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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

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✍️ 66 stories

“There’s always a choice” by Ross Dyter

Submitted to Contest #284

The bang of the door slamming, echoing through the empty house, only serves to reinforce the emptiness I feel inside. I hang my head and stare down at the doormat, the cheery ‘Welcome to our Home’, so out of place with how I feel about our home. Although it’s not really our home anymore, it hasn’t been for weeks, it’s just, my home, I suppose. My house, would probably be more accurate, a home is full of life and love. This is really just a building, a building full of memories of better times.There are no tears to be shed now, not anymore, t...

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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...

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“Where's My Baby Jesus?” by Pete Gautchier

Submitted to Contest #284

Prompt: Center the story around a character spending their first holiday alone.Where’s My Baby Jesus?The rain was pouring down like a waterfall as I peered outside the window of my rickety bamboo hut. No one would guess this was a few days before Christmas. Being in the tropics had its advantages, but this time of year I was at a loss to find any. There were no decorations inside my spacious tropical villa. Nor were there any in the tiny, remote village I was stationed at in the Fijian Islands. My first year of ...

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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...

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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....

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“The Solitude of Grace” by Justin Casian

Submitted to Contest #284

Grace adjusted the strap of her suitcase as the train pulled into the small seaside town of Whitlock. The journey had been quiet, save for the rustle of newspapers and murmured conversations. The whistle blew, sharp and final, as she stepped onto the platform. She hadn’t told anyone she was coming. No friends, no family. After long thirty-eight years, finally she was spending Christmas alone.The air smelled of salt and cold. Whitlock was as she remembered it – stoic cliffs, worn cobblestones, and the sea, its waves rolling like distant thund...

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“THE HOLIDAY (ANIME) GHOST” by Gayatri Varma

Submitted to Contest #284

Aglio e Olio, Frozen Hot Chocolate, and a packet of potato chips are the only things that comforts Jeena. She was twenty when she found a recipe for spaghetti aglio e olio while secretly browsing through a cookbook in her college library. It was her girlfriend’s idea to bunk the class and read magazines from the library. French was not something her girlfriend wanted to study. She used to say, ‘why should I learn je, te, vous, English is hard enough, I hate we are forced to study another language.’ Jeena found it funny and used to laugh at t...

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“In Memoriam ” by Mack Gage

Submitted to Contest #284

His proudest touch, Strand reflected, had been the birdsong in the trees. Four species sang in four-part harmony, an innovation from before the war. He’d resurrected it that night, and their fluting choruses had spilled across the banquet tables and the garden maze.  The birds sang that all was well. Their training could take a year, longer than it took the navy to turn out a new dreadnought, and to some, their opulence might even seem illegal. By the letter of the law, Strand supposed it was. Even genius had its rationing, and there we...

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“Alone” by Elaine Steffen

Submitted to Contest #284

Meg wiped a tear from her eye, as she watched the snow fall outside . Last year this would have been a perfect picture, she thought. Now it seems so cruel. A reminder of how sad and lonely her world had become Meg and her husband, Tim hadst enjoyed the holidays in their remodeled farmhouse. The smell of cinnamon and oranges throughout the house the crisp smell of pines and firs greenery..Tim would cut down their Christmas tree and always would bring insects branches for Meg to make her infamous Christmas wreaths and porch pots. Meg’s daughte...

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“Starting to Fly” by Kristine McCraw

Submitted to Contest #284

Drool slides from the corner of my mouth and rolls under my chin. As I lift my head, I notice the blotch of saliva on the decorative throw pillow. I'm groggy and haggard. My body, heavy under a blanket of despair, wants nothing but to fall asleep until this day ends. A sigh escapes me, and I collapse to the pillow, urging my mind to slip back into the peaceful slumber I was in a few minutes ago. Two minutes turn into five minutes; five minutes turn into ten minutes. My attempt is feckless. I slide my foot to the edge and press my hand on the...

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“Just Try” by Laura Ethington

Submitted to Contest #284

The blue glow of her phone lit the dim, undecorated room as she lay in bed, scrolling aimlessly through TikTok. It was still early, barely 8 a.m., but the endless stream of videos had already set the tone for the day. Families in matching pjs danced in front of their Christmas trees. Couples in snowy cabins exchanging heartfelt gifts. Her thumb paused on a video of a couple laughing as their dog played with the mangled paper and bows from the gifts they had given each other. She didn't even realize she'd sighed until the sound escaped her li...

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“Dear Marie” by Nolan Pierce

Submitted to Contest #284

Dear Marie,           This Christmas does not feel the same without you. They probably never will. I know you won’t read this; but I’ve been told writing you a letter, whether or not you read it, will help me process how I feel. I cherished every year we spent together. I remember our very first Christmas. I bought you those cheap earrings, that you only wore once, but swore you loved. You got me those pants, that actually fit me, but were the wrong color. Sometimes I sit and wonder how ...

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“Going Home” by Jessica Buford

Submitted to Contest #284

The champagne fizzed and bubbled to the brim of the glass. Lorenzo twisted the stem back and forth between his fingers, staring at the pale yellow liquid before downing the entire contents in one gulp. He sat on the floor of the dining area feeling small. The space was meant to accommodate 50 people, tables and chairs were bolted to the floor in case the artificial gravity faltered. But that was probably the one thing that hadn’t gone wrong. Lorenzo was the last living crew member of the Freedom Expedition.  He was wearing his navy crew...

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“Silent Farmhouse” by Delaney Archer

Submitted to Contest #284

Note: Minor mentions of harm and death. The farmhouse stood silent to the outside world, as snow softly fell upon each other, creating a nightly scene that looked to come right out of a storybook. At one time, this home was the most decorated on the street when it came to the holiday season. The large lawn was once filled to the brim with snowman families and twinkling reindeer, and the beige exterior walls were covered with red and green lights and handmade wreaths that just screamed ‘Countryside Christmas’. There was once even a large, blo...

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“Alone - but Not Truely Alone” by Jordan B

Submitted to Contest #284

Trigger Warning: Grief, Loss of a loved one, Illness/Cancer Clara sat on the floor of the lounge room in her small apartment, staring at the large container that held the Christmas tree. The container had been sitting in the middle of the lounge room for twenty days—since the 1st of December. For twenty days, she had walked past it, unable to summon the will to pull the lid off and tackle the task within. Finally, she had found the courage to remove the lid, but now, an hour later, she still hadn’t made any progress. Her eyes stared blankly ...

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