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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#281: The Fright Before Christmas

Don’t forget to use the hashtag #ReedsyHoliday to share your stories (and potentially get featured on our social accounts)!

With less than two weeks left until Christmas, I’ve been filling my days with cozy activities that are perfect for the festive season. While baking, caroling, and wrapping gifts are pretty standard for this time of the year, I also enjoy doing something a bit unexpected with my friends: holding creepy holiday movie marathons.

With that in mind, here are five prompts inspired by eerie holiday classics like Krampus and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Snuggle up with your thickest blanket and get started on a tale of regret, longing, love, horror, mystery — whatever you fancy! Good luck, and happy holidays to all those who celebrate!

This week's prompts

Write about a mysterious guest who arrives at a party — but no one knows who they are.

Dramatic – 60 stories

Start or end your story with someone receiving a strange — and possibly sinister — gift.

Dramatic – 54 stories

Write a story from the POV of a non-human character.

Short Story – 103 stories

Set your story during the coldest day of the year.

Short Story – 52 stories

Write a story that includes the line “Be careful what you wish for.”

Dramatic – 40 stories

Stories

“I SEE YOU AS YOU COME AND GO” by Candy Burrowbridge

Submitted to Contest #281

Today is the first day of Fall and the new shipment of home goods will arrive later this afternoon. A young stocker, George, had the responsibility of unloading the boxes when they arrived. My box was one of them. My earliest memory was George pulling me out of the darkness and into the glow of florescent lightning. I was being put on display with all the others like me. We were all waiting and hoping for someone to choose us. I WAS CHOOSEN! I was brought home to be part of the Oldenberger's family. They had bought their first home in a slee...

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“The Tortoise and the Badger” by David Nutt

Submitted to Contest #281

The tortoise and the badger I am beginning to feel old. At my age I suffer from the inevitable morning pains in certain muscles. I cannot tell you how old I am. I once heard somebody calculate my age by looking at the rings on my carapace. So without being able to see the top of my carapace I will never kn...

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“The Creature Within” by Ronald John MacLennan Jr

Submitted to Contest #281

I stir in the abyss of my own making, an echo in the void where no sound should be. My existence is a fragile yet infinite thing, birthed not by gods or devils but by the very marrow of her despair. Isabelle—the vessel, the artist of my form, though she knows it not. She fears me, hates me, but oh, how she has summoned me! Not by name, for I am nameless, but by the resonance of her anguish, her desire, her duplicity. I am her reflection, her truth wrapped in the guise of monstrosity. I have waited, as all such creatures do, lurking in the pe...

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“Henry” by Natalie Meador

Submitted to Contest #281

Henry slept curled up next to the fireplace. A grumble emitted from his gut, followed by a quiet but distinct, Poof! “Ah! He farted again. You gotta quit feeding him scraps, Wes,” Mr. Smith said waving a hand in front of his face. Mrs. Smith looked up from her book, pinching her nose. “Ehhh, it smells so bad.” “Leave ‘em alone, guys. He deserves a piece of pizza every once in a while. These are his golden years.” “He smells like he crapped himself!” Sam eagerly chimed in from her spot on the carpet. “Samantha Smith, do not say that word aga...

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“starfish” by Gary Gallant

Submitted to Contest #281

Starfish Grant Long thought, " People are going to die tonight." It will be the coldest day of the year, and a nor’easter is expected tomorrow. He continued to spread salt on his driveway, hoping it would be the last storm of the year. He hated what the salt did to his vehicles. Sometimes, you forget how grateful you need to be. To even have a roof over your head is a luxury, he told himself in the mirror. Tugging on the collar of his shirt, he studied his face. It was closely shaven, strong, square, with dimples in his cheeks whe...

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“A Christmas sheep ” by Janja Polanec

Submitted to Contest #281

Today the weather is bitterly cold. It is the coldest day of the year so far. The freezing rain bites through my clothes when I struggle to reach the grocery shop, balancing on the icy sidewalk. It is Christmas again. I am going to buy a Christmas tree. It is time to be joyous, to celebrate with the family and reminisce. Christmas has not always been a holiday. Back in the 1960s we did not celebrate Xmas. It was not encouraged to celebrate Christmas because religion was "opium for masses", according to Marx. Christ...

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“Surviving the coldest day of the year” by Zuzanna Szwedzinska

Submitted to Contest #281

Content warning: Vulgar language, verbal abuse, violence It's five days left until Christmas and my car didn't start in the morning. The air feels more than crispy, painfully freezing my lungs every time I take a breath. Knee-deep snow has fallen overnight. There's so much of it everywhere, it's hard to believe yesterday evening the streets were clear. It might've as well fallen all at once, tons of snow coming down in one second to shake the ground and cover everything. It was almost a funny thought, thinking about a loud "SPLAT!" noise it ...

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“Lost at Sea” by Jessica Grote

Submitted to Contest #281

Content warning: Themes of dementia and physical declineKitchen-nighttime feels different than bedroom-nighttime, Maria thought. Like drifting over dark water. She sat with a straight back, a black figure between dark grey shapes. She reached for another cigarette and noticed that the pack was almost empty. Her lungs had started to tingle already. She lit the cigarette and took a drag. Rearranged the ashtray on the kitchen table. Waited. Waited. Scratched her temple. Waited. Neatly placed the half smoked cigarette on the ashtray. Her eyes wa...

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“The Loneliest Santa” by B DZ

Submitted to Contest #281

Santas, elves and reindeers packed out the bar at Phebe’s on 2nd Avenue. Most Santas were bastards - sexy Santas or tuxedo Santas or even lazy-man Santas, wearing sweaters with screen-printed Christmas icons: Santa golfing and Santa pooping and Santa laying naked by a fire on a polar bear skin rug, a sparkling wrapped gift covering his manhood. Gerald Fourier, 25 years old and fair-skinned, felt himself squeezed against a wooden booth as the crowd gave way for a trio of bottle-blonde Santas in short skirts. “This is lame...

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$250

Prize money

309

Contest entries

153

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 20, 2024 EST

Won by Karissa W 🏆

Title: The Counter and the Coal

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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