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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#73: My True Love Gave to Me

In years past, we’ve themed our seasonal prompts around a favorite Christmas movie… This year, we’re going to mix things up and base them off a Christmas song! And since this week’s contest runs through December 25th, what better song to pick than The 12 Days of Christmas?

If you need a little inspiration to get you in the holiday spirit, check out the Christmas and Holiday sections in our Stories directory to see what members of your community have come up with! With all these marvelously festive tales to choose from, we know you’ll find something to get you feeling jolly in no time.

And despite the Christmas origins, our prompts work for any holiday, so feel free to celebrate in a way that's true to you! We can't wait to see your character's traditions.

This week's prompts

Write about someone who is given a bird for the holidays but doesn’t know how to take care of it.

Holiday – 200 stories

Write about someone who gets proposed to five times on Christmas Eve.

Romance – 170 stories

Write about a drummer going to a Halloween party for musicians.

Halloween – 54 stories

Write about a young nobleman whose greatest wish is to become an Olympic long jumper.

Middle School – 20 stories

Write about a backup dancer who’s on tour and just wants some peace and quiet for the holidays.

Winter – 54 stories

Stories

“Dancing for June” by Sim Simas

Submitted to Contest #73

This year, he would spend the holidays with is family and get some peace and quiet, while June D's tour had been cancelled. Atlanta was too loud and too busy for the Texan. All he needed was a few days of rest in the rental property he shared with his wife and teenage daughter. Being a backup dancer for June D, the most famous singer in the world, was not free of its challenges. Stephan Spalding loved performing in June D’s shows. He knew that she apprec...

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“Running from Christmas” by Nancy Hibbert

Submitted to Contest #73

Luc, son of Roland and Marthe “Not worth it. Don’t be rash. Your life is more important. Why not go home for the holidays? You’ll feel better once you’ve had a break.” Gary meant well, but… Home? The word normally comforted his gut. But Luc’s father had passed last February. The idea of seeing long familiar streets, only hollowed his belly. Nothing would be the same. He craved quiet. A chance to sink into solitude and heal. And not his just torn muscles. “I could use a rest,” Luc agreed, “but in a cab...

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“Charges for a Robin” by Nataleigh Sandberg

Submitted to Contest #73

Interview with Guilty Party 2007914- Kelly Walters Lawyer John Grant's dialogue is excluded in this report. I was gifted a Robin for the holidays. Robin is a nice guy that my sister introduced to me at Christmastime. He's a guy she went to college with or whatever, I don't really know. No one ever gives me the details. Anyways, he's a good guy, really. Never goes wrong. I've had 5 dates with him and they've gone well. I- what? Oh. You want to know about the robin? So not Robin? You want to know about Bernie Hungarian the Third? That robin?...

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“Birds of a Fretter” by Asmaa Khan

Submitted to Contest #73

They know that I'm pedantic. I'm a neurotic, OCD, perfectionist and I live alone. They know that I hardly venture farther than the post boxes that lined the front of our apartment. They call me Sheldon Pooper for goodness sakes! They know that I over analyse every single move I make, or anyone else for that matter. They also know that I don't do pets. I don't pet them. I don't look at people with pets and say, Oh, what a cutie. What's his name?". And I certainly don't take care of them. So why on earth would my entire floor go for the long w...

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“Man's best friend” by Twisha Ray

Submitted to Contest #73

It was the peak of summer. May-June in a rocky city like Tamil Naidu, Chennai, are pretty torturous. I was at my office and received a call from my husband asking me to come home immediately. I rushed home to find two small feeble chicks (kids of parrots) in a shoe box. ‘What is this?’, I cried. “Thieves were trying to steal these chicks from the Neem tree situated outside my office. They took one baby parrot. I rescued these two. They are too small, so I brought them home,” said my husband. I suggested we put them back in the tree. But...

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“Ice” by Jonaliza Diale

Submitted to Contest #73

Winter came, all cold and gloom. Everyone was happy, everything was okay, is it? .Lying beside me was a lovely bird but flawed. Just like a lamp running out of gas. It was dying inside. I want to heal its wound but don't know how for it is not curable with medicine nor a veterinarian. I sighed with dismay. As i looked at the window, i remembered the bird that died 3 years ago. I gave it warmth and love than no other owners can do to a pet. I cherished it so much that I wanted it to he my side every time of the day. It was the night before Ch...

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“When in Doubt, Ask the Internet” by Cassie Poormokhtar

Submitted to Contest #73

She gave me a parrot for Christmas. But that’s a loose interpretation of what happened. What really happened was this: my doorbell rang, and upon answering it, I saw her waving from the street before she stepped into a red SUV with him and drove off into her new sunset. I stared at the SUV’s taillights. I ran my hand over my five o’clock shadow and said, “Hope you’re happy, June.” “Hope you’re happy.” I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard my words repeated back to me in a familiar, bird...

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“What does it mean when you see a white dove?” by Elizabeth Hawkes

Submitted to Contest #73

‘It’s a dove,’ He condescended to inform me, ‘you know… peace, unity and happiness all of that.’ I sat in silence. I wasn’t all that sure that that’s what doves represented at all. And what if the doves simply did not want to represent anything? What then? Can doves not simply just be doves if they so, please? He snapped at me then. Daydreaming was a habit of mine for which we did not share fondness. He had certainly made that much clear when ensuring that he kept me and my wandering soul far enough away so that not even the most advent...

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“A Bird too weird” by Akshita Goyal

Submitted to Contest #73

Often one must have heard a common phrase saying “As free as a bird”; What if it isn’t applicable in the real life and that also just because of a bird? A bird which is considered as a good omen and often used in emblems such as for instance it is used in an emblem of peace and bird also act as the messenger of peace and rarely it troubles anyone because it flies high in the sky so pure so peaceful. Would anyone not find it strange if this calm and peaceful bird creates a chaos in anyone’s life? What opinion one would have about a person who...

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“Forthy's Burden” by Donald Bluhm

Submitted to Contest #73

The bird's voice, amazingly human-like, but way too loud, filled the studio apartment with a cacophony of words that Jim Forthy did not understand but whose volume had sent him to the edge of a severe headache. The creature, an African gray parrot, was screaming words in Swahili and French and would not stop. Forthy, a young man of mild, but unambitious disposition, had begun seriously entertaining bird recipe thoughts. The parrot, with the packet of literature that came with it, was described as “an unsurpassed talker.” That was manifest...

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“The Aviary of Henry Weston” by Matt Slater

Submitted to Contest #73

PG-13; Bullying, LanguageLocation: Ruston, WashingtonTime: 9:01 AM, December 19th, 2014Connor Weston stared through the glass wall. He stood on the parlor side, within the 6-bedroom, 7-bathroom, ocean-view house that his late Uncle Henry had bequeathed to him, his sister, and three cousins. Each Weston had a job assigned to them after Henry’s death the day after Thanksgiving. Henry’s lawyer would evaluate their work on Christmas to determine whether the job had been completed in a manner that would’ve satisfied Henry’s wishes, whatever that ...

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“Blushy” by Arathi Raghuveer

Submitted to Contest #73

Hey Sabine wake up, are you still asleep, look dear Santa has left something for you, a precious one I suppose. Jane was trying to wake her child who was a five year a chubby little girl. “Mom, why didn’t you wake me up when Santa Claus was here? Did he really come on a sledge with his reindeers flying up in the sky from the Northern pole where the sky glows with colourful lights? Oh why didn’t you wake me up, Mom I just wanted to see him and say Hi to him”? “Oh ho , Sabine , Santa told me not to disturb you because you were sleepi...

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“The Sunbird Cage” by Carlos L. Delgado

Submitted to Contest #73

Charo Hendrix awoke with a groan. She slammed down on her blaring alarm clock—a whining, syncopated melody. Neon light poured through polyester curtains, painting the cramped bedroom in fluorescent shadows. Charo sighed. Time to rise from the ashes. “Beepo,” she said, still tangled in her sheets. “Start coffee, please, and thanks.” “Of course, ma’am,” said the apartment AI in a posh tenor—a new setting she downloaded from the manufacturer. From bed, Charo could hear the coffee machine grind to life in the kitchen—which made sense becau...

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“Come in Peter, Bring back Paul” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #73

Peter's eyes tracked her, to the left, to the right, up, down, and diagonal. Liv refused to surrender. She pointed a birthday candle back at the cage like a magic wand to threaten and tame the bird and, yet, it started to scream again.Peter's high-pitched cry only stopped when Liv shook the cage, through the frosted window, above the grease of the narrow street. The bird's hollow eyes darted at her and she forced her gaze deep into them - if Peter wanted to stay here for the holidays, it would have to accept her rules. The winter wind swung ...

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“Inheritance” by J Smith

Submitted to Contest #73

A sudden turn in my grandmother’s health had signaled the imminence of an inheritance, and I was quick to seize on the opportunity to be the favoured grandchild. I would see to her personal care, and the care of her property, which would’ve come at a cost her miserly attitude would’ve loathed. The task, though unattractive, was to my mind certain to result in becoming her primary beneficiary. Her vile temperament had managed to alienate the majority of our clan. Those whose greed may have tempted them to maintain some illusion of loyalty wer...

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$50

Prize money

498

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 25, 2020 EST

Won by Shawn Forno 🏆

Title: Burt Brain

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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