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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#229: Mistletoe and Meet-Cutes

As someone who loves getting in the festive mood once winter arrives, you’ll likely find me curled up on my couch on cold December nights — with a cheesy holiday film on the go. What can I say? There’s just something about so-bad-they’re-actually-good movies that I can’t get enough of this time of the year (much to my family’s dismay).

This week, let’s pull out all the stops and write stories that play with the common tropes in popular holiday films, from secret royals and sudden cases of amnesia, to disastrous celebrations salvaged by some last-minute magic. Whether you lean in to the warm fuzzies in earnest, or subvert your trope entirely, is up to you...

This week's prompts

Write about a festive party gone wrong that’s saved by some holiday magic.

Holiday – 24 stories

Write a story in which a cynical character gets amnesia on Christmas Eve.

Christmas – 28 stories

Write about a character who visits their hometown for the holidays and reconnects with a former love interest.

Holiday – 65 stories

Start or end your story with a character finding out the love of their life is actually royalty.

Romance – 19 stories

Write a story in which a character is stuck reliving their worst Christmas ever, over and over again.

Christmas – 35 stories

Stories

“It Always Leads To You” by Brooke Ferguson

Submitted to Contest #229

Inspired by the album evermore.Dorothea Windsor had finally made it to the top. She was on billboards, advertising for the next Hollywood hit and her face was in magazines selling pricey makeup. She had a Beverly Hills manor where she hosted parties for the famous and wealthy. On the surface, Dorothea had it all. But the one thing she truly wanted was unattainable.She had grown up in picturesque Tupelo, Mississippi, a small town that was best known for being the birthplace of icon Elvis Presley, who had often been an early inspiration for he...

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“Dance of the Fairies” by Edward Roberts

Submitted to Contest #229

Oliver threw his scarf around his neck, stepped off the train and walked along the platform at Boston’s South Station. He was surrounded by other holiday travelers pulling large suitcases, sporting heavy, overstuffed backpacks and pushing strollers with travel-weary children. He entered the grand concourse of the train station and scanned the expansive space. Even without the festive decorations in place, he admired this building for its artistic and majestic character deriving, in part at least, from its high ceilings, ornate chandeliers an...

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“Last Holiday” by Ellie Miller

Submitted to Contest #229

Every palm tree was dressed in lights. Traffic zoomed by on either side of the median barrier. Crowds—families, couples, tourists—were all over the sidewalk. The open shops were packed. Cameras clicked and flashed at the decorations painting the downtown area. I was leaving too much of my fate to this coat. Normally, I wouldn't be caught dead wearing anything hooded. The hood on this oversized coat blocked at least a third of my vision. I had to turn my head to watch my six, a big no-no for me. Because it was ...

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“Feast and Survival in the Holidays” by Andrew Sweet

Submitted to Contest #229

A police transport zipped by overhead just above seasonal signs that read, in most cases, the generic “Happy Holidays.” Larken Marche leveraged her laser swordspear to keep her upright as she crunched through the knee-deep snow that covered most of 56th street. She glared at the whiteness covering the streets below, bringing to a freeze all of the normally bustling commerce, and more importantly, passable walkways and streets in the dregs. She pulled her cloak more tightly around her shoulders and watched her breath mist before her in dismay...

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“Tina's Treasures” by Haley Roeder

Submitted to Contest #229

Barnaby Mimms ran the largest scrapyard in New Haven, North Carolina. He inherited it from his father, who inherited it from his father. Barnaby’s grandfather had recently passed away and his father had retired to sunny southern California where he decided, absurdly, to take up surfing at the age of 58. Barnaby was now all alone at the age of 28, unless you counted the 350 million dollars that he kept stashed in three offshore accounts. Barnaby’s facility, Tina’s Treasures, deconstructed totaled cars for useful parts and sold them. What re...

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“A scene for Elm.” by Eko Epsilon

Submitted to Contest #229

“As a young future pirate, you’re most likely wondering how I’m to be married to Elm!” Scene quietly exclaimed atop the highest tree in the kingdom. Holding a freshly picked mango that his only friend, an annoyed macaw, was eyeing as it swung back and forth in its historically known clumsy captors' hands. “Well, you see, Drippy, I saved her.” Drippy took his eye off of the fruit, stared at his feeder and swayed his head back and forth. Scene huffed “You don’t know what you’re talking about, she noticed me.” Drippy’s feathers fluttered as he ...

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“Socks” by Flying Eagle

Submitted to Contest #229

I’ve always hated socks. To specify, I hate receiving socks, and I have not always despised them. A personal and most probably an eternal dislike. Every time I have pulled and blanketed my legs with it, an untamed thought threatened to whisk me back to that cold twenty-fourth. I shifted my gaze from the vivid pixels of the TV to my Xiao Long Baos, waiting in stoic silence for me to devour them. I sucked the warm broth, soothening my mouth with a symphony of spices, making my veins surge in intoxicating amusement. My eyes broadened in re...

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“Christmas Blessings” by Victorya Adams

Submitted to Contest #229

The Christmas lights could be seen all along Lewis and Clark Street. Fresh snow coated the ground. Twas the night before Christmas and everyone was inside their house. Everyone except Mrs. Whitman who scattered the fresh snow as she ambled down the street with her head down. She didn’t look at the Christmas lights. She didn’t marvel at the fresh snow. And she wasn’t in any hurry to be all snug in her bed. She held a package under her arm but it wasn’t a Christmas present, for Mrs. Whitman did not have anyone to give Christmas presents to. It...

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“Foolishly Hopeful” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #229

I'm dead on my feet, my head still buzzing from endless hours of whining jet engines. Stiff and numb from what seems like days waiting and sitting in narrow and uncomfortable seats. Exhausted from lack of sleep, dehydration and too many peanuts.It's been years since I've been home. My job has taken me all over the world. I enjoy my work but flitting about doesn't lend itself to making friends. That's okay, I tell myself. I'm not very good at making and keeping friends. I've learned that it's less painful to say goodbye with a smile, than won...

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“Blackmail and White Christmas” by Ben Battles

Submitted to Contest #229

The night I rolled into Eastbrook, after fifteen years away, the cold air burned in my lungs as if I’d swallowed a hot coal, my frozen breath was the smoke rising from my chimney esophagus. When I moved uptown, I thought for sure I’d left this small town behind. I thought I’d never walk these streets again, but then I never thought I’d take a gig like this either. Empty pockets are a powerful motivator. Turnabout is fair play though, that’s what I tell myself. Policing blackmail is a joke, you always run the risk the blackmailer releas...

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“The Biscuits and Gravy at Lola's ” by Megan Spencer

Submitted to Contest #229

*Sensitive content: grief/pregnancy loss mentioned* There is something about coming back to this small town for the holidays. It’s got all the makings of a holiday movie. Fresh snow on the ground, festive lights hung through main street, Michael Bublé’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas playing on my car radio for probably the hundredth time on my eight hour drive here. The town residents are spread throughout main street, some window shopping, others actually shopping last minute gifts, and some eating at the little cafés spread down...

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“A Reunion with Eggnog” by Keelan LaForge

Submitted to Contest #229

The snowfall didn’t abate on my journey home. I hadn’t been back in a long time. I lived on a different continent, so it wasn’t exactly easy to hop across the water and be back at my family home. It was worthwhile making the visit to spend Christmas with my folks. They were getting older, and so was I, and I suddenly didn’t feel like celebrating the holidays alone anymore. Once I got within one hundred miles of my birthplace, I knew it by the characteristic snowfall that used to plague us every winter. It was beautified by distance and me...

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“Merry Second Chances” by Kathleen Jessup

Submitted to Contest #229

Pulling up to my parents’ home after five years away is exciting and daunting. I take one last look in the rear-vision mirror, fixing my lip gloss, before leaving the car’s icy air-conditioning. There’s no doubt about it; it’s Summer in North Queensland, Australia. A wave of heat engulfs me, armpits crying in response. More sweat beads on my forehead while simultaneously trickling down my spine, pooling at the top of my underwear. It’s one reason I moved abroad, preferring the sun to kiss my skin for three months of the year, rather than t...

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“In The Snow.” by Emanuel Diaz

Submitted to Contest #229

Suzuharu Yuto (スズハルユウト), at 27 years old, was a man steeped in tradition, a vestige of a bygone era. With raven-black hair and a countenance that mirrored the classic ideals of Japanese beauty, he moved through life with a sense of purpose—his convictions rooted in the romantic notions of love that echoed through the pages of ancient poetry. Ehime Prefecture, with its serene landscapes and traditional charm, served as the perfect backdrop for Suzuharu's steadfast beliefs. In a world where love was often a fleeting whisper drowned by the c...

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“homecoming.” by Katie-lea Crane

Submitted to Contest #229

When it was the day before December Jaymie went to her hometown in Cooktown in cairns to spend Christmas with her family and when she arrived, she was greeted by her family and friends from when she used to live there, and she was so excited to be back that she basically screamed down the whole airport terminal and she then went with her family to her old house where she had so many good memories from her old life and she misses it and when her mother sees her and she suddenly says “you should stay here and live with us” and Jaymie thought a...

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$250

Prize money

171

Contest entries

64

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 22, 2023 EST

Won by Aaron Chin 🏆

Title: The Gingerbread Cookies

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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