And the next day would be Christmas,
a world lovely as a fairy tale.
translucent marzipan castles
with larders stocked (fudge and peppermint).
What’s Christmas without a little writing? This month’s mini-project invites you to either…
- Create a found poem from the festive fragments below (the example poem above includes lines from O. Henry, Carol Carnac, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Jennifer Chiaverini).
- Write a 260-word Christmas tale, inspired by and incorporating one of our starter sentences.
What makes a Christmas tale? Snow perhaps? I like to think it’s love or hope – Scrooge’s transformation, the lovers in The Gift of the Magi. A moment where a cold world is brightened, just a little.
I’ve split the quotations below into 26 “Fragments” and 10 “Starter Sentences,” but feel free to use any and everything for either prompt!
Starter Sentences
- “People could be good. Always, Christmas brought out the best and the worst in people…”
- “Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago…”
- “Not all magic is fireworks and fanfare. Sometimes magic is quiet and sneaks up on you…”
- “The bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe…”
- “The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue…”
- “It arrived upon Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose…”
- “As the glow of the cabin windows turned to flickers through the trees and then to black, her eyes adjusted and the starlight alone on the pure white snow was enough to light her way…”
- “Even the stuffed elf heads on the hall wall wore Father Christmas hats and beards…”
- “Stars had appeared, and the moon rose majestically in the heavens to shine upon good men and the whole of the world…”
- “She wrapped her scarf more securely about her neck, adjusted the strap of her overstuffed bag, and set off on foot…”
Festive Fragments
- And the next day would be Christmas.
- Then we come to it – to the day of peacemaking.
- The fireplace commenced its seasonal roar.
- Skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony.
- We, this people, on this small and drifting planet.
- Past quarrels forgotten and strangers greeted as friends.
- The ways deep and the weather sharp.
- Camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, lying down in the melting snow.
- They brought the child, set it on the hearth.
- Festoons of holly and mistletoe.
- A song about a lost child travelling in the snow.
- Snow was swirling against the windows, sparkling with tiny icicles.
- New Year’s Eve. The loneliest night of the year.
- Snow peaks rose gloriously into the soft blue of the afternoon sky.
- Dark was darker, fair was fairer, colour was brighter.
- His dream had not deceived him. Good men and the whole of the world.
- A world which was as lovely as a fairy tale.
- The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened.
- Fully stocked with fudge and peppermint.
- Sparkling Christmas Forests and translucent Marzipan Castles.
- He smelt the numerous savoury odours as they steamed up from the kitchen windows in clouds.
- In all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
- A snowfield where even the print of birds’ feet is unknown.
- Another raw-cold day: white, white, endless, endless.
- Blades of cold slid under doors and cut the knees.
- I want to knit a pair of stockings for each of them.
- One can never have enough socks.
Thank you for all your writings and musings this year, and please send all your December pieces to max@whiteweavearts.co.uk by the morning of Monday 23rd.
– Max Parfitt