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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Center your story around a character spending their first holiday alone.

Posted in Short Story on Jan 3, 2025

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 20 stories

“I Won't Be Home For Christmas” by Thomas Wetzel

Submitted to Contest #284

CW: This story contains themes of physical violence and suicide.Life can be messy. Complicated. Difficult. Sometimes you can just lose yourself in all of it, and in the process, you can lose sight of the things that actually matter. And then one day a storm comes out of the clear blue sky and you get blown overboard by the tempest, and all is lost in the blink of an eye.This is what happened to me. I just got caught up in all of the things that don’t really matter. Money. Career status. An address in the right part of town and elite private ...

35 comments 35
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“The Box” by Alyssa Feliciano

Submitted to Contest #284

The BoxEveryone will tell you that they are in a "better place". I mean, it is true really. Being up high in the heavens with our Lord and Savior is a better place than here on the Earth. But that does not take away the pressing ache in my chest, or the overwhelming tears that fall along my cheeks at just the thought of you. It is December and it is the first time in nearly fifteen years it is snowing so close to Christmas."It's going to be white Christmas Babe." I whisper while gazing out the tall picture window of our bedroom.I pull down t...

6 comments 6
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“The Light of Luminaea” by Martin Maynard

Submitted to Contest #284

The Light of LuminaeaPrincess Aveline sat alone at the dining table, the flickering glow of candles casting her shadow onto the high stone walls. The Luminaea Solstice had always been her favorite celebration—a time for renewal and hope during the year's darkest night. Yet this year, hope felt as distant as the stars.The gilded hall shimmered with decorations meant to inspire cheer. Silver banners embroidered with phoenixes hung from the vaulted ceiling, and crystal lanterns lined the long oak table, their warm light reflecting off plates la...

0 comments 0
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“Lucia” by J Dari

Submitted to Contest #284

Lucia Abotti rose with the morning sun brazenly shining through her window, illuminating the many wrinkles on her weathered face. Beginning her day in the kitchen, she fixed herself a coffee with milk and nibbled on a round almond flavored biscuit. Looking at her calendar—she crossed off the 24th of December, 1911. She’d forgotten to do it yesterday. So much work needed to be done today. Starting with the pasta, she began. She had made tortellini pasta exactly the same way her mother had taught her sixty years ago. She made the dough and the...

4 comments 4
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“Okay Kids” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #284

Okay Kids! “Okay kids, I hope that you have all your stuff together for the trip. It is time to get into the car and drive to Lake Francis for a wonderful time in the cottage that we always rent at this time of year.” As soon as he finished saying those words both inside his mind, and outside it with a loud voice, Lloyd sighed. “Who am I kidding? I am going to the lake and to the cottage all by myself for the very first time. My son and daughter are grown up now and both moved far, far away a few months ago to get th...

0 comments 0
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“The Wooden Figurine” by Ashley Wilson

Submitted to Contest #284

Outside was a different world from where Meggie sat, perched on a once-loved bench next to a window that should glow red and green by now. Her heart simply wasn’t in the festive mood. In truth, she was lonely.  As she peered through the frosted window, a lone snowflake drifted from a dark sky as if to say hello, I am alone too. But, of course, a snowflake isn’t alone for where one lazily spins, so too does another not far off. Meggie read once that snowflakes were all unique and she imagined a lone figure sitting in the clouds high abov...

1 comment 1
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“The Lonely Christmas Birthday.” by Vickie Holt

Submitted to Contest #284

Erin stood at the empty front door and gazed at the dimly lit porch swing. In a wave of memories, her sister's smiling faces gazed at her while they gently pushed the swing back and forth. If she closed her eyes she could still hear them laughing. Everyone gathered together, on the front porch of all places, to play a game of spoons. Her sisters, Jean and Leigh, were relentless. She could feel a phantom ache in her right hand from trying to pull that stupid metal spoon out of one of their hands. A chilly gust of wind brought her back to the ...

1 comment 1
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“A Map to Christmas ” by Shelly Gamble

Submitted to Contest #284

The winter sun hung low in the sky, casting pale beams through frost-laden windows. Eleanor sat in her living room, wrapped in a blanket David had always draped over their laps during cozy winter nights. The tree before her sparkled faintly, its lights blinking with a cheerfulness that felt hollow. The ornaments hung delicately on the branches, each one a memory of Christmases past, but the star lay untouched in its box. David had always been the one to place the star. Even last year, though the cancer had weakened him, he had insisted on cl...

0 comments 0
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“To Brighten the Room” by Chris Moznette

Submitted to Contest #284

“It’s not the Rockefeller, but it’ll do.” The man takes a few steps back, careful not to slip over all the tissue paper strewn across the floor. He carefully makes his way to his couch that holds only a single, clearly defined spot for sitting, before plopping himself down on the cushion as the worn springs rub against his tailbone. The mountain of laundry to his right starts to tip towards him, but he instinctively leans into it to stabilize it without drawing his gaze away from the tree, slowly pushing it until it leans the other way and u...

0 comments 0
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“12-13 naps” by Jack DuBois

Submitted to Contest #284

Dec 26th, 2024 — Day 7 Since She’s Gone Away Finally getting out of the house today. I meet Toby at our usual corner place. He seems strung out, his scraggly ginger hair more scraggly than usual. “God, do I hate the holidays. I got chased by fucking Barbara’s psycho kid the entire day yesterday.” Trance-like, his eyes are intensely fixed on a tiny bird that just landed on the tree across the street. I am thoroughly bored by the vision. “I feel empty, devoid of any masculine energy,” he continues. I roll my eyes. He shakes his head and seems ...

3 comments 3
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“Pour Yourself A Drink, Put Some Lipstick On and Pull Yourself Together” by Maria Wickens

Submitted to Contest #284

Trigger warning: Substance abuse, SuicidePour Yourself A Drink, Put Some Lipstick On and Pull Yourself TogetherCongratulate Martin who’s celebrating one year at Styx Ferryman.The words triggered a wave of loss and misery. She gulped down her gin and tonic and thus the spiral began.More than a year later and a stupid Linked In text notification could still do this to her.Typical Martin. He refused to approach his terminal diagnosis with anything but black humor. He changed his Linked In profile announcing his impending journey to the afterlif...

1 comment 1
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“The Fiddler and the King” by Annabel Annabelmoirsmith@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #284

As the old year passes into the wee hours of the new, James is passing over the Atlantic. The second hand of the gold watch he sports, still set to Dublin time, ticks all too fast past the forty-five second mark in a resolute march toward the future. He takes a sip of his vodka cranberry from the plastic cup on his tray and counts in his head - five, four, three, two, one. Midnight. It hits him dully, like a punch to the chest. The rotten year over. A new, rottener one just beginning.  James leans back to rest his head against the seat....

1 comment 1
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“Believe in You...” by Laurinda Stanton

Submitted to Contest #284

"So what will you be doing for Christmas ?" The words 'rang with a clang' through my ears... why does anybody have to be doing anything for Christmas? My Christmases past were 'full'. My kids later told me they would run from me as the holidays neared because I was obsessed ! I thought 'really? I was?' I know I was on auto pilot with gifts to buy, the 12 foot tree to decorate and I did not need or want any help...it had to be perfect! No one, although I tried to pretend, could even put an ornament on the tree without my approval (or later re...

0 comments 0
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“Better out than in” by Jen Boyle

Submitted to Contest #284

She woke early, and for a moment she almost forgot what day it is. The sky was still dark, and she reflected ruefully that in mid winter in Scotland, it didn't really get light until after nine. Sometimes it didn't get light at all, the gloomy half light described so perfectly in that good Scots word" gloaming". So unlike the warmth and milder climate of her native Cornwall. But Jim had been Scottish and when they married, it was expected that she would move for him. Nobody had suggested that he might migrate to Cornwall. She was the woman, ...

1 comment 1
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“I Wish I Wasn't Alone” by Aaliyah Salia

Submitted to Contest #284

Every holiday, me and my grandma would spend time together; baking, knitting, laughing, watching movies, and all the things every granddaughter would do with her grandmother. Holidays meant the smell of cinnamon, cardamom, and star anise wafting all around the house, mixer grinders on full volume whenever you’re sleeping peacefully, and the busy footsteps that pace around the house like a restless cat.I would wake up and a delicious brunch would be waiting for me. In the time between lunch and dinner, snacks were made and passed on like cand...

0 comments 0
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