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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#22: Auld Lang Syne

From the Times Square Ball drop to the old Spanish tradition of trying to fit 12 grapes into your mouth at midnight — New Year's Eve comes with a host of different rituals and traditions.

Maybe a new one of yours will be submitting a New Year's-themed story to the Reedsy Prompts contest? 😊 In which case, we don't want to keep you any longer! So...

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1... write! And have yourself a Happy New Year.

This week's prompts

Write a short story about a person who goes to bed on Valentine's Day and wakes up in 1920.

Holiday – 41 stories

Write a short story about someone with unconventional New Year's traditions.

Holiday – 44 stories

Two strangers meet at a New Year's Eve party. They spend the party together, and then never see each other again.

Winter – 79 stories

Write a short story in which the last line is the countdown to midnight on New Year's Eve.

Winter – 97 stories

Write a short story about someone who does not spend December 31st celebrating New Year's Eve.

Winter – 77 stories

Stories

“The Key to Happiness” by Maxwell Smith

Submitted to Contest #22

Parties are really not my thing. I never planned on being out for New Year’s Eve, but Taylor always knew how to persuade me into doing things I didn’t want to do. As my best friend, she always knew the right thing to say. And it didn’t help that I’d been in love with her since the day we met. My first day at Alder Middle School, she beat me up on the school bus for taking her spot. I admired her deep blue eyes and rainbow Converse while she slammed my up against the bus window. Our moms, clearly unbeknownst to us at the time, were in the sam...

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“Champagne for Two ” by Stephanie Johnson

Submitted to Contest #22

I’ve always hated New Years Eve. At least, that’s what I liked to tell myself. I strolled up the sidewalk, champagne bottle in one hand and clutch in the other, my stilettos continuously getting caught between the cracks of the walkway. What what this - Europe? What kind of fancy neighbourhood has cobblestone sidewalks, anyways? I was miserable. Every home looked like an upscale brick version of barbie-dream-house. Stuck in the pessimistic narrative that runs my life like a dark and twisted rom-com, I was startled out of my daze. “Slow...

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“Party Extravaganza” by Jem Stone

Submitted to Contest #22

Every year, the boredom in me got worse. The New Year’s Eve party was never fun, neither was the New Year’s Day party. Despite that, I’m still forced to attend both parties because it would be my last before I leave my family and move in with my fiancé’s. I can’t say I’m happy with my marriage, but I also can’t say that I hate it because he treats me well. His looks aren’t bad either so what’s there to complain about? Still, this New Year’s Eve party is as lame as ever. I prepared myself with a sigh, then proceeded to walk down the center st...

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“ The tones of mellowness” by Anny Lol

Submitted to Contest #22

You'll think this is plain corny and would want to gorge your throat out and I won't blame you but hear me out. You waltz into a party, skin all over the place and I mean it. Girls throwing their bums on stranger's members, their thighs and cleavage on display, sensualizing there every move. Perfumes of every scent invade your nostrils and make its route straight into the mind, into this one section of the brain that causes individuals to lose all mental abilities and make them crave a person, paying no mind whether they got bunny teeth or d...

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“An Interesting Night” by Kenya Davenport

Submitted to Contest #22

I don't like new years eve parties. Any other party I'm okay with. Birthday parties? Yes, they have free cake. Holiday parties? Free booze. Bridal showers? Also free booze. But new years parties are the worst. They last forever, everyone always drinks way too much as they go on and on about how they plan on changing when we all know that they’re just going to be the same shitty they’ve always been, and they’re always crowded. So when my friend first asked me to go with him to a bar new years&...

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“The Only Help I'm Giving You” by Eve K

Submitted to Contest #22

Ace wasn't really sure about a lot of things, like why he hadn’t run after his girlfriend after she broke up with him three days before Christmas Eve; why he was considering meeting up with his mom over dinner after she disappeared from his life at age three; why he was sitting out on a balcony in cold New York wind, drinking orange juice out of shot glasses on New Year’s Eve. With the gallon right next to him, he could have easily drunk straight from the container and downed the measly amount of liquid left within five gulps, but his arms w...

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“New Year's Eve Chaos ” by Ash P

Submitted to Contest #22

Tobias rushed around quickly trying to help his daughter get ready for the babysitter's place, his new boyfriend, Stephen, was struggling to help him he'd never dealt with children before. They piled into, Stephen's car and rush down the road the radio droning on, the get little Mozella to the babysitter's and Stephen drops him off at his first job the bookstore. Charlie the clerk and manger greets him coldly she's been doing that since him and Stephen got together almost a year ago. He puts his coat and hat in the break room and helps out t...

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“Dark New Year” by Angela Mask

Submitted to Contest #22

DECEMBER 29"Angela! Come down now or we'd be late", my Mom yelled from downstairs. I take my time to go down mainly because I don’t really want to go out. There’s nothing interesting about the New Year ‘cause it’s going to be like the last year. I ran down the staircase to meet my Mom. “I have been waiting for…” she started saying but I just walked passed her, totally ignoring her comment. My Mom gets extra jumpy during the holidays which I don’t find interesting at all. We go to the mall that is less t...

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“Time to Go” by Sk Virtue

Submitted to Contest #22

The bell on the shop door rang as Caryn pinned down a pattern piece. She looked up to see a harried couple rush into her sewing shop. They were young, in their mid-twenties. The man was tall and gangly with a mop of red hair sticking out from under a black bowler hat. The woman was shorter. And she was a bit rotund. She was cute though. Her blonde hair twisted up in tiny braids around her head. The braids, entwined with white ribbon and silver beads, sparkled in the morning sunshine. “Can I help you?” Caryn asked. “We hope...

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“Come Out” by Maimuna Lewis

Submitted to Contest #22

It was clear what I had to do. I mean, it was my job and what I was getting paid for. I could do this. For the money, I could do this.I reached for the doorknob but stopped myself, my hands trembling.....Or could I? Could I really? Risk public embarrassment- no, complete social humiliation for this? ....but two hundred dollars is a lot. Well, to me it was. They were paying me to do this because they knew I was poor. And why should a poor guy have this big of an ego? Money was money. And I needed it."Mason! Yo, what's up, man!"It was the gree...

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“I'll be gone at Midnight” by Emily Cannon

Submitted to Contest #22

There was some drinking, of course, but Carlotta wasn’t interested in the drinks. If she had been a younger, prettier woman she might have found the prospect of free drinks more likable. But she was mostly here for the books, wasn’t she? Her long-time friend had invited Carlotta to her work party. It was just like Carlotta to have a librarian as a friend. It was also just like Carlotta to have gotten banned from the very library where Zeala worked. It had been an accident. Well, mostly. But apparently, the ban did...

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“A Chef's Story” by M. Ariani

Submitted to Contest #22

“Fuck you! I quit!” I said, after slapping him on the cheek with my soapy hands.“You can’t quit, we’re in the middle of a dinner! Have you gone completely insane?” He replied, clutching his left cheek, that has began to show a visible red mark left my by hand.“Try me! I’m done with you!”I walked hurried past Peter Meier, bumping his shoulder on my way to the backroom. I needed to get out of here, out of this fucking restaurant that I worked so hard for nothing.“What the fuck are you all staring at? Get back to your fucking work!” I heard Pet...

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“Going out with a bang ” by Ash Stacy

Submitted to Contest #22

New year's eve. "Wow another year gone but,this one this one if gonna go out with a bang." He thought laughing to himself. "Go out with a bang. Ha if only they knew." Setting his mind back to work mode he meticulously grabs wires making sure each one is absolutely correct. There were thousands of wires like an endless sea of reds,blues and greens all across the parking lot of what soon would be the biggest new years party of the century. Hours later once he finished rechecking the wires for what must be the millionth time he signals to the c...

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“Escape” by Cody Ell

Submitted to Contest #22

The lights were almost blinding as I made my way into the ballroom. I squinted past them, and let out a soft gasp. It was beautiful. The lights sparkled off the glassware and tinsel streamers that were strung between the stone pillars. A warm light suffused the room bouncing off of small silver stars had been hung from the ceiling and slowly spun on their almost invisible strings, giving them the illusion of simply hanging in mid-air. Almost like magic, but not quite, I thought to myself. The people too were everything I had imagined. The ot...

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“Let's be in the Spirit” by Unknown User

Submitted to Contest #22

Okay. Why did I come here? I don’t even celebrate on New Year’s Eve. It’s all just a bunch of people telling each other how they’re promising themselves they’ll go to the gym, and trust me, it’s not gonna go well. I mean, can you guess what they’re doing now? A woman shoves a chocolate-iced donut into her mouth. She swallows without barely bothering to chew. “Oh I’m just stocking up,” she tells her (presumably) friend who knows just as well as I do how well her “new-year's-resolution” is gonna go. “You know, I won’t be able to have this for ...

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$50

Prize money

338

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 03, 2020 EST

Won by Emily Hemmings 🏆

Title: Pagliacci on the Q Train

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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