinter's waist. On it, there was drawing of him (Splinter) and his sons, holding hands together with smiles on their faces.

They had drawn a bright blue sky, too, and in that sky were a bunch of cotton balls glued to the paper that Splinter guessed were clouds. Tinier little cotton balls the size of pebbles were glued under the clouds, though Splinter couldn't quite figure out what they were.

The wonderful masterpiece had been "framed" with some wooden planks, and those planks had been decorated with lots and lots of glitter and strips of cloth. There was a big red silk bow attached to the work of art, and at the top of the paper, big multi-color letters written in crayon wrote:

MERRY CHRISTMAS, DADDY! WE LOVE YOU!

Splinter gently took the masterpiece from Leonardo and held it in his hands, gazing down at it with a smile.

"See the little cotton balls, Daddy?" said Donnie, touching one of the little cotton balls below the clouds on the drawing. "That's supposed to be snow, 'cause we love the snow so much."

"Do you like it, Daddy?" asked Leo, his eyes brimming with hope. "We worked really hard on it, 'cause we wanted it to be perfect."

"I love it, Leonardo," Splinter whispered. "It is beyond perfect."

"It was Mikey's idea," said Leo. "He likes drawing a lot, so he decided we should make you a drawing for Christmas."

Michelangelo looked bashfully down at his feet, blushing.

"He made a wise decision," said Splinter, smiling at his youngest son.

Mikey saw this and blushed even more.

Splinter looked back at the big red silk bow on the drawing.

"Where did you get the bow from?" he asked, looking back up at his sons.

Raphael stepped forward, looking up at his father. Splinter's whiskers twitched with surprise at the sad, shy look in his son's green eyes.

"I...I used the silk you gave me for Mutation Day," he said quietly. "It was the only thing we could find."

Splinter's whiskers twitched in surprise again and his ears pricked.

Raphael loved that little square of red silk. Ever since he was an infant, he'd almost never let go of it; he'd spend his time sitting alone, stroking the soft red silk that matched his mask color so perfectly. He'd never let any of his brothers touch it; he'd kept his precious silk to himself.

And now here it was, as a bow on Splinter's Christmas present.

"Raphael," he whispered. "You loved that silk dearly."

"I know," the guilt in Raph's voice grew heavier and he stared down at his feet. "But...but I thought you'd like it."

"I do, Raphael" said Splinter. "I really, truly do."

"You do?" Raph perked up. "You're not mad?"

"Of course not, my son. That was a very nice thing to do. Thank you."

"Y-you're welcome."

"My sons," said Splinter. "Come here."

The four little turtles walked forward, their eyes full of curiosity and slight worry as they approached. What did their father want from them, they wondered?

Splinter knelt down to his sons' level. And suddenly, he reached out and pulled them forward into his arms, and he hugged them tight, holding them close to him.

"Thank you, my sons," he whispered. "Merry Christmas."

And as the five of them knelt there in front of the blazing fireplace, hugging, feeling each other's warmth and love, and tiny tears welling in their eyes, the turtles knew exactly what to say back.

"Merry Christmas, Daddy," they all responded.