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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

“Christmas Passed” by Dan Farkas

Submitted to Contest #284

Christmas Passed She arranges herself at her private table in the acclaimed brasserie that she owns, contemplating her daily indulgence, a gin martini in advance of lunch. Some tables down, intimate laughter and breathy whispers fill the air and her mind drifts to her husband, dead these past five months. She muses while sipping the drink Alfonso always mixes moments after she walks in and delivers once she makes eye contact. Some days the martini disappears before Alfonso returns to the bar. Today, more slowly. Alfonso lets her linger. The...

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“The Passing Storm” by Payce Hooker

Submitted to Contest #284

The wind howled outside the old hunting shack, battering the shutters with the falling snow under the moonlit sky. I sat inside the dim room, listening to the fire crackle and pop as I added the last log to the small inferno. I wondered if anyone would find me out here. Certainly, not in this storm. The cabin lay at the base of the mountain, surrounded by wooded forests. The nearest person was a quarter-mile downstream, which was blocked by a wall of white. I was somewhere secluded, somewhere I would never be found. The storm was certain of ...

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“A-li-s-de-li-s-gi” by Frankie C. Lola

Submitted to Contest #284

A-li-s-de-li-s-gi Time had never been more than a pattern, a rhythm . The sun emerged in place of  stars and encompassed the dark. Then the sun bowed before the moon's glow. Everyday. Without pause or regard  for life below. Time was the space between eating and sleeping.  Time was the ground at my feet.Time was necessary but merely there and mostly forgotten .  In that splintered moment we were robbed of it.Time was everything I needed all at once. With a single second , this life ended. The world erupted into flame and ...

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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...

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“A deer, a sign, and a tree” by Brian Carney

Submitted to Contest #284

PROLOG:           The buck emerged from the line of pine trees sniffed the warm fall air for any danger. He then strode across the mist covered, grassy field eyeing the weeds growing along the fence line. As he chomped on the weeds and grasses that grew along the wire fence, next to the road, it failed to notice the Timber Rattlesnake that had been resting in the weeds as well. When the buck’s hoof stepped on the rattler, the snake struck out and bit the leg, once and again. The buck rea...

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“Me and My Matisse” by Mike Ramsey

Submitted to Contest #284

Tim hung the painting from a nail that was already in the wall. It was a rental and he didn’t want to patch it later. Every wall in the apartment was blank white and appeared to have been freshly painted before his arrival two weeks earlier.He’d bought the painting at an estate sale while looking for silverware and dishes. It was probably 48 inches wide and a foot tall and had a chipping blue plastic frame. The artist had recreated Matisse’s La Dance, but instead of five dancers with linked hands going around grass, it had been squashed to f...

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“Quality Time with Mr. Snowman” by Sigmund Wells

Submitted to Contest #284

December 24th, 1998Eveningtime at Nana’s place carried a strange aroma. As far as I can recall, this was the first time I had noticed it. I was sitting in the damp grass of the backyard, exhausted after a laborious game of tag, cool sweat rolling sweetly down my neck. I pointed my small nose toward the stars, inhaling satiating jugs of air and letting out cathartic sighs. It was a true-blue suburban Christmas, surrounded by family, cousins and all, with Christmas lights and a Christmas tree, crowned by a Christmas star. Candles, bourbons and...

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“Passing Time in Silence” by Daniel Murray

Submitted to Contest #284

The distant sound of a closing door and its metal locks woke me. Blurry eyed and dazed I grasped at my blanket as I slowly removed it from me, body shivering as winter chill ran its hands over me. With a grumble I let my feet hang over the bed's edge, reaching for my slippers that I had haphazardly kicked off last night before I had settled in.  “Of course.” I placed my feet down on the cold wooden floors and leapt to my slippers, sliding my feet into them as fast as I could. As I grabbed my padded hoodie from the bottom of the bed fram...

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“One Good Turn” by Chris Cancilla

Submitted to Contest #284

As I walked into the restaurant, the aromas attacked my nose. I smelled various meats, fish, and fried foods in this place. Man, it reminds me of home. My Mom and aunts cook the traditional Christmas Dinner, or more specifically, closer to my heart is dinner on Christmas Eve. I left home two days ago and was assigned this tiny spec of a base in the Midwest. I do not know anyone. I barely know the people I work with. I only met one person, and they are on leave till after the new year. The term skeleton crew is a severe understatement at...

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“Fourth of Julonely ” by Veronica L Robinson

Submitted to Contest #284

This is how a family barbecue is supposed to be. You should be able to smell what's cooking on the grill and scoop your sides from different relatives Tupperware. Kids should be running around and getting dirty. Fireworks should be in person light up the sky around you. Not some catered fancy party with real plates and watching fireworks on television. Well the birds that are singing, and the creek rushing and the flies buzzing around tell me that I am where I am supposed to be. The sun is beaming down, but a cloud looks to be on its way to ...

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“Corpse Daughter” by A.K. Avalon

Submitted to Contest #284

Have you ever heard of the Corpse Daughter? She started off the same as you and I, mouths tasting like lingering laughter and hearts dancing through rhythms. She never walked but pranced, from person to person just to bubble up anyone’s conversation; she was someone who bubbled up and poured out rivers of enthusiasm and curiosity. Some would lift cheeks whilst others carried deep breaths and distanced themselves from the loud rush. Alive Daughter was often the colour red, her cheeks puffed up and held a hue of burning excitement whenever sh...

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“A Quiet Christmas” by Ashley D. Gilyard

Submitted to Contest #284

The first thing Nora noticed when she woke up on Christmas morning was the quiet. It was the kind of quiet that made her feel like she was underwater, the whole world muffled by an invisible, unyielding stillness. No laughter echoing through the hallway, no sound of clinking coffee mugs or the hurried rustle of wrapping paper. Just silence. For the first time in thirty-four years, she was spending Christmas alone. Her parents had moved to Florida the previous spring, eager to trade icy winters for balmy breezes. Her brother, Owen, was on a s...

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“A Christmas for one” by Noel Guru

Submitted to Contest #284

“You should go somewhere this Christmas.”My friend’s voice echoed through my mind as I sat on the edge of my bed, contemplating. He had a long talk with me last evening about my mental well-being, and he repeatedly asked me to leave the town for a few days and go somewhere. But how could I? My mind, heart, and soul were still trapped here with her memories. This will be the first Christmas in many years I will be spending it without her. The thought made my heart race, and panic started to set in. “It will do you some good,” my friend s...

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“Are We Ever Truly Alone?” by Linda Olson

Submitted to Contest #284

Are We Ever Truly Alone?               “If Henry was here this walk would be shoveled by now.” She stared out the kitchen window at a sparkling Christmas Eve. It was the kind of snow that reflected all the neighborhood Christmas lights in so many colors. She had spent most of the day gazing at the snow gently drifting down in deadly beauty. “If Henry was here this ham would have been out of the oven hours ago.” She muttered and pulled open the oven door. Black smoke b...

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“Extraordinary happening when traveling alone” by David Nutt

Submitted to Contest #284

                      Extraordinary happenings when travelling alone. I sat there at the head of the table. I was about to say grace and quickly realized in our family this touching act was a thing of the past. In fact even in my childhood my parents relegated grace saying to past traditions. At that moment it did cross my mind that many commendable and worthy traditions were being shelved in the world’s leap forward to explore and i...

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