966 Writing Prompts About Christmas - Commaful Storytelling Blog

Commaful is supported by readers. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not affect who we choose to review or what we recommend. Learn more

At some point in their lives, writers—even the young ones—lose inspiration. This happens so often that they have their own special term for it—writer’s block.

It is especially crucial for young writers to find ways for their inspiration and motivation to return because a huge part of their curriculum involves composing essays and short stories. Luckily, there are numerous tricks they can use to reignite their passion for writing. One of those is using creative writing prompts.

Creative writing prompts are a useful tool for any writer. They offer plenty of benefits, but the best thing about them is that they can help you overcome writer’s block and ignite your imagination when you are feeling uninspired.

Below are creative writing prompts for high school students. You can use them to encourage young writers to compose a poem, short story, personal essay, or in any other way you see fit.

A person wants to be alone on Christmas.
The tough new kid gets kicked out of school just before the holiday.
Someone gets a thoughtful gift he/she wouldn’t normally think to ask for.
A momentous decision is made regarding Christmas.
A little girl gets into Santa’s workshop and helps herself.
A person receives an unexpected gift.
Santa Claus doesn’t exist.
The gifts that a couple exchanged were the wrong thing and caused friction between them.
A person desperately wants to understand the true meaning of Christmas, despite a lifetime of being a womanizer.
A twelve-year-old dies at Christmastime. He or she comes back as a ghost that still wants to celebrate Christmas like when he or she was young.
Christmas decorations come to life in unexpected ways.
A magical creature brings gifts for the protagonist.
Best Christmas deal ever!
Someone sees Santa Claus out of the corner of their eye at the mall.
In the blink of an eye, a person wakes up in a universe where Santa and elves exist. He has been recruited by Santa to embark on an important mission that will end with the spirit of Christmas reigning once again.
Someone is trapped when Christmas magic does not go as planned.
The story takes place inside a store that sells only gift wrap and cards.
A person gets beamed aboard Starship Enterprise for the holidays.
There is a company that can bring you into the waking world as a “Christmas Presence” and no one knows this but the writer.
A set of thieves targets sentimental holiday items.
Symbolism and Beliefs
A traveler overhears the dialogue of a conversation between a ghost and Santa Claus.
Someone accidentally transports Tiny Tim to the holiday of their choice.
Someone sees a vision of the future on Christmas.
A sleigh is pulled by reindeer that were in a past life.
A strange and eerie Christmas lights appear on a neighbor’s house, and the neighborhood falls under a blanket of mystery.
A person discovers they missed a holiday visit with a dying relative.
Someone’s secret origin comes to light on Christmas.
The present is not what it has long been believed to be.
A character has the power to see the future but not the past like Christmas cards or flashlights.
Childhood wish never quite comes true.
A letter or email is found in a box years after someone’s death.
Christmas snows down the door.
We always mail a holiday card with an attached family Christmas story.
Christmas ornaments are being sold on Craigslist.
A person tries to relive and recapture a childhood Christmas.
A letter written on Christmas Eve is delivered in the morning on Christmas Day.
The person is celebrating Christmas in a place in which it’s not generally celebrated.
Someone drops food into a fireplace hearth over and over again, hoping that it will magically turn into Christmas dinner.
Someone is going about their daily business, and they realize something is missing because something very bad happened on Christmas.
A mysterious benefactor sends the main character homemade Christmas gifts in the mail. Those gifts encourage the character to do something different.
Re-telling “The Night Before Christmas.”
A house is abandoned, but the family’s pet has remained for many years in the attic all alone.
Someone falls through the ice on an icy pond during a snow walk on Christmas Eve.
A discipline fails to submit to Christmas decorating.
A person survives an accident only to discover that they are still trapped.
Someone buys a dream Christmas gift from an online auction, only to receive something completely different.
An office worker is transported to a niche in the market and needs to convince customers to buy a specific gift by explaining the advantages of what makes it better than other, similar products.
A woman gets into a big box of goods and the screams go unheard by anyone for several days.
A grumpy person is convinced that Christmas is an abomination, but changes his mind.
One character experiences a lot more than the typical commercial Christmas.
A reminder about the true nature of Christmas gift-wrapped as a warning.
Someone accidentally travels to wintery Narnia instead of Christmas.
Someone moves and doesn’t realize until after Christmas that they left their decorations behind.
Someone finds themselves with a special gift that they didn’t ask for.
Someone discovers that a very close friend has been continually lying to them.
A couple that never got along under normal circumstances gets placed in a situation during Christmas where they are forced to spend time together.
Someone’s holiday season moves unusually fast or slowly.
The narrator receives a gift that is something they need.
When a single parent comes home, the kid discovers their Christmas gift that was hidden in a closet. This might surprise the parents too!
Someone brings home a kitschy decoration to adorn for the holidays, and it causes drastic changes.
A person receives an unwanted gift and is caught between feeling angry and too guilty to accept it.
An old toy is determined to make someone’s Christmas.
Someone finds a stranger sleeping in their bed.
A holiday arrives during the wrong time of year.
Someone longs for a long ago Christmas celebration when she was a child.
Someone is trapped in a house during the holidays.
There’s a marriage proposal at a department store Santa station on Christmas Eve. Someone doesn’t like the way they’ve been asked.
Santa Claus decides he will show tonight.
A person recovers an ornament from a holiday hedonistic tradition and longs to return to it.
Another person has traveled back in time to take the place of someone else for the holiday.
An angel keeps coming back to teach the same lessons over and over to a human.
In the future, a person’s loved ones are brought back as holograms.
There is a group of people who save Christmas every year.
A person ignores the obvious Christmas subtext in a movie or book and explains it away.
The main character becomes ill or injured, and spends the entire Christmas out of themself, watching the festivities from some other vantage point.
Someone forces another character into telling an old Christmas story that they’ve never told before.
Someone receives a letter from a relative who has died.
A Christmas character is somehow alive today.
Someone visits a foreign town for Christmas, and must get back home by Christmas Day.
A caroling group is stuck in a snowstorm.
A woman finds a beautiful new pair of fur-lined boots under her tree.
Christmas Intervention
A character decides to study the birth of Christ and asks questions that are unusual.
The Christmas dinner is a feast for more than the usual people–every ghost in town materializes for it!
Almost everyone else has forgotten about Santa Claus.
A lonely woman sees Elves or supernatural beings who encourage her in her housework.
A Christmas romance blossoms for two people who normally wouldn’t mix.
Mischief is being pulled and the only evidence is tiny drawings on the floor.
Someone plans ahead to make the perfect gift for someone else.
Someone spends Christmas in a place where they aren’t expecting it to be.
A woman working at a store suspects that an angel is putting people on the naughty list.
Someone wrecks something on purpose when it’s Christmas Eve in time to do it over.
A snowstorm blows crowds of shoppers together.
A wealthy family hosts their Christmas celebration and the day goes awry.
Someone can’t find their place at the Christmas story table.
Holiday fun is a bottomless pit.
A person knows their Christmas is cursed when it begins to snow in June.
A calendar malfunctions and counts down to Christmas.
A chain letter goes around urging others to perform certain tasks on Christmas.
A person in need of a rescue is trapped somewhere in Ferenwood.
An encounter with a very complicated and demanding relative turns out to be something . . . else.
A Christmas caroller is violently abducted while he’s singing.
When you’re giving gifts to someone, you unwrap one piece of candy and find a note from someone else.
Someone is stranded far from home during the Christmas holiday.
Someone discovers a long lost present on Christmas morning.
A group of strangers gather together with a common goal.
The first letter of each sentence helps to spell a special word.
An artist paints a portrait of someone’s face, but the painting twists into a terrifying ghost.
A person becomes a child’s guardian angel on Christmas Eve.
A dragon owner refuses to help pay for a lavish Christmas holiday given to pets.
Someone finds that Christmas has come early.
The Snows of Mt. Fuji by Lafcadio Hearn
A gentleman gives a lady a diamond necklace on Christmas Day. One side of the necklace bears a carving of a chilling scene. They find out or suspect the necklace is cursed.
Someone’s childhood dream has come true and she has gotten exactly what she asked for for Christmas.
Christmas arrives in a land where it is not celebrated.
The neighborhood is planning a New Year’s Eve party, and everyone wants Helen to be part of it.
Someone stumbles over a magic bridge leading to a wonderland populated by Christmas creatures.
Christmas miracles and the search for meaning in them.
The writing prompt calls into question someone’s sanity.
The protagonist of a story is an angel/santa/anyone that directly intervenes in the world, and inadvertently reveals a conspiracy.
The world experiences a time warp where unexpected events happen.
Someone the protagonist knows disappears in the past.
Christmas is cancelled due to a terrorist attack.
The pieces of an antique ornament come together on the night before Christmas.
The reindeer are on strike.
There is a time loop on Christmas morning.
Someone spends Christmas Eve looking for a new, small present to give to someone later that night.
Someone starts a journey on Christmas Eve.
Someone receives a gift that they don’t want or need.
An aluminum Christmas tree is implanted into your brain.
Someone travels to a small town where all the people are trying to write their own Christmas story.
A great deal is at stake when it comes time to deliver Santa’s gifts.
A person is jealous of another person’s Christmas gift.
A person’s dead family members arrive in time for Christmas.
Despite not getting what they want, a person tells their child a favorite holiday story.
Someone is harnessing the Christmas Cheer for magical purposes.
The snowman melts.
A family moves to a new neighborhood the week of Christmas.
There is no snow in the town and no one can figure out why.
A group of carolers goes off its mark and creates chaos.
A store’s Santa gets hurt while on duty. A group of strangers take his place before Christmas Eve to ensure every child gets a gift. Which ornament caught your eye today?
Isaac is a growing boy who consumes a terrible lot of material for a small man about to celebrate Christmas.
A friendly ghost is helping someone lose weight to fit into a particularly nice holiday-themed outfit.
A depressed person attempts suicide on the night after Christmas.
A person tells ghost stories around a Christmas tree.
A person is given a chance to decorate the lights of the neighborhood Christmas Tree on time.
A child has traveled through time to find a family that hasn’t displayed its Christmas tree in a generation.
Someone is granted a wish to be anywhere in the universe at Christmas.
The decorations on a Christmas tree are quite unusual.
Someone is the focus of a Christmas photographer, but poses to help others feel comfortable.
A protagonist’s worst memories all revolve around Christmas.
A neglected pet finds a home on Christmas.
A person demonstrates kindness by allowing someone else to co-host a Christmas celebration.
Someone receives a blood-soaked Christmas card along with a gift.
A generous philanthropist creates the world’s greatest Christmas parade.
The family’s lights burn out on the blessed event.
Someone has always thought of three words for decorating their Christmas tree, but didn’t get the chance to use them.
The child wants a certain toy/gift but doesn’t get it.
A device capable of reading peoples’ thoughts malfunctions and shows what each individual would most like to receive Christmas morning, rather than what they’d actually written on the card.
A man rescued his neighbor’s many kittens during a flood, now the kitties want to thank him.
The main character is visited by ghosts on a Christmas Eve.
A spouse or child is suddenly missing at Christmas and why that happened is gradually revealed.
The main character discovers that Santa is nothing like as jolly or nice as he was painted to be.
The local community shows disdain for the commercialism of Christmas.
There is a particularly bad time in a person’s life around the Christmas season.
The story is told as though Rudolf has looked down from the North Pole to offer a brief history of the holiday.
Someone takes pity on a homeless person and takes them in under their roof.
Unlawful protesters protest something that’s Jolly game hunting or trapping in the days before Christmas
A child wishes for or wishes someone a Merry Christmas in a way other than digging a foot in the mud.
There is a tree growing in the middle of the desert.
A husband and wife who disagree on Christmas, disagrees on whether to own a Christmas tree or not, help a wounded soldier that stopped on their property, because of the tree.
A police officer stops at a house to deliver a Christmas present.
A beloved Christmas song is an awful poem.
On Christmas Day everything becomes an undead monstrosity.
Two friends switch places in order to experience Christmas differently.
Someone is mourning Christmas, as they lost someone on Christmas.
Someone must defend their home from one nosy relative after another.
Someone spends a Christmas in a world full of magic or monsters.
There are some well-meaning Christmas elves that have interfered with Santa Claus.
A grief stricken person is comforted by a ghost.
A movie critic watches a certain Christmas movie every year, alone, in his apartment.
A young adult reflects on a year past, maybe with renewed hope, about the future.
A gift certificate doesn’t work.
When they open a present, disaster strikes.
A Clausologist represents Santa in a criminal trial.
A Christmas-y smell or smelliness causes the members of a family to recall the Christmas of some past year.
Someone witnesses a thief stealing a showpiece of a display window.
Santa Claus is unavailable to fulfill wishes for the children, so one or more of the characters steps in.
A character hates Christmas.
A Christmas gift turns out to have a terrible, unexpected consequence.
Someone finds money in a gift box or the pocket of an old coat. They don’t know whether to give it away, keep it, or throw it away.
A child wants a doll for Christmas but is told the family can’t afford it.
A woman has a crush on her ex-husband.
An angel is trying to help a struggling family.
Someone waking up on Christmas morning is met by a Kringle telling them that Santa has died.
The Ghost of Christmas Past tells someone The Tale of Scrooge.
After mislaying a spouse, a woman finds love letters from an old sweetheart tucked away in a storage box.
The ornaments are playing out a sort of role-playing game.
A group of children pose for a photo but are transported to one of the faces.
Someone learns a secret about one of their ancestors.
A person’s gift to himself or someone else is accidentally incompatible with the family’s includes time machine
The story of how a Christmas tradition was started.
A boy/girl lays awake hoping that a particular Santa will bring them a particular gift.
A person can see and hear snow spirits.
A person needs to fix the enchanted Christmas ornament in order to save Christmas.
Christmas carols as love songs.
A person finds a letter in their stocking.
Students’ initials get carved onto a Christmas tree that has never been cut down.
A person wishes they could go back in time and changes their present. Or they go back in time and try to return to the present but it’s not what they left.
Something that looks like Santa Claus gives someone a gift or treat.
The mysterious mailman has a hand in delivering the gifts in whispers, and none can track where he comes from.
A character loses his or her way during the blizzard.
Someone returns to their home town or state on Christmas and finds someone or something significant.
A girl is forced to become a servant because her father owed money to Santa.
Someone unexpectedly receives a very special Christmas gift.
A couple spends Christmas away from any family members.
The story is told in account format of a young girl’s visit from Santa Claus.
Something is broken in a person’s refrigerator after the holiday covers the workshop with snow.
Christmas is interrupted by a major snow storm.
Someone realizes that they will be alone for their entire life.
Someone is visited by a ghostly presence at Christmas time.
Someone moves to a location where Christmas traditions are very different from the ones they grew up with.
Someone finds real happiness or real love over the Christmas season.
A person receives a camcorder and a videotape that seems to show an unsolved homicide.
Someone receives an unexpected gift.
The kindness of a stranger leads to an unforgettable Christmas.
All of the pets and/or children in a household are anxious about what Santa will bring.
A spirit haunts a mantelpiece, a house, an inhabitant or the entire town.
A detective has one more case to solve before the holidays.
A gift card allows people to go to any Christmas past or future.
A family member takes a melancholy Christmas trip to visit orphaned spirits of their ancestors.
A mysterious stranger offers a Christmas wish for someone.
A professional shopper is out on Christmas Eve, three hours before closing, and runs into someone or something that needs her help.
A tree magically comes to life on Christmas Eve.
A story is about one of Santa’s reindeer.
A child is alone at Christmas, but harbors big plans to make a big difference this Christmas Day.
A person causes mischief night-before-Christmas-Eve.
Someone must go to work or school on Christmas day.
The past and future intermingle.
An unfortunate woobie or misanthrope sleeps through Christmas Eve only to witness the start of the conflict between the faeries and Santa Claus.
A magical creature is delivered with the mail and mistaken for Christmas mail.
The presents are delivered by something other than Santa or reindeer.
Someone’s tires go flat in a hailstorm, and they have to spend Christmas with their estranged family.
Someone receives a special gift that causes them to redeem one or more bad choices from a past life.
A person is invited to a Christmas film festival, not just to watch films, but to take an active part in them.
Someone finds his parent’s long-forgotten collection of figurines and treasures.
Someone deceives someone about a Halloween costume.
A child is afraid of Santa Claus.
A father who always seems distant to his children finally shows them he has been trying to keep the family secure, but begs them not to tell anyone of his efforts.
Someone is given a special gift in which magic is required in order to properly open.
Someone has to stop a town’s most beloved Christmas tradition from happening.
Someone is teleported to the North Pole.
Someone is injured and wakes up in the past, believing it is the present.
A person is uncharacteristically cheerful about Christmas and someone suspects the cheerfulness might be … sinister?
Spirits or supernatural beings come out to play at Christmas.
A very rich man falls completely off the Christmas Tart
Someone goes back to a past Christmas and has to figure out if he/she did something to ruin Christmas.
The main character wakes up on Christmas morning to find someone who should be gone.
Someone is preoccupied or obsessed with the holiday.
Someone makes a magical snow globe that shows all the world’s miseries.
A strange series of dreams or visions every year at this time are placed in the protagonist’s consciousness…
To prepare for Christmas dinner, someone cleans a fish in a lake.
Someone is transported to a Christmas in the future.
Someone’s character is stolen and they must get it back.
Someone doesn’t want to go through the things in their attic over the holidays.
Someone receives a Christmas gift that seems to no longer fit in with the current time.
A character carves a peculiar china ornament for Christmas.
A scientist has to spend Christmas alone cleaning up his lab.
A father runs away on Christmas and the family struggles to understand what happened.
Someone goes on a long journey on Christmas Eve, arriving home some time the next day.
There is a curse that turns everyone to stone…
A person negotiates going to a family Christmas with a morally reprehensible family member.
Someone receives a poem at Christmas with one of their own secrets revealed in it.
Trying to purchase Christmas gifts in a world where consumerism is forbidden.
Someone wants to escape Christmas or avoid celebrating it.
Christmas for a lonely person is in the future.
The wrapped gift contains something unexpected or shocking.
When cabinets that have been long locked are finally opened.
A character gathers their sad past near.
Someone doesn’t like his pet peeves during the Christmas season.
Something owned for decades goes missing just before Christmas, and is later found during or after the holidays.
A Christmas wish causes chaos.
You open a Christmas present to find an item you’ve bought for someone else.
Someone gets superpowers that activate around the holiday season.
A Christmas party takes a sinister turn for the host or hostess.
Someone is spending Christmas on a remote tropical island.
Someone fighting a great evil dreams about her mentor giving her advice.
twelve-part Christmas or Advent calendar
Someone finally catches a clue about the real meaning of Christmas.
Christmas celebrations by a non-Christmas religion are put into jeopardy in the near future.
Someone receives a letter from someone who never existed.
Someone dreams they were a contestant on a reality television show where Christmas is a challenge.
Someone finds a mysterious letter at Christmas.
Because of a misdelivered package, someone mistakenly receives an unwanted gift.
A snowman is on the verge of tears on Christmas Eve.
Someone gets a vaguely threatening message on Christmas, telling them to enjoy their last year.
A person purchases a Christmas tree even though they do not celebrate Christmas.
Christmas is ruined when a houseguest gets the worst cold of her life and has a truly miserable holiday season or refuses to leave at all.
A child gets an unusual gift for Christmas.
A person refuses to celebrate Christmas for “X” reasons.
A day late delivery puts someone in a difficult situation.
The unopened gift says something strange when it is opened.
Someone is observing the Christmas traditions and customs of an ancient culture he or she is studying or living with.
The characters try to find a replacement for a lost gift.
There is a mysterious foe causing chaos during Christmas.
A teen tries to help the one he loves and his efforts to do so ruin the holiday.
The person has a zany encounter with a Santa Claus who has escaped from the North Pole.
A ghost might be real.
Someone dreams of an alternate Christmas.
A child receives a gift from an unexpected admirer.
An adopted child struggles to find a present to satisfy his parents’ expectations for Christmas.
Christmas comes and goes at an inn in beautiful winter weather.
Christmas morning is interrupted by a huge, unapologetic snowman that demands some manner of recompense.
A person receives the letter they never got to write.
A crocheted item or other handmade gift becomes magical.
A Christmas ghost story.
Someone recounts a Christmas memory in their mind.
A card that reminds someone of a dead relative refuses to stay put in a random drawer.
Santa’s workshop is run by a robot.
A person realizes that a mistake has been made in a holiday.
A pair of next-door neighbors who dislike each other until Christmastime.
A present is left from a fairy or angel since no human Santa had left it.
A fresh-made fruitcake causes a time warp.
A person is celebrating his or her first Christmas with her significant other.
A character sees something magical and/or terrifying when spending Christmas alone.
Someone receives a Christmas card signed “from Santa.”
A teddy bear rights a wrong.
A child writes a letter to Santa about an item the parents are trying to keep secret.
What a PC character would say if they were making a best man’s speech at a Christmas wedding.
There’s a mysterious train that brings Christmas cheer, where people meet musicians and carolers who they don’t remember inviting.
A Jewish person, not generally inclined to celebrate Christmas then discovers that there are worthy cultural elements in Christmas traditions that make it enjoyable to celebrate.
One of the reindeers gets temporarily separated from the group.
A unique Christmas card arrives and inside is only a personal message.
A toy store owner gives a helping hand to a stranger.
Someone steals something to give as a gift to someone else.
A holiday tradition from a particular culture helps someone to connect to her family history or heritage. A person tries to preserve the holiday traditions of the past for her children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren.
There are ghosts in the house, and a Christmas party is where there is a possible haunting.
A couple comes home to find an unexpected gift upon returning home from a date.
Someone finds a lost holiday tradition.
It’s Christmas and winter comes early.
A person who cannot feel the Christmas spirit wakes up the day after Christmas feeling really disappointed that the Christmas spirit got away from her.
An estranged couple unexpectedly overcome their differences at a Christmas party.
Suspense story where someone finds a corpse in Christmas wrapping paper.
Someone is trapped under a cellar of falling wrapped presents on Christmas Eve.
A person feels just like Chris Cringle.
Someone finds that Santa forgot to deliver his presents.
A Christmas tree in the front of a house is growing over time.
A sentimental person misses the old toys that were special to her as a child.
A Christmas-themed house is haunted.
Something magical helps put a toddler to bed on Christmas Eve.
Someone gets a valuable gift from a despicable person.
A group of carolers picks up one more member in a strange place.
A road accident sends someone to the hospital at Christmas.
A person somehow gets it into their head that they have power over people with the words “Merry Christmas.”
Cupid and Santa wouldn’t get along if they met.
Someone learns of a secret tradition that has been left out of Christmas for a decade.
An artist seeks inspiration for a Christmas-themed painting.
A pet or pet bird has to spend Christmas without their person.
The person wakes up with a gift they don’t know how they are going to pay for.
A Christmas card is delivered to the wrong address by mistake.
The characters have visions of how their lives are likely to go on Christmas Day in the future, present, and past.
After a tragic accident, a widow discovers fulfillment at Christmas.
Someone is transported to a future Christmas.
A group of people keep a ghost in their house during Christmas in order to simply enjoy time with him.
A couple has to overcome a problem in order to celebrate Christmas.
There is an accident or there is trouble upon arrival at Christmas.
It snows at Christmas.
A person is lost in the wilderness and has to find food.
Father Christmas narrates a Christmas story.
A person visits Santa every single year on his birthday.
Someone has a lifelong wish to meet Santa Claus.
The protag finds a matchbox containing Christmas decorations from another era.
Someone finds or sees a charred Bible page.
A Christmas tragedy is averted.
A mysterious person has wandered into your town and now he has to figure out where he is and who he can trust.
A Word prompt is written from the point of view of someone famous in the Christmas narrative.
Someone receives a doll that seems to magically move.
An elderly man or woman remains lucid and sharp as the Christmas approaches.
A person thinks about Christmas when enduring the worst thing he or she has experienced.
Someone is transported to a Christmas in a future century.
A church’s little-used congregation room is discovered to be much more special than it first appears.
The population is getting smaller and smaller in a small…
Someone is haunted by ghosts at Christmas time.
A present is returned on Christmas Day with a note, “I don’t deserve this.”
A Christmas candle is rested upon a bookshelf.
The present doesn’t measure up to the past.
A centuries-old Christmas card is purchased.
There is a present under the tree that once belonged to a different family member.
A couple facing a last Christmas together try to avoid each other as much as possible while figuring out something darkly humorous.
A person makes a wish on a fallen angel ornament.
A Christmas party must be kept secret and the office must be decorated to conceal it.
A mysterious creature is seen riding on a sled on Christmas Eve.
A reclusive writer feels compelled to leave his home at Christmas so he can become a character in an annual pageant.
A list of all of the things someone wants or needs is discovered.
Someone must decide whether to tell friends or family they were born Christmas.
Someone wakes on Christmas morning magically transformed.
A department store Santa is much more than he appears.
A teenager hates Christmas because it reminds him of his dead parents. When blue lights appear in the woodwork and a “creepy” brother is stitched to the gift-bearing tree in the house, he has second thoughts.
Someone discovers an old window in their attic that shows the perfect Christmas.
A girl stumbles upon Santa and his reindeer.
Something is bothering someone beneath the surface.
A new Christmas tradition is started.
Nine dogs are abandoned on Christmas Eve near the person’s home.
Someone has five days to bring Christmas to a town that needs it most, and discovers that every day is even more stressful than the last.
Somebody wins some kind of Christmas lottery.
Someone wishes they had done differently during a Christmas past.
A young woman is dumped by her boyfriend early in December.
Someone’s childhood experience changed their view of Christmas, and they want to go back.
A character receives a meaningful Christmas gift and is affected by it.
Religious groups work together to save a town.
Somebody receives a gift that is unwrapped and soon wrapped again.
A strange creature brings horror or havoc to Christmas.
The squirrels have stolen the family’s Christmas presents.
The purchaser briefly meets the crafter of a particular gift.
Someone receives a gift or message from Santa before Christmas Eve.
A stranger stays at the hotel on Christmas Eve specifically to ruin someone else.
Someone finally receives the gift he or she has always wanted for Christmas.
A person remembers the first time they ever celebrated the holiday.
Someone is questioning something that occurs every December, such as Christmas trees or Santa Claus.
Someone has a special gift they would like to share.
Christmastime is uniquely different for someone who moves to a new community.
A person’s Christmas wish is answered, but not exactly in the way they would have wanted.
Someone finds his or her favorite celebrity has been taken prisoner by Santa’s Helpers in order to promote the holiday of gift giving.
The story revolves around a collection of family Christmas ornaments.
The Christmas tree has died.
Someone loses their Christmas spirit.
Someone has made a bet to make it through Christmas without their family, friends, or lovers.
A misunderstood song becomes an underground Christmas hit.
A person must find a gift in three hours.
A Christmas-themed alternate language is spoken.
Monetary concerns are keeping a person from giving a gift as large as the giver really wants to give.
A character loses a precious Christmas ornament which triggers great distress.
A present in a shop turns out to be very cursed.
A person is making a weirdly decorated wreath for someone and it’s meant to represent their love.
Is a crime committed on Christmas Eve? Is the author the perpetrator or the detective or the victim?
The narrator creates a story based on visions from the Christmas lights on the tree.
A story ends with an unexpected visitor at Christmas.
A Festivus pole deprives a man of his right to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Someone makes a list of what they would do if gifts were no longer given.
A town attempts to recapture the spirit of the first Christmas.
The protagonist gets a devastating souvenir after a visit to Santa.
An elderly neighbor used to always make an elaborate Christmas cake but then disappeared.
A couple are making a gingerbread house when it comes to life.
Someone is transported to a Christmas from the future.
A person with dementia talks about their lost loved ones at Christmas.
A person finds unexpected joy in the process of hanging Christmas lights.
Someone buys their favorite Christmas movie on DVD and watches it during the holiday season.
Someone must sell the Christmas tree to pay for a spouse’s medical expenses.
An immovable body Pet would seize up and not allow anyone to touch.
A young adult goes to live with a relative to observe Christmas traditions.
Someone is attacked by someone or something wishing them harm.
The person is reunited with a childhood holiday friend.
A father relates fond childhood Christmas memories to his daughter.
A dying person sees ghosts of past Christmases.
A person spends the entire day Christmas Caroling.
The spirit of Christmas past visits a person.
Someone makes toys in an effort to win the affection of a child who doesn’t like them.
Someone’s spouse, child, boyfriend or girlfriend is from another culture that has different Christmas practices.
A mysterious being comes to town, littering gifts along the street along with apologies.
Someone awakens on Christmas morning to find one of his or her lost presents under the tree.
Someone decides to keep their holiday toys from childhood.
Christmas Magic is advancing backwards.
A person falls in love during the Christmas season.
Someone discovers their true feelings while helping to decorate the Christmas tree.
A person gets poor magical help to prepare for another holiday.
A person must be convinced by a loved one that they won’t fail.
Someone relives the whole Christmas story in a series of dreams.
A child is curious about their parents’ first holiday together as a couple.
A Christmas tradition has to do with collections of items symbolic of happiness and/or love.
Someone receives the same Christmas present for the sixteenth year in a row.
Someone’s Christmas spirit is nourished by one or more unexpected visitors.
A person learns the true meaning of Christmas.
In what genre would look good a version of the Edward Gorey‎‘s story “S-Christmas”
An old ornament is an accidental diary of family events.
The life of someone famous changes because of a Christmas they experienced.
Something strange in the house means that a couple have to deal with Christmas without their child. A tragedy some time in the past that changes everything. A person tries to give back a gift given to them, but then changes their mind. Something so awful happens at Christmas that someone has to leave home to deal with it.
A family has to research what they have through examining every piece of Christmas decorations.
A salesman has a vision of Christmas and sees the future.
A person writes a Christmas letter and regrets not including someone or something else.
Someone receives something in the mail and opens it to discover something terrible.
An elf loses an earring, and an elf detective must track it down.
The Christmas story is told in reverse order.
A teenager has to spend Christmas with a relative who is difficult.
Someone goes beyond a living manger at Christmas.
Someone believes a stranger may only become real if he receives a gift.
Someone must find the perfect gift for the perfect person by Christmas.
Someone unwrapped an interesting Christmas present.
A package of Christmas ornaments contains a note thanking you for an act of kindness.
Someone is trapped inside Santa Claus’s sleigh.
Someone is missing Christmas due to ill health.
Someone is transported to a Christmas in the future.
Three people are traveling to visit their relatives for Christmas.
A child wishes for a brother or sister for Christmas.
The main character cannot afford to buy gifts for family members.
An orphan is in peril at Christmas.
Animal characters are suddenly people for a day at Christmas.
What happens when Santa encounters someone who refuses to celebrate Christmas?
Cinderella has taken a once-in-a-lifetime job at a quarry mining diamonds, and she falls from grace.
Someone is unexpectedly reunited with a long-lost loved one on Christmas.
Describe the process of Christmas wrapping paper being made.
Someone is at a loss as to what to do for Christmas since they faced a terrible tragedy in the last year.
A piece of someone’s Christmas formative years makes a surprise reappearance.
Someone is thrown back in time and Christ is born in their presence.
A person creates a new holiday celebrating someone else’s accomplishments, lives on.
A person is given an artificial tree or Christmas doll or action figure.
Someone is obsessed with winter and always spends Christmas in a warm place or inside.
A television station is showing seasonal programming.
Someone is transported to a Christmas in a future century.
People have become overly religious about Christmas.
Someone is secretly an elf.
Someone agrees to take over an old Christmas tradition.
Someone has a present that is alive.
A person receives a gift, brought on a sleigh by Santa and reindeer, from someone who has died.
A divorce has been avoided for money reasons.
Trying to get home for Christmas.
Someone doesn’t feel the holiday cheer.
A broken snow globe repairs itself on Christmas Eve.
An unusual object falls from the sky.
An Internet meme inspires a new form of holiday cheer.
A machine on the rural farm where someone is living is more powerful than it should be.
An inbox contains a list of people who won’t have anything nice to say about you this Christmas.
Someone opens his/her gift and is transported to a different time.
Someone in an interesting job tries to ensure that there is a particular festive and potent product of his/her company on the table.
A person stumbles upon Santa preparing his sleigh.
The collective neighborhood Christmas decorations are being destroyed by a rival neighborhood’s or individual’s lights and ornaments.
The person is traveling in a town where a deadly plague has broken out. Depending on the timeline, this might be straight up horror.
The beloved family pet dies on Christmas Eve, and then shows up as a ghost during the Christmas celebration!
Christmas celebrations are banned by religious doctrine.
A person is melancholy because he’s unlikely to get a card from his estranged relatives.
She lost him on Christmas.
Someone attempts to reenact a favorite Christmas past.
One character can see and interact with Santa Claus.
A character is allergic to some object they have no idea why they’re allergic to it.
After one of the parents has died, the holidays are spent in their memory.
A man buys a personalized Christmas ornament, but environment changes make the ornaments too costly.
Christmas arrives early this year.
The Christmas decoration that the person loves most was a gift from someone long ago, who’s moved on to the next world.
A couple gives away the gifts they collected and used over the year, to someone they meet on Christmas.
A young adult is left unsupervised over Christmas and wants to make it special for a child.
A lonely person is kidnapped by enemy agents and kept captive in a frozen wasteland for the holiday.
Someone receives a doll in the mail as a gift.
A family gathers in front of a crèche.
A person has to write a letter to Santa.
Someone sees stars in the view during a Christmas Eve church service.
Someone is taking care of an old and dying man who is waiting for a visitor.
You rigged your Christmas lights to work like a roller coaster.
The villain sees jealousy as being akin to greed on Christmas.
Someone is trying to convince people that Christmas is a good time of the year.
A child’s letter to Santa is answered by someone other than Santa.
Someone is having dinner with a mysterious individual.
A prize is awarded on Christmas Day, but the recipient is nowhere to be found.
A person must convince others that a difficult decision is the right one.
Santa is unable to deliver all of the gifts.
The same Christmas is being experienced by different people/animals.
An advent calendar has magical properties.
Someone receives an expensive gift and must find a way to repay it.
Someone comes across a pagan feast at Christmas time.
A person decides to spend his or her whole Christmas in a bar.
Christmas ghost story.
A Santa Claus impostor appears.
An item disappears from the stores but reappears when at home with family.
The story begins either at sunset on December 24 or at sunrise on December 25.
Someone was wrongly denied the one thing they requested as a present for Christmas when they were a child.
An angel becomes human and falls in love.
The main character has lost the season thoroughly.
A person gets the one gift they dreaded receiving.
A person is thinking about a captivating gift that they saw advertised on TV.
As each child in the family goes to bed it is told the story of why a special object was placed on a particularly high shelf.
Someone finds something deeply moving on Christmas Eve.
A lost family heirloom has been on someone’s mind all year, and on Christmas they get it back.
The ending of the story is a metaphor for the meaning of Christmas.
A package arrives from a relative that has been lost at sea for years.
The Internet has named “The Most Wonderful Novelty Merchandise of the Year!”.
A child breaks a present, and finds that it wasn’t a toy, but something precious.
A candle is lit on a Christmas tree.
A couple with children must save a relative from a murderer.
Someone finds a lost treasure to decorate the tree with.
Sappy romance novel scenes.
A character decides to search for their Christmas spirit.
There is a town full of misfits on Christmas Eve.
You exchange letters with a stranger who is spending Christmas by themselves.
A woman receives a box with a letter inside it.
A stray dog turns out to be magical.
A Christian remembers the first Christmas with a Jewish or Muslim friend or partner.
A character is forced to represent a Christmas character or celebration they don’t like.
A story about a man who walked with a stuffed animal that he called a pet.
Christmas comes early for a family and their financial situation is worse off than ever.
The guardian angel has a tough time watching over someone for Christmas.
A character creates a popular new tradition, such as how the Christmas tree was started or Christmas cards.
Someone tries to put up Christmas lights and struggles to do so because of the cold.
Christmas celebrations haven’t happened on Earth for ages, until…]
The spirit of Christmas is being stuffed into a rocket ship.
A Christmas experience involving the supernatural takes place outside the normal range of human understanding.
A mysterious stranger shows up on Christmas Eve and offers a gift to the owner.
Someone receives a Christmas gift that is cursed.
Someone has to balance work and family traditions while also participating in the practices of the community after being transported to a remote house in a forest.
The toys in the toy shop are magically alive.
There’s more than one magic Christmas tree at play.
An orphan dreams of a family.
Somebody finds an ancient elf figurine that comes to life for a short time.
A woman wears her late husband’s Christmas sweater every year in remembrance.
Someone travels, either out of habit or need, and is brought to a haunted house on Christmas without there having been a sane previous choice.
A person’s inadequate holiday decorations are discovered by a neighbor and he is tarred and feathered as a result.
Someone is in trouble for stealing Christmas decorations.
Someone is transported to a past Christmas, where they meet people from their present life.
A person relives Charlie Brown’s moment of decision on whether or not to put a sad-looking little fir tree on his family’s main display.
A woman needs a miracle for her family on Christmas.
Someone keeps running afoul of holiday symbols.
A ghost or other supernatural manifestation causes confusion among the characters.
A person keeps repeating their last Christmas a year or two ago, caught in a cycle.
A woman makes a wreath and Oscar comes through the chimney.
A magical Santa drops by with his flying reindeer for a visit.
A believer receives an oracle predicting a very specific future oracle corrects the believer in mid-motion.
Pick one of the ideas above and tell it from the perspective of the Christmas present giver and then the person receiving the gift.
Someone has terrible luck every Christmas.
Everyone receives a magical Christmas gift this year.
Someone is given a magical Christmas present.
A fake Santa sneaks into people’s houses and steals specific presents.
Someone buys a used car that turns out to have a Christmas spirit that can help or hinder drivers over the holiday season.
Someone receives a Christmas gift that the recipient cannot relate to in any way.
The subject finds a device that shows the most depressing event of Christmas in history.
Christmas is confronted with the stern fact of mortality.
Santa’s magic is in question.
This prompt is about a person who is obsessed with Santa in their dreams.
The Christmas party is ruined because the host forgot about the party.
A woman is kidnapped before the holiday season in order to deprive another of Christmas.
Someone fell off a roof while placing their Christmas decorations on it.
How does Rudolph’s nose and Santa’s belt buckle save Christmas?
Someone keeps a profound Christmas secret.
Christmas is celebrated in a truly bizarre location.
Someone asks Santa for a present.
Someone receives a gift from Santa that they’ve always wanted.
The person receives a free gift on Christmas Eve from a mysterious donor.
Someone dies on Christmas day.
An elf causes mischief.
Someone is transported to a Christmas on a distant planet.
A whole village knows about a surprising secret regarding the Christmas traditions.
A lonely person adopts a stray or orphan animal to be a pet. Can be serious or humorous.
While in the kitchen of a historic house, someone who belongs there is not who that person looks like.
Someone reclaims their family’s Christmas traditions.
A Christmas tree springs up overnight on a lonely freeway.
A man is unemployed and is on the verge of having to move out of state.
A waitress is Santa’s helper.
Christmas has a much different meaning after having a major loss for the season.
Someone was given the wrong gift.
Someone receives the biggest gift they could want but it isn’t what they were expecting.
Someone has a strange mission to find things beneath the Christmas tree.
A child puts on a pageant.
A person plots a scheme to use a religious holiday to get revenge against a bullying relative, boss or friend.
Someone gets a fresh start to a better year by way of a magical Christmas tree.
Guesses are given at what Santa is bringing this year.
A live program about the origins of Christmas is broadcast, but the characters featured on the show are eager to convince the audience that Christmas is a fake holiday instead.
Something buried in a yard becomes a Christmas decoration.
Christmas figures out how to get some time to himself.
A person is transported into the world of Santa Claus.
Some ghosts and goblins take over a community for a day.
A cat is trapped in the proverbial turkey, which is in reality a Christmas goose.
It snows on Christmas, but the town blames it on faeries.
The technological future does not have Christmas greeting cards, so a person falls into the role of Santa.
A person wakes up in their own grave on Christmas morning.
The wish on the ornament comes true, but in a way the owner doesn’t want.
A dog gets a saviour on Christmas.
Someone has the ability to travel through time and is trying to negotiate past and present versions of Christmas.
Someone has travelled to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus and found out astonishing truths.
Someone falls in love for the first time during Christmas.
Perhaps Bradbury’s short story will be the most inspirational instance of a quest for an enchanted object. Sometimes, the quest for a single gift from another is greatly valued, made precious by the person who gives the gift. Their intent is enough.
A home is constructed like that of a famous Christmas story.
All of the stores are closed for the holiday, but the post office is open.
A Christmas under construction.
Someone is transported to a Christmas in the future.
Two people are trapped in a town during a blizzard where they must do good deeds for strangers to survive.
Someone is oddly deaf to all that’s meant to be merry about Christmas.
One person must find a way to break a curse that keeps everyone in the world from celebrating Christmas.
Someone receives the worst possible Christmas gift.
A character walks through a Christmas ornament shop and buys an ornament.
A grandfather gives his grandson a gold coin.
The first in a new series is about a family with holiday-themed paranormal abilities.
A person loses a special gift that was given to them.
The story of Jesus’ birth is told from a different perspective.
Someone is transported to a Christmas in a past century, only to find that it was completely different than how they expected it to be.
Someone gets a wonderful gift she can’t return.
A man wishes his ex-wife and their children a merry Christmas.
A character is brought back to life at Christmas – but they are a villain.
A stranger appears and begins to tell the story of a stranger who questioned their beliefs on Christmas.
Someone makes it their mission to return a valuable gift that was stolen from someone else.
A brasher seasonal film where Christmas Aspect is portrayed as goofy or turn out to be but or at least suspense filled.
Santa Claus is kidnapped.
A person’s girlfriend is stuck on the top of a Christmas tree and there is only one person capable of saving her.
Someone travels out to see how he is remembered at the home of a former love interest.
Someone finds an unusual gift in their stocking.
A family struggles with the loss of a child during the holiday season.
A band of homeless people form a choir and/or a family of inebriates form a choir.
The loss of a loved one is the focus of Christmas.
Someone recalls a Christmas when they were a child.
A group is preparing for a fundraiser, but there’s a problem with one of the gifts.
A Christmas present comes to life.
An old couple revisits a neglected memory from their past.
A person finds himself or herself alone at Christmas, wishing for a companion or a friend.
A family member no longer believes in anything, including Christmas.
A grandparent reveals to a grandchild how they had originally planned to celebrate Christmas in the past, and they now must make a gift for the grandchild to celebrate this Christmas their way.
A family tradition involves secretly delivering presents to everyone in town.
A tale of Toymaker’s Elves.
Someone makes a choice that benefits, or harms, a different group of people at Christmas.
A misfit attempts to redeem themselves during Christmas.
A holiday music box brings magic to those who listen to it.
A town is celebrating its 200 th Christmas.
Christmas stitching is the key to saving the world.
Someone spends Christmas with Santa Claus.
A family member receives a mysterious Christmas package with no return address.
An extra pet shows up under the Christmas tree.
A person meets Santa Claus at the store, while buying their presents.
It is Christmas Eve and there are two sets of twins. In each set of twins, one twin dies but leaves behind an identical twin photograph. How does this person figure out which photograph is of the deceased one?
Santa gives someone an unusual Christmas gift.
Someone is injured in a way that makes them realize they need to appreciate the present moment.
A strange electronic device is disguised as an old-style Christmas decoration.
A gift finally arrives in the mail for someone.
Someone finds him or herself in the Yuletide spirit despite a mother or sibling who dislikes Christmas.
An angel attempts to earn his wings by performing one good deed around the holidays.
Someone is on a time-traveling adventure to go back to when they were a child during Christmas.
Someone actually meets Santa Claus.
A person broke a historical Christmas item. One question to consider is, is it too late to make up for the mistake?
Bargains abound during the Christmas holiday.
Someone is looking through their Christmas cards from the past.
Christmas carols are sung as a ghost tries to communicate.
Someone is eternally forced to spend every Christmas in the same way – celebrating a reincarnated relative’s birth.
Someone who is given something discovers that the giver of this gift did not have the money to buy it. Ignore the age gap here, you know that friend or younger sibling who always gave the “wrong” gift.
Someone recounts what happened at a particular Christmas party.
You are given a wish in a Christmas snowflake.
An elf falls in love and wishes they were human.
An Austrian nobleman falls in love with the innkeeper’s daughter.
A tropical setting somehow has an unexpected snow on Christmas.
The hero or heroine runs into a town bum who doesn’t have a thing to be merry about.
Someone wakes up on Christmas day after having been given many, many drinks to find that they are Santa Claus to children whose parents want to teach them to be nice to the man.
Someone is surprised to find out how their parents really spent their romantic Christmases.
Someone always wanted a first-hand experience of Santa returning to the house.
Christmas lands in the crossroads of two different realities.
A character has a real soft spot for a person or place that they think would be a great fit with their lonely love interest for Christmas.
Someone is invited to a fancy Christmas dinner and dressed appropriately. They arrive and have no idea why.
It’s Christmas-time, but a person is still not so happy.
The turkey is magic.
An antique Christmas ornament finds its way to someone, making them question whether an ornament has power to show a glimpse of the past and future.
Someone needs to save the last Glauber’s Salt tree to make Christmas presents.
A childhood treasure receives new meaning at Christmas-time for an adult.
There is an epidemic of holiday suicides by throwing oneself off a bridge over a frozen pond into the water.
Someone just wants to be able to eventually get home for Christmas.
Someone discourages a friend from shopping for someone else’s Christmas present.
The neighbors awkwardly invite you over for Christmas Eve.
The main character attracts a crazy stalker because of their spending habits.
A character experiences more than one Christmas that is surprisingly connected.
A long lost relative arrives at the last minute for Christmas dinner.
Someone is taking plaster molds of people’s hands in front of a Christmas display.
Christmas stands in for a concept such as death, promising beauty or wealth or salvation.
Yuletide cheer invoked people who hate each other to be nice to each other for one evening.
A person has a perfect Christmas dessert for everyone to enjoy.
Someone is looking for a lost Christmas memory.
There is a new train route just before Christmas.
Something is amiss, someone realizes that there are a few Criminals Among Us instead of the usual ho-ho-ho of Santa Claus.
A drug store Santa really is real. Or is he?
You find an old book in a book store about Quilting and Christmas.
Christmas traditions are unexpectedly altered.
A dramatic event leads to Santa missing Christmas one year.
Two people go caroling in costume.
A person is being made to feel like he doesn’t belong by everyone else.
Someone volunteers and ends up helping an unsavory person.
Someone spends Christmas alone.
A soldier is writing a letter home.
A person wishes that Christmas would never end.
A reindeer is the hero of the day and makes mistakes along the way.
A day of Christmas shopping is a family outing.
A man’s dreams are set during the Christmas season of his childhood.
There’s a big fight to save Christmas that threatens to end it forever.
A visitor to a certain household has a problem that desperately needs solving.
Christmas letters are involved.
Someone travels to the future to find out what everyone was wearing on this year’s Christmas.
Someone finds a mysterious friend in their Christmas tree.
Someone gets revenge on a past Christmas scratcher by making this year less fun.
Someone receives the world’s most useless gift.
A person lying in a hospital bed on Christmas is visited by a member of his or her own spirit family.
Someone decides to trade in the traditional Christmas gifts for others instead.
Someone tries to create the “ultimate” Christmas.
Someone is transported to a Christmas in the future.
Someone is transported to a Christmas for another species, say, a horse.
Someone is excluded from celebrating the season because he or she is different.
A drunk driver kills someone on Christmas Eve.
The characters prepare for the last Christmas on Earth.
What if someone had just one day to spend with their Santa.
Someone’s family is host to a holiday visit from a detestable old relative. Perhaps both are equally detestable.
Someone finds an unexpected gift under their Christmas tree.
The story is seen through the eyes of a pet that is a gift.
A terrible crime is committed on Christmas but the spirit of the holiday remains.
A charitable fund-raising event is based around caroling or making Christmas gifts or decorating something.
Someone has stumbled upon a magical snow globe and can see the past.
The plot concerns a Christmas thief.
The person or people in the Christmas story change places with the characters in the current holiday story.
A woman re-gifts a gift she was given. Her fiancé sees this as a sign that she doesn’t care as much about him as he thought she should.
Someone possesses a magic amulet that allows them to see winter spirits.
Someone experiences a Christmas snowstorm in an isolated place.
A seemingly insignificant thing around the house miraculously comes to life and breaks out of the house in search of the Christ child….
A person finds someone else’s Christmas card that is addressed to a recipient other than him/herself.
A letter circulates proposing some sort of Bah Humbug action.
Someone is arranging for a person to be alone on Christmas Eve, but ends up falling in love themself.
A couple has to decide between a baby and Christmas day.
The holiday snow falls in summertime.
A person realizes that they loaned their presents off to a friend and now they have no way to get the presents.
Christmas decorations go missing or get vandalized.
There’s a scandalous secret hidden in the presents left for Santa to deliver.
A person searches for the meaning of Christmas.
A Christmas visit to a fairground turns into more of a memory than the person intended.
A child writes a letter to Santa Claus asking for help.
Someone finds the perfect gift for someone special, but strife ensues over it.
Paper crafts
Two strangers become unlikely traveling companions on a journey.
Someone who has been turned down for a much-needed loan is magically given one.
Someone knows the true meaning of Christmas before it’s too late.
A person wakes from a dream about Christmas and realizes that their dreams might be accurate.
A person returns home and learns that their absence on Christmas Eve had an important effect on someone else.
There’s one christmas gift left under the tree and three people can’t decide who gets it.
Someone arrives on a strange planet where everyone is celebrating the holidays.
A child sees his Christmas list come true.
December 24 is a special day for a person who comes from a culture that celebrates it.
Someone unexpectedly reunites with a lost relative at Christmas.
A sequel to A Christmas Carol opens with Scrooge attending a play on what would have been his guardian’s 168th birthday.
A person is magically able to go outside to ice skate, despite snow.
A villain reforms and vows to make this a Christmas Eve no one will forget.
The first Christmas in a strange new world.
A person finds a Christmas gift waiting for them at home when they get back.
An angel and a mortal are taught the true meaning of Christmas.
Somebody somewhere really wants to celebrate Christmas despite being busy or having many other distractions.
Someone receives an unexpected invitation to a Christmas celebration.
The main character is the younger sibling of the eldest, and doesn’t like not being in the spotlight.
Someone receives a threatening invitation to an Epiphany celebration.
Someone gets drunk and wakes up in a gift box.
A present much appreciated by the recipient turns out to be the wrong size, the wrong color, etc.
Found an orphan on Christmas Eve.
Someone is transported to a Christmas in a future century.
The person shows a special gift to somebody on Christmas.
Sworn enemies are forced to share a house for the holidays.
A magical present disappears unexpectedly.
Cats begin coming out of the closet on Christmas Eve.
The real Santa is two months early, and a difficult quest must be undertaken to bring on Christmas.
A snow globe contains living characters who are hoping for rescue.
A dog finds the perfect owner without human guidance.
Someone is a reindeer, present-delivering Papa to locations on Christmas Eve.
The main character is in a rush to finish her holiday shopping.
A person finds that his/her name is on a special list of people who will stay home for Christmas.
There is a teleportation mishap over the holidays and two people are put in each other’s bodies. An unexpected visitor shows up at your door.
A visitor’s guide to the church learns some interesting facts about the town and the church on Christmas Eve.
A store creates a top-secret ‘naughty or nice’ list for Santa’s attachment to letters, and a character is on the naughty list.
Someone is set on fire. Their hair and clothes burn off, or their eyebrows, or the top layer of skin on their face.
A mythological creature is sick and needs a particular food to eat, and needs to get this food from someone else.
Reinforces the elements of a previously read favorite Christmas story.
Someone receives an unexpected Christmas gift.
An old gift is retrieved and prompts some reminiscences.
An old bat sleeps amidst a chaos of collectibles. The cleaning person doesn’t know what to do about this person.
A person spends Christmas at a nursing home.
Someone is transported to a faraway place on Christmas Eve.
Santa has some shameful secret burned into his nose that shows up every Christmas.
A retelling of “The Gift of the Magi.”
Christmas is someone’s last gift.
The main character remembers spending Christmas alone as a child.
Someone receives a gift from an admirer in a distant city.
Someone is transported to a Christmas in the future.
Someone is visited by Santa from another world.
There is a curse from a misadventure with a Christmas gift fifty years ago.
Someone receives a gift in which something truly good is mixed with something wicked or evil.
A special Christmas meal turns into a game of poker and a fight.
A man takes up a child at Christmastime in order to give him presents.
Someone gets the wrong Christmas present, the perfect Christmas present or the perfect gift with a hidden insistence that it surprises someone.
Someone unwittingly causes a miscarriage on Christmas Eve.
The entire family strife happens on Christmas Eve.
Someone needs to travel somewhere important for Christmas.
A giant decoration is secretly drawn into existence.
Someone misses family members that have died.
A person longs to spend a Christmas in a certain place.
Someone thinks there is a monster under the Christmas tree. Myths about monsters and the spirit of Christmas fit in here.
The family has a very unusual tree/decoration for Christmas.
The protagonist doesn’t have enough money to get a gift/treat/sparrow.
The power goes out during a family celebration, and suddenly a stranger shows up to perform some magic.
The main character of a story sees the difference being nice makes at Christmas for others.
A relative obsessively unravels the mystery of the disappearance of their favorite Christmas doll when they are a child.
There’s a white Christmas in spring.
Someone has a gift that has never been given so the person wrote a story about it.
Someone writes to Santa, asking for something to be delivered on Christmas Eve.
An angel or other heavenly being has been sent to earth to experience this one Christmas so he can remember what the human experience is like.
Reimagine memories of Christmas past.
Snow in the middle of summer.
Someone accidentally gains the ability to know other people’s backstories.
A person or animal is magically transformed into something else for the holidays.
An angel falls in love with an ordinary person.
Someone runs into an old friend in the shopping mall.
Someone is visited by a ghost of Christmas yet to come.
Someone uses a time machine or a portal to visit friends and family.
A person gets to spend Christmas with a reindeer.
The story revolves around the search for Pegasus during the holiday season.
Someone unfriendly shows up during the holidays.
Something goes horribly wrong on Christmas Eve.
Someone sees an apparition of a saintly person on Christmas Eve.
Someone runs over a squirrel in a snowmobile at Christmas.
A postman retells what happened while delivering Christmas mail one year.
A person receives a very odd gift for Christmas.
A Christmas ghost story.
A person mistakenly arrives at another time of year instead of Christmas.
A ghost appears and reveals a Christmas secret concerning another character.
Someone is having a difficult Christmas and arguments and, or leading up to it.
A soldier waits for Christmas on the front during wartime.
A person can no longer remember anything that doesn’t relate to Christmas and is losing touch with reality.
A soldier gets a package in the mail when there shouldn’t be one.
A dead relative visits on Christmas and explains where they have been.
A magician’s teleported Christmas tree disappears and reappears in someone’s living room during a celebration.
A person goes to pick up their Santa suit or dress, but spends their time reminiscing.
A person realizes at midnight that they still have to buy a Christmas gift.
A man has lost his dog, and is going around looking for him on Christmas Eve.
Three or more characters each tell the same Christmas story in a different way.
Santa Claus becomes stranded on the top floor of a department store overnight.
Two children like Santa and his reindeer owe nothing to the holiday they celebrate, instead, creating their own version of it.
A religious figure returning to Earth at Christmas to see for the first time what his creation has become.
The character is a fairy who does not know about humans enjoying Christmas.
Something tried to ruin Christmas twenty years ago and never got the message the celebration was back.
A person becomes Christmas in a mystical way.
A character is desperate to get home for Christmas but misses it.
A song brings newfound meaning and love.
Someone meets a perfect stranger from another country at a religious service or holiday event.
A person buys a gift for someone else and then doesn’t have enough money to buy one for himself.
A person forgets to buy Christmas presents and figures out what to do in time.
A person gets a chance to go home to spend Christmas with the important people in his or her life.
Someone breaks into the merriest place on earth.
A Christmas party is not what it seems.
A village has to repel an invasion of hostile elves.
A teenager gets an invention from Santa that was supposed to come from Santa.
Someone has lost a present meant for someone else, and needs to replace it before Christmas Eve.
Someone forgot to light the candle.
The tree decoration has a soul.
A person realizes they have to fight against long odds to revive an old Christmas tradition, possibly in order to defeat an evil king of another event.
Someone is involuntarily visited by the ghosts of past Christmases every day around Christmas time.
This list of seasonal writing prompts is by no means exhaustive, but does suggest one way to subject matter to your writing efforts this holiday season.
Change a holiday tradition for a creative reason of your own.
A person who is being written about accidentally dates their Christmas letter in the wrong year. The letter is actually from the present.
Someone finds a list of “New Year’s Resolutions” from another time, and decides to make one of his or her own.
Someone obsessive-compulsively counts down the days Left Until Christmas.
An accident happens that doesn’t stop a Christmas teacher.
A warning is needed and it comes by whispering from a Christmas ornament.
Sleigh bells are heard in the distance, but no sleigh is seen.
A poor family is merrily Christmas-ing and needs food.
A character spends a lot of money on a Christmas gift but discovers it wasn’t worth it.
Someone travels to the North Pole to bring Christmas to the Polar bears.
A present given to a small child by a homeless person blows up his house.
Someone finds out that there is a secret society that only meets once a year at Christmas and it sheds light on a mysterious disappearance or event.
A puppy needs a home for Christmas.
A dying young man finds renewal in Christmas.
Someone gets a personality makeover due to a fairy/elf/spirit.
It occurs to a person that there is a baby or small child in the house.
Someone makes a discovery in her grandmother’s attic about her ancestry.
A divorced couple must work together to put up the Christmas tree this year after their kids and the husband each die.
A sled is found buried in snow with its present frozen inside.
An elderly sign bemoans the present and visions a better Church.
Someone experiences a miraculous or bizarre Christmas miracle.
The character hates Christmas, and kind of grounds the reader in their misery. The Christmas Story. From the point of view of a single character or a group of characters, retelling the Christmas story in a fresh and honest way.
Someone is transported to a better Christmas or a worse one.
A boy notices it snowing during the summer.
Something was seen riding on the back of someone driving an automobile.
Someone re-tells the story of the first Christmas.
The protagonist finds love around the holidays.
Someone is transported into the future on Christmas Eve.
Someone creates a Christmas tradition of giving an anonymous gift to a stranger during the holiday season.
Someone receives a peculiar Christmas gift from a total stranger.

Recommended Posts:

Join the Commaful Storytelling Community

Commaful takes everything you love about stories and makes it a bite-sized, on-the-go experience. Fanfiction? Poetry? Short stories? You’ll find it all!

JOIN THE COMMUNITY