Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the city, people were shopping and the shops looked pretty. Decorations were hung, trees trimmed with care, in hopes that Saint Nicholas (or similar holiday figure) may soon be there. And one particular person was walking down the street towards a nearby salon.

Carl took a deep breath as he checked his phone once more, before stepping into the salon, a large shopping bag in his other hand. Being Christmas Eve, the place was nearly empty, save for just a single woman sitting in one of the chairs, idly checking her phone.

“Ahem…” Carl cleared his throat.

“Huh? Oh, you must be Carl, right?” the woman asked. “I’m Holly. And don’t laugh, I know this time of year that’s really on the nose.”

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to. And yes, I’m Carl. Thank you so much for staying open, I know it’s Christmas Eve, but it would have been very difficult to hide this for an entire day.”

“Absolutely, we get a lot of that, although not usually around Christmas. Halloween is more the season for it.” Holly crossed the room and locked the front door, before pulling a shade down.

“I definitely considered it…” Carl muttered.

“What was that?” Holly asked.

“Nothing,” Carl smiled. “Where do we start?”

“Well, first off, are you shaved?” Holly asked.

“Um, yes.” Carl blushed.

“In that case, we can start with the prosthetics, follow me into the back room.” Holly crossed the room once more and led Carl into a small back room with a table that Carl knew was likely used for waxing. “You can strip behind that screen over there and then lay on the table.”

Carl nodded and put down the bag, before heading behind the screen. He stripped out of his coat, shoes, socks, pants and shirt, and finally underwear, before grabbing a white robe off a nearby hook. He stepped back out and saw Holly putting on a pair of rubber gloves and grabbing a large white jar with a twist-off cap.

“All right, you can lay down and we’ll get to fitting.” Holly said, looking Carl up and down. “And I know modesty and everything, but you’re gonna have to take the robe off so I can get at everything.”

“Oh, right…” Carl blushed once more and pulled the robe off, exposing his smooth-shaven body.

“Just lie down face up and I’ll get to work.” Holly said.

Carl complied, laying down on the table. Holly dug into the shopping bag and pulled out a set of prosthetic breast forms, roughly a B-cup, which was the same cup size as Felicia, and the size that Carly had used since her birth on Valentine’s Day earlier that year. She also pulled out another prosthetic, a vaginal gaff, something that Carl had never thought he’d ever be researching before he did, finding both of the items from a specialty store on the internet.

Holly checked a nearby cabinet and clicked her tongue in annoyance, shifting a few bottles around before sighing and turning back to Carl, still laying on the table.

“Something wrong?” Carl asked.

“Listen, I don’t want to put a damper on your plans, but this glue is long-lasting. I usually have a solvent on-hand, but with the holidays, my last shipment was delayed. I won’t have it until next week at the earliest.” Holly said. “So you’ll be stuck with these prosthetics attached for a bit longer than just Christmas. Maybe even until New Year’s…”

“Don’t worry. That’s not gonna be a problem.” Carl assured her.

And it wouldn’t, he’d used his vacation days and taken a full week off of work in order to give Felicia her gift of a week of Carly. Plus he had some sick days in the bank just in case.

“If you say so,” Holly said, walking back to the table.

Opening the jar of glue, Holly began to coat the backsides of the breast forms with glue.

“Be careful, it’s a bit cold,” Holly said as she placed the prosthetic breast onto Carl’s chest.

He involuntarily flinched, but relaxed pretty quickly, with just enough time for Holly to place the other one onto the other side of his chest.

Following that, Holly helped fit Carl’s manhood into the gaff, and used glue to secure it, keeping all his bits hidden from view. As Holly set a timer for the glue to set, she struck up a conversation.

“So, we’ve got a few minutes to wait until they dry, we might as well chat a bit. I’m curious, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but what inspired this makeover?”

“It’s a bit of a long story, it all started this past Valentine’s Day with a knock on the door…” Carl started.

Holly listened intently as Carl explained every twist and turn of that fateful day and the mistaken makeover that had ignited a spark in their relationship that they’d have otherwise never realized was there.

“Wow. That’s quite a story. I’m glad that you found a way to make that work because… Yeesh, you’re lucky that your wife is so accepting.”

“I know,” Carl smiled. “That’s actually why I’m doing this. I dress up every weekend, but I just stuff the bra and tuck, and I want her to have the full experience for Christmas.”

“That’s sweet.” Holly said. “I hope she appreciates it.”

“She will.” Carl smiled.

Once the glue was dried, Carl sat up, used to having a weight on his chest, but this was still an interesting sensation for him.

“Wow…” Carl poked the breast form.

“You can blend them in with makeup if you’re looking for seamless, but if you’re intending on just wearing a bra over it, then you can worry about that later. I imagine you’re pretty skilled at blending by now.”

“You’d be right,” Carl chuckled as he pulled the robe on.

“Now, let’s get to work on the rest of this makeover.” Holly said. “Follow me back out to the front room.”

Carl followed Holly back out and took a seat in the chair. Holly started to fill a basin with water and began to prep all of her tools.

“Do you do this sort of full-service stuff often?” Carl asked. “I was surprised to find a place online that did the prosthetics and the makeover to be honest.”

“That’s how it’s always been, honestly, I think it’s because the owner also runs a drag bar downtown, so it makes it easier for her girls to get ready.” Holly said.

“Good to know,” Carl remarked as Holly reclined the chair back.

“You’ve got great hair, I imagine you take pretty good care of it, right?” Holly asked as she removed the hair tie that had been keeping Carl’s hair back in a low ponytail.

“Yeah, Felicia got me onto this great herbal shampoo.”

They continued chatting as Holly washed Carl’s hair, as Carl recounted his and Felicia’s other escapades, their vacation, their wedding, and then a poorly timed bout of the flu scuttling their plans for Halloween. When she was finished, and Carl’s hair looked even better than it had on Valentine’s Day, shiny and curly with amazing volume, owed to the months of proper hair care at home, Holly then brought Carl over to the nail station. There she applied some acrylic tips to his fingernails and painted them a bright red, much like Valentine’s Day, but unlike Valentine’s Day, Carl showed Holly a photo saved on his phone of some snowflake decals that he wanted added, of which Holly was happy to oblige.

Wiggling his toes and stretching his fingers, Carl admired his nails as Holly started to clean up her workstation. For Carl, this was a strange event, because the last time he’d had a professional makeover of this caliber, it was unwanted and he was mortified. Whereas this time, it was fun and Carl enjoyed being prettied up more than he’d expected to.

“I can’t thank you enough for this, Holly.” Carl said.

“Always happy to go above and beyond, for true love of course.” Holly smiled. “I’ll give you a call when the solvent comes in.”

“Thank you. I’ll just be a minute getting dressed.” Carl said.

After re-dressing in the same clothes he arrived in, save for swapping to a pair of pedicure socks and flip flops to protect his polished toes from being ruined, Carl pulled on his coat and headed outside into a waiting Uber ready to take him back to his apartment.

Meanwhile, Felicia was rushing down the hallway at the building where she worked, her coat half-pulled onto her, trying to catch the elevator.

“Hold the elevator!” Felicia shouted, and bounded into it, huffing and puffing as she put an arm out to hold the handrail.

“Woah, where’s the fire?” Mark, one of Felicia’s coworkers, joked.

“It’s Christmas Eve and I’m late. My husband is waiting for me and that was the third time I’ve tried to leave, I kept getting sucked back in the last two times.”

“Exciting plans for the holidays? I noticed you took the next week off.”

“You could say that… It’s our first Christmas together, and because Carl’s and my families live so far away, we’re doing a makeup Christmas in a few weeks, so we’ve got the whole week to ourselves.” Felicia trailed off as she imagined what she had planned for the week. Undoubtedly it would include a visit from Carly.

“Ah, young love.” Mark sighed as the elevator opened up on his floor. “Happy Holidays!”

“See you next year!” Felicia responded.

After a hurried drive back to their apartment, Felicia rushed upstairs as fast as she could and opened the front door. Since Valentine’s Day, Felicia had gotten used to seeing Carly first thing after she opened the door, but this time was different. Carl had turned down the lights and some smooth jazzy Christmas music was playing on their speakers and he was wearing a red silk robe that Felicia had never seen before. Sitting on the couch with one leg crossed over the other under the robe, Carl’s painted lips turned up into a smirk as Felicia got closer.

“What’s all this?” Felicia asked curiously as she kicked off her heels.

“Well, honey, I know it’s only Christmas Eve, but I thought you might like a present to unwrap tonight…” Carl purred as he stood up, clutching the robe close as to not reveal the contents underneath.

“After the day I’ve had… You’re so right!” Felicia smiled. “Why don’t you do the honors, I want to drink it all in.”

“All right,” Carl took a deep breath as he prepared to disrobe in one swift motion. “Merry Christmas, Felicia. This is for you!”

He dropped the robe to the floor, and Felicia’s eyes followed the robe to the floor, then traced back up Carl’s body, starting from the bright red open-toed high heels, which showed off his painted toenails excellently, up his sheer thigh-high stockings (also in red) and right up to the Santa-themed teddy he wore, with a thin black belt around his waist and white fur lining the top of the cups and the hem of the skirt, with only two delicate spaghetti straps keeping the lingerie attached to his body. Felicia had noticed his brown hair was styled when she came in, but now she was realizing that this wasn’t just Carl and the curling iron like usual, this was professionally done, just like his nails.

“Looks like someone had a busy day…” Felicia hungrily approached Carl and cupped his face in her hand, before pulling Carl into a passionate kiss with her arms around him and his around her’s.

As their bodies pressed together, something finally clicked in Felicia’s mind. She might have been able to ignore the lack of bulge, Carl had gotten really good at tucking in the intervening time, but something else was strange.

“Oh my god!” Felicia gasped as she realized that Carl’s bust wasn’t made of padding.

She pulled Carl’s teddy down slightly, seeing his newly acquired breast forms in all their glory.

“Do you like them?” Carl asked. “The outfit was a bonus, these are your presents this year.”

“I… What? Why?” Felicia replied.

“I figured for Christmas, I’d get you the gift of Carly, the full gift of Carly, so I took the original makeover and brought it to the natural conclusion.” Carl said.

“That’s so sweet!” Felicia said, then smirked. “Let’s go see how strong that glue is with some stress testing.”

“Stress testing?” Carl asked.

Felicia began walking towards the bedroom with a “Come Hither” look in her eyes and making a beckoning motion with her pointer finger.

“Oh… Stress testing. Sounds like a plan.” Carl grinned as he began to follow her into the bedroom.

Some time later, Carl and Felicia were laying in bed relaxing after a particularly great round of sex, rivaled only by the session they had after their wedding. All around the room, Felicia’s blouse, Carly’s heels, Felicia’s leggings, Carly’s teddy, among other items, were strewn about in the fervor of passion.

“That was incredible! Although I will admit that I maybe wasn’t thinking about sex when I made the decision about the gaff…” Carl trailed off.

“Wow, the first man who isn’t always thinking about sex, that’s an achievement.” Felicia joked. “But we made do, right?

“Yes, yes we did…” Carl sighed, fully satisfied.

“This is gonna be a tough gift to top… But I’m still gonna try.” Felicia said. “Be right back.”

“Huh?” Carl asked.

Felicia crawled out of the bed and crept into the hallway, while Carl waited in bed with baited breath. A few moments later, she returned with a flat, wrapped present and handed it to Carl.

“Wow, I wonder what it is.” Carl said. “It’s not a voucher for a free makeover is it?”

“Open it!” Felicia insisted.

“All right, all right, I’m opening it!” Carl said, sliding his nail under the tape and unwrapping an envelope.

Unwrapping the envelope, Carl found two tickets inside. Reading the text on the tickets, his eyes widened and his painted lips, which were slightly smudged from their passionate love-making session, formed an ‘O’.

“Holy crap! These are center ice tickets for my favorite hockey team! These must’ve cost a fortune!” Carl practically leaped out of bed to give Felicia a hug.

“See? I knew I could top your gift,” Felicia giggled.

“Oh my god this is great!” Carl exclaimed, then frowned as he read the text on the tickets once more. “Except…”

“Except what?” Felicia asked.

“The game is next week.” Carl replied.

“And…?”

“And the girl at the salon, Holly, said that she wasn’t getting new solvent until at least the week after that. So Carl won’t be able to go to this game. Carly will.”

Felicia tried to control her laughter, but after so many shenanigans and mistakes in their lives since February, it no longer fazed her at all, so she let out the largest burst of laughter that she could muster through her post-lovemaking exhaustion.

“Good thing it’s not your first time out in public as Carly, right?” Felicia asked.

“Why does this always happen to me?” Carl sighed and put his face into his manicured hands.