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#21 That Holiday Feeling

This is the fourth holiday season that our short story contest has been around! And it's become something of a tradition for the Christmas-themed prompts to very loosely relate to a favorite holiday movie. This year, we're challenging you to either write from the perspective of a movie's secondary character, or to simply reimagine the general premise in a whole new light.

Can't get enough holiday stories? Check out some of our reading guides:

Or maybe you're still searching for the perfect gift for a book lover, and don't want to add to their "to be read" pile? We've got a list for that too 🎄

🥇 Winner

This Simple Phrase

Oceania Chee

Winner of Contest #21 🏆

Christmas Eve, the pop of a champagne bottle followed by a resounding cheer, one voice louder than the rest. Where you are is the glass-walled corner of an open-plan office space, colored in neutrals and grays on all sides in the style of what the CEO’s wife thinks is minimalism. Imagine setting down a little bystander on Google Earth, peeping through windows and open doors. Imagine seeing you leaning against the wall adjacent to floor-to-ceiling glass; lanky, slightly lackluster, not quite thirty yet but not quite 20 anymore. Old enou...

47 likes

⭐️ Shortlisted

No footprints in the snow

Marte Van Der Linden

Shortlisted for Contest #21 ⭐️

It was nearly midnight and I was beginning to hope I could spend the last hours of my shift quietly cleaning tables and polishing glasses. Then the door blew open and a man dressed as Santa Claus stepped inside.“Merry Christmas!” he said, beaming at me and throwing his arms wide. He even ho-ho-hoed.“And to you,” I said, smiling my customer service smile. “What can I get you?”“A glass of coke, please.” The guy in the Santa suit was broad and round-bellied and had a little difficulty getting onto a barstool. The padding was probably his own.I ...

13 likes

A Golden Christmas

Shortlisted for Contest #21 ⭐️

Heavy flakes fell unrelentingly from a leaden sky, so I could barely see where I was placing my feet – treacherous indeed as the mountain pass was perilously close to the edge, so I was grateful for each reassuring creak revealing I was on firm ground. The only signs I was near the forest were the tree-tops, which poked out of the monotonous whiteness like witches’ hats, and the cries of woodland birds sketching charcoal patterns in the sky as they made their way home. The icy air felt like a blade against my face and I wished I too were nea...

8 likes

I Think I’ve Got At Least One More Year In This Place, Kid

Shortlisted for Contest #21 ⭐️

A dirty white rag moving counterclockwise on a mahogany brown table. An image so well-ingrained in my head that I would often catch myself wiping down these same tables in my dreams, night after night. 40 years in the business and there were a number of things that I would never forget: the smell of beer mixed with the cleaning solution, the specific songs on the jukebox that played over and over each night, the crack of pool balls, and the warm ring of laughter. These days, some of those things were more common than others. The beer and cle...

7 likes

This week's prompts

You live in a neighborhood where lots of people go out of town for the holidays. But lately, this has been resulting in an increased number of break-ins.

Holiday – 23 stories

Just before Valentine's Day, a long-lost relative you've never heard of enters your life.

Valentine's Day – 53 stories

Write a short story about a work Christmas party that goes... awry.

Winter – 26 stories

Write a short story about an inn-keeper wondering whether this will be their last holiday season in business.

Holiday – 33 stories

You are a bartender working a night shift when a group of people come in on a Valentine's Day pub crawl.

Valentine's Day – 33 stories

Stories

This Simple Phrase

Oceania Chee

Winner of Contest #21 🏆

Christmas Eve, the pop of a champagne bottle followed by a resounding cheer, one voice louder than the rest. Where you are is the glass-walled corner of an open-plan office space, colored in neutrals and grays on all sides in the style of what the CEO’s wife thinks is minimalism. Imagine setting down a little bystander on Google Earth, peeping through windows and open doors. Imagine seeing you leaning against the wall adjacent to floor-to-ceiling glass; lanky, slightly lackluster, not quite thirty yet but not quite 20 anymore. Old enou...

47 likes

The Trip To Paris

Yoomi Ari

Submitted to Contest #21

There is a warmth that tumbles out in the winter time; when all else is so cold. It radiates from those who love and nurture as easily as they breathe. In truth, the sparks of warmth are always there no matter the season, just like a warm rock blends into a summer beach, yet melts winter ice.The skies colours of my world with their winter coats, each hue darker and richer than before. The path sparkles and crunches, like sugar underfoot, and the coolness brings me right into the now, into the moment of life. Shoving the door inwards, the sud...

29 likes

In the soul orphanage...

Iris-Alexandra Vavilov

Submitted to Contest #21

Hi, little kid! I am Aroon, the philosopher from the last bench that you surely met in school. I... am an orphan... and that means I don't really have a family. My mom died when I was born and my dad left me... I am 14 years old and I'm struggling with a strange feeling... It's not depression for sure. I've red about mental illnesses and I am pretty sure that I'm fine. I... am... feeling lost... abandoned... I'm not sure of my self-identity... Lots of psychologists say that "you are like your parents", "you are the results of how well you've...

21 likes

I Shouldn't Be Here

Submitted to Contest #21

Should I go? Should I stay? I’ll go. I’ll go out of respect. My boss so kindly planned the party, so I’ll go. I’ll stay for two hours. An hour and a half? No. Two hours. I’ll go. ~~~~~~~ What to wear? I look in the mirror. Too dressy? Too casual? Too fa...

19 likes

My Brother's Gut Is Never Wrong

Leya Newi

Submitted to Contest #21

I stared at all the people. All I wanted was to go home. It was Christmas Eve for goodness sakes! Mom was busy though, and Dad was too. And Mom wouldn’t let me stay home alone. She said it was too ‘dangerous.’ Wow, Mom. Way to put your trust in me. Mom was ignoring me, as usual, but still I had to sit here while she worked endlessly. I didn’t care if her work was important, or that it was necessary ‘for the greater good.’ I wanted to be home, painting or reading or ...

17 likes

The Letter

Tiffy H

Submitted to Contest #21

Two days before Christmas, I received a letter in the mail from a man claiming to be my long lost brother. The letter stated that the guy’s name was Clinton and he was 32 years old. He was the oldest.He claimed that when our mother gave birth to him, she gave him up for adoption because at the time she did not want kids. He said he was told that the reason she did not want kids at that time was because she was not married. A year later after Clinton was born, she gave birth again. She was not married then either, but she kept the baby.The le...

16 likes

A Blessing Within A Curse

Monique Mortimer

Submitted to Contest #21

Christmas day started just like any other year. Family preparing for our day out. Except this Christmas, Ma had other plans. She got up early to cook. Variety of meats in large pots, boiling away as I made my coffee. I tried to stay out of her way, making my coffee with a ninja like reflexes.But it was too late.“Brinda, start chopping the carrots” she gestured with a large knife.I sighed loudly, “Ma, I just made coffee. And are we not going camping like we always do?” Ma looked up at me with sadness in her eyes. Ever since the sta...

15 likes

The Mother, The Maiden, and The Crone

Bree Kokiri

Submitted to Contest #21

The mail arrived at 15 Maple Lane as it does every day around 1 pm. I pull back my green bedroom curtains and watch as the mail truck pulls away, before shouting “Mail’s here!” and calling down the stairs to my dad. There are no packages, birthday OR Christmas. Bummer. Dad claims he has to beat our Rottweiler, Daisy, to the door before she becomes a “shredder with legs”, but she’s old now, and she hasn’t chewed the mail, or anything else for that matter since she was a pup. I can’t help but wonder if there’s more to it. Maybe dad just wants ...

15 likes

Where It All Began

Submitted to Contest #21

“Not a single booking today.” Ernest climbed into bed. “We have a few guests.” Renee, his wife, said. She got into bed beside him. “It will be enough to cover this month.” “Yes, but what about next month? And the month after that?” “We’ll manage,” Renee said. “We always do.” “This time is different,” Ernest said. “If things don’t pick up by the end of the month, we might not have Erren Everlasting Inn anymore.” “If that’s the case, so be it.”...

15 likes

When the War Falls Silent

Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #21

When the men from the Otherworld arrived, they brought death and destruction with them. When the Otherworlders arrived, the continent of Micsudsa was enshrouded in a pitch-black shadow from which it may never be freed, or so Silas feared. Oh, he knew that it was naïve to think that their lands had been entirely peaceful before they arrived, but they’d not experienced devastation such as this. Sure, Micsudsa had been fractured into two warring factions for years, but that was naught but a petty squabble when compared to th...

14 likes

The Heart of a Termite.

Kaysie Davis

Submitted to Contest #21

I sat back and stared at the pile of papers and scrolls in front of me. The debts from my little Inn were really piling up, I had only bought this place a few weeks ago but at this rate, ‘The Drunken Termite Inn’ would probably not make to the end of this Long Night Festival. Never mind making it to the next one. The Festival of the Long Night was just ramping up and every Inn in town was booked. Some places were even down to renting out their horse stalls! I stared down at my blank log book in frustration, we didn’t have any guests, like we...

13 likes

One Last Job

Laura Besley

Submitted to Contest #21

The arrhythmic thudding of my running feet is almost as loud as the thundering of my heart. I taste blood, adrenaline. Just gotta keep going. Over the fence, down the alleyway and I’ll be away from the top of the village where the large houses are too far apart to give me cover. I can hear him gaining on me. ‘Oi,’ he shouts. Looking over my shoulder, I twist slightly too far and a firework of pain shoots up my knee. That’s game over for me. Hands up in the air, I stop, and wait for a different kind of explosion.It’s Christmas Eve. When my mu...

13 likes

No footprints in the snow

Marte Van Der Linden

Shortlisted for Contest #21 ⭐️

It was nearly midnight and I was beginning to hope I could spend the last hours of my shift quietly cleaning tables and polishing glasses. Then the door blew open and a man dressed as Santa Claus stepped inside.“Merry Christmas!” he said, beaming at me and throwing his arms wide. He even ho-ho-hoed.“And to you,” I said, smiling my customer service smile. “What can I get you?”“A glass of coke, please.” The guy in the Santa suit was broad and round-bellied and had a little difficulty getting onto a barstool. The padding was probably his own.I ...

13 likes

The Bar at the end of Infinity

Tim Law

Submitted to Contest #21

I loved working at that little bar. It was a hole in the wall at the end of a road that went on forever. It was so far out of town that very few even knew it was there, most just stumbled upon it when it was meant to be. It was quiet, clean and dark. I knew the locals and they trusted me to supply them with their usual until they slipped into an early morning coma.So naturally I thought it impossible. Never in the ten or more years that I have covered the midnight shift had we seen a pub crawl. As the clock ticked over to three in the mornin...

12 likes

Tales of the Baobab Tree

Submitted to Contest #21

December 20th 2017A college student with a heavy backpack and a heavier heart wandered into the bar of my inn. In silence, he sat down at the very end of the bar and pulled out a newspaper. In lieu of reading it like a normal person, he began to fold it into an origami swan. I shrugged it off.About three hours later, an army of paper swans had invaded my counter space and the guy was still going strong. Fold. Flip. Crease. Flatten. Repeat. Fold. Flip. Crease. Flatten. Repeat. “Hey, kid, what’s the deal? Did you take every newspaper in S...

12 likes

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Contest #21

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$50

Prize money

168

Entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 27, 2019 EST

Won by Oceania Chee 🏆

Title: This Simple Phrase

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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