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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

“Dinner for Two” by Tess W.Z.

Submitted to Contest #284

The woman stood in her kitchen peeling potatoes with hands that always seem to shake, the years of use bearing down on their precision. She hums as she works, the same tunes that charm the living room radio having been left on a low volume all day to keep the house from getting too quiet. A tree sat in the corner by the aged brown couch, wrapped in adornments of cranberries and popcorn, lights and tinsel reflecting on the surrounding surfaces. The cabinets in the kitchen are all a light yellow to match the dining room, whose walls are faded ...

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“The Year He Left” by Kelsey Carlson

Submitted to Contest #284

I didn’t know this would be the year. The year Dad passed away after battling his disease after all these years. I knew it was getting bad, but I didn’t really process what that would mean when it actually happened. He’s gone, and I have to celebrate the holidays without him. How? All I can think about is the things he loved, him smiling in the chair wearing his Vikings pajamas. Waiting for his favorite foods from grandma. I can’t do it. I pull into my grandparent’s home, where we all gather every holiday, but I can’t. My grandpa is in the w...

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“Train Ride Home” by Halle Giannelli

Submitted to Contest #284

Train Ride HomeBy Halle Giannelli It had been years since Ellen’s last train ride. An Amtrak from Birmingham to New Orleans, and a quick trip home from boarding school. She’d only taken a few short days for her father’s funeral and then returned to her studies. She’d associated trains with death ever since. Her only comfort on that trip had been Bill’s company. He’d insisted on escorting her, though her mother disapproved, as they weren’t married yet. Those types of things used to matter, but not so much anymore. There was a time when Ellen ...

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“Henry's Favorite Meal” by Tom Davis

Submitted to Contest #284

Henry woke up, splashed some water on his face and headed to the kitchen in anticipation of breakfast.  He could smell the eggs and bacon on the stove while the coffee permeated throughout the house as he lumbered down the stairway.  His stomach growled and eyes stung a little from the smell of smoke. The vision of Martha preparing it all made him smile.  Snow was gathering on the ground and the sound of shovels hitting the pavement echoed outside the front window.  Henry asked his lovely wife if there’s anything he could...

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“The Truth of the Matter” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #284

Toward the end of November 1984, Scott lingered in that comfortable place between the end of sleep and the beginning of consciousness as if, by now, instinct made him dread waking up.And instinct was right.As he opened his eyes and stared at the pale blue ceiling, the awareness slammed into him. Today, as the counsellor had suggested, he tried to isolate how this related to his physical body. Was it like losing a leg? No, not by half. This was more as if some shadowy nightmare had ripped his heart out while he slept and replaced it...

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“Weight of Silence” by Greg Seibold

Submitted to Contest #284

George Always loved the early morning quiet.  While Marcy and the kids are still asleep he goes down and starts the coffee.  Let's Ginger out to pee and then let’s her back in.  Feeds the dog and then feeds himself.  Then pours himself a cup of coffee and enjoys the quiet of morning. Now usually he turns on very few lights.  He likes the vastness of quiet.  Places seem so much bigger in the quiet, much more humbling.  George needed that humbling when he was a cocky young man.  He still remembers the fi...

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“Christmas of '89” by Zacharias Boer

Submitted to Contest #284

The roast was bubbling under the skin, melting into a lovely glaze. The scoring remained light tan and the surface deepened to a beautiful chestnut color, so evocative of Christmas. Amos smiled happily and closed the oven again to allow the slab of beef to cook uninterrupted.  He shuffled to the family room, grunting with each step as old men often do. Seating himself comfortably in the armchair closest to the sparkling tree, he looked upon his family while the corners of his eyes crinkled with mirth. The little ones were squealing whil...

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“The Death Wish” by Renee Bogacz

Submitted to Contest #284

I’ve settled comfortably into my couch with a glass of wine in my shaky hand. It’s my first Christmas alone, and I’m taking stock of my feelings. This is what I wished for. This is what I wanted. And I’m trying to decide if it’s all I expected it to be. I’m 152 years old. It’s hard to believe I’m still able to live on my own and take care of myself. But I guess that comes as part of my wish. I’m the only one left in my small circle of friends and family, exactly how I wanted it to be. I was always afraid of death, but not for the reasons one...

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“Tough Sledding ” by Ciaran Brophy

Submitted to Contest #284

In all his years of endlessly visiting with extended relatives at family christmas parties, through the many bottles of warm Coronas that his father would always bring, but never think to put in the fridge, the dollar store champagne served up on New Year’s Eve, the overcooked turkey, and the played out christmas movies that were screened in the name of tradition. Through all of it, Sam Coleman never expected to end up here on Christmas Eve. Opapiskaw, Manitoba, an isolated lakeside town in the woodlands of the Canadian prairies. Somewhat of...

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“The Hour of Christmas ” by Jennifer Clark

Submitted to Contest #284

It was her favorite time of year. Snow fell steady beyond her window, puffy, heavy flakes that glittered in the Christmas lights. The sidewalks would be dusted with a healthy covering by this hour, though the carolers singing merely a few doors down didn’t seem to mind. The world outside her home was barely above a whisper of movement; there was no honking of horns or traffic of any kind, no angry people shouting in the streets, and hardly any clanging or banging from her neighbors. It was peaceful. Or at least it had been for a moment. He...

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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...

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“Solitude (with the Spectral) ” by Lynn Cunningham

Submitted to Contest #284

Hoarfrost crystalised the valley. Early this morning, as the front rolled through, I shivered under my heavy electric blanket, the howling wind shrill as a lonely coyote. The sudden drop in temperature froze the rising fog, and now, white ice clings in puffy clumps to naked gnarled oak branches, giving an illusion of softness to the ridge. It’s impossible not to admire. Even as it solidifies I will spend Christmas alone. Just me and the ghosts.  Part of me wanted this. The dark parts. The cynical demon who made pie crusts, gravy, and m...

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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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“THE CHRISTMAS BUG” by Candy Burrowbridge

Submitted to Contest #284

Janice had lived in Salt Lake City, Utah her whole life. She had been truly happy. Never had she thought she'd leave life as she knew it behind. Last year Janice's entire life was torn apart. She found out, in the most horrible way, her husband, Jeff and best friend, Joy, had been cheating on her for a few years. The sight she saw, when she came home from work early, was burned into her mind forever. She never knew it was possible to be in that much pain. After an ugly divorce, Janice saw no reason to stay in Salt Lake City. Everywhere she...

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“For the first time in forever” by Jade S.

Submitted to Contest #284

I bet you were expecting a sad story about a woman spending her first holiday alone. Well, spoiler alert: this isn’t that kind of story. This story is about Maya, a 24-year-old girl, who just moved out of her parents’ home last year and will be spending her first Christmas all alone. Emphasis on the alone part, because her sister just canceled on their Christmas plans last minute. But we’ll get back to that part later. Oh, and another spoiler: this all takes place back when video stores still existed. Yep, before everything was streaming. Yo...

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