What Christmas Story Will You Write? by Sandi Somers

Prompt: Think of all the inspirational Christmas stories you’ve read over your lifetime, maybe the ones you read in a Chicken Soup book. Now write one of your own. Share your special stories about the holiday season, from inspirational and joyous, to heartwarming and humorous, from childhood or adulthood, from family times or alone times. Your story can be fiction or non-fiction, with a word count up to 950 words.

Even if you don’t write for our InScribe blog, you can prepare a true story for Chicken Soup (some InScribe members have already had a Chicken Soup Christmas story accepted or published).

Chicken Soup compiles a Christmas edition every other year, and here below is the invitation and next call for submissions from their “Possible Book Topics.”

Chicken Soup Stories about the Christmas Season

“Our holiday books are very popular. We do a new edition every other year and so we are now collecting stories for our Christmas 2015 book. Share your special stories about the holiday season… from inspirational and joyous, to heartwarming and humorous… The deadline for story and poem submissions is January 31, 2015.”

Meanwhile, a Story about my Treasured Moments

Last Christmas as my friend Jeanie and I walked her dog, she told me how she remembers each Christmas. She buys bought an ornament each year and writes a note about that Christmas. For example, the year she was lonely and walked into a fabric store and was mesmerized by giant snowflakes suspended from the ceiling, gently swaying in the breezes as people entered and left the store. The year Christmas was +15 degrees in Calgary. The Christmas of the Great Tsunami. The year she married Victor.

Her tradition began during a lonely year before she and Victor met and before she became a Christian. To compensate for receiving no presents, she wrapped up a small empty box, put an ornament inside and wrote out a memory of that year.

Now each Christmas as Jeanie decorates her tree and adds a festive air to her house, she adds a new box and ornament and reflects on those past Christmases.

What a great idea! I thought. A memorial. Why don’t I write my memories from Christmases past?

It’s an idea that had crossed my mind before, and so I began.  I listed highlights from a number of past Christmases, and began adding treasured stories.

I decided to make this project long-term; each year I would gradually fill in anecdotes and comments from past years, in addition to writing the memories from the current year.

I realized that in reviewing past years, God had given me the gift of His presence in many of those experiences.

Now over to you. What Christmas memories come to mind for you? What Christmas story will you write? What meaning does it have for you?