Fiction Writing Exercises for the Holiday Season
Looking for creative writing ideas or fiction writing exercises this holiday season? You’re in luck, because I have a wacky one for you.
Before we start, a quick disclaimer: this is a fiction writing exercise in holiday customs rather than the holidays themselves, so this writing exercise is suitable no matter which holiday you celebrate, or even if you don’t celebrate any at all.
Before I reveal the challenge, let’s take a look at a few interesting holiday customs and traditions.
Holiday History
The Christmas Tree
We go outside, chop down a pine tree, then bring it into our home, where we set it up in our living room and attach colorful, twinkling lights all over it. Then, we hang an assortment of decorative items from the boughs. Finally, we top it off with a star or an angel and place a heap of gifts underneath. Then, for a few weeks, we look at the pretty lights, maybe sing a few songs or sit by the tree drinking eggnog until finally we get to open all those gifts. Once we do that, we undecorate the tree and dispose of it.
Menorah (Hanukkah)
On the first night, we light one candle. On the second night, two candles. On the third night, three. We do this for eight nights in a row. Over the course of those eight nights (and days), we distribute gifts, eat chopped liver, and we take out little wooden blocks decorated with strange glyphs and spin them on the floor.
Winter Solstice & Saturnalia
Throughout history, winter solstice has been celebrated by cultures throughout the world with a huge spectrum of traditions. The most interesting, perhaps, is Saturnalia, an ancient Greek festival. During Saturnalia, slaves were except from punishment and were allowed to treat their masters disrespectfully. Masters and slaves would also reverse roles and for a day, the slaves would learn what it was like to be master and vice versa.
Santa Claus
Every Christmas, a fat man in a red suit climbs into a sleigh pulled by eight nine magical flying reindeer (the ninth one has a red nose that lights up), and he travels all over the world in a single night, stopping at every house that has children sleeping soundly inside. At these homes, he lands on the roof, climbs down the chimney, and then leaves toys that were made by elves under the trees (see Christmas Trees above) for good boys and girls.
The Easter Bunny
It happens around springtime. A special rabbit named The Easter Bunny visits every house with children (note: this sounds awfully familiar). Unlike with Santa, we don’t know how he travels or how he gets in and out of the houses, but he leaves baskets filled with treats and goodies, plus, he hides colorful hard-boiled eggs all around the home (inside and out) for the children to hunt and find the following morning.
So Many Ways to Celebrate
One of the things I love about holidays is that there are so many of them, and they are each rich in their own unique customs. Actually, I celebrate more than my fair share of holidays, especially at this time of year, because I’m sort of a holiday mutt and I like a little bit of this and little bit of that.
But sometimes, I find myself wondering about these crazy customs. Who thought of them? Where did they begin? And why?
When did people decide to bring trees in from outside and decorate them? What gave a rabbit reason to hide eggs from small children? And where on Earth did Santa find those reindeer? Seriously, I gotta get me some of those!
And these holidays are just a small sampling. Think about Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day (leprechauns!), or the dragons of the Chinese New Year. Sure, you can research all of these holidays and find out where the traditions for observing them originated (I strongly suggest doing this sometime – it’s absolutely fascinating) – OR -
you can write your own holiday.
Holiday Fiction Writing Exercises
That’s right, invent a holiday of your own. Give it roots, a raison d’être. How did it start? What historical event does it observe?
Then, start thinking of the wild ways that people will celebrate this event. Will there be a special festival? Costumes or dresswear? What foods will be prepared and consumed? Are there any magical characters that arrive for this holiday? Gifts? Songs? Rituals?
Saturnalia is pretty wild (I’ve been fascinated by it ever since I first learned about it in a Shakespeare class) – imagine if we did that today. Teachers could reverse roles with students, parents with their kids, husbands with wives (is that possible?), bosses with employees (yeah!).
I encourage you to be as wild and wacky as possible and have a good time with this fiction writing exercise. The fantasy and speculative fiction writers out there will probably love this one, but it’s great for all types of writers because it does that thing that makes us tingle – gets our imaginations all fired up and burning as brightly as a Yule log.
Wait, Before You Go
If you know about any other interesting holiday traditions, please share them in the comments. It’s always riveting to learn about different customs and cultures, and also great fodder for fiction writing exercises!
Happy Holidays!
Happy Day!
Keep Writing!
If you have any fiction writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.
Notebook Day
Everyday, for a year, the male lovers of Ohio will write a letter to their special someone. One the 366th day of the following year, the batch will be opened by the lovely lady in the relationship. If the 366th day doesn’t fall on a rainy day, then the next availible rainy day will suffice.
Everyone will have to meet at the lake early in the morning. A two-person boat trip through a lake of ducks will ensue. Walt Whitman poetry may or may not be read. The boat trip will last until the rain picks up and then the lovers are to meet on the dock for embrace. Small fight shall ensue, but quickly lead back to the local Windsor Plantation for extremely hot sex (optional).
Next morning, ladies will have to go back to their husbands and entire letter-writing process will progress again.
Clothing: Men ~ white shirts, khakis, full beard. Women ~ Blue dresses and hair pins.
Dances: Ups and downs, in between the sheets.
Food: Beer and Lobster
Magical Characters: Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams may show up (note: only if they’re dating at the time of the event. they have an on/off relationship)
Dates: 366th day should fall somewhere in the Summer
Shane Shearers last blog post..I’m Cured Blog
Shane, this is wonderful! It’s like Valentine’s Day on steroids, heheh! Plus you said two magic words: Ryan Gosling. Ah, he’s such a good actor. I bet you could write a whole novel or at least a short story from this.
I’m going to have to sleep on that made up holiday so I can think of something I’d like to celebrate.
But Saturnalia? Wow! I need to tell my parents about that one. I’m definately going to look into that one some more. After the sleep of course.
And every wee child knows how the reindeer fly. They ate magic corn that a mean wizard (who turned good and had to learn how to walk since apparently he teleported everywhere he went or just stood in the same place hatin’ on everyone that came by his area) gave to them one night to help Kris Kringle and his family escape from… I forget where. And Mrs. Claus’ first name is Jessica. All of this is from the Rankin-Bass special of course. It’s a classic to the holiday canon. But I love how you broke down each holiday… and it indeed sounds rather crazy the things we do. We have a fake tree though, but still, who puts up fur/pine trees in their house with tiny light bulbs and dangly thing only to throw toasters and DVD players under it, just to take it down weeks later? Sigh.
One thing you left out (or I didn’t read) was a feast. Feasting is joyous with loved ones, friends and family, even the ones you don’t like.
But really, I need to go to sleep now.
t.sterlings last blog post..fripodding trailer trash 2
Yep, Saturnalia is super weird. Can you imagine? If you want to see an example, you can watch “Taming of the Shrew” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It’s an old film and Shakespeare play, and it’s really wonderful. There’s a scene in it that depicts a Saturnalia festival. That’s actually how I first learned about it! I never heard about the magic corn and the flying reindeer, that’s pretty cool. Oh yes, the feasts are absolutely necessary! Thanks for adding that.
Every April 23rd, people all across Canada and the United States perform a ritual for anyone they know who has died within the past year (if nobody they know has died (the lucky bastards), then they are not allowed to take part). First, they must sing a song for their dead loved one. It may be either a song that they wrote or a song that reminds them of the person they are mourning. This song must be sung on or around the person’s grave at exactly twelve o’clock noon. Since many people will probably be grieving for the same person at once, there will probably be a variety of songs sung by numerous mourners at the same time. This is to show the person how much they were loved.
The next thing that is expected is for anybody present to cut a lock of their own hair and leave it on the grave. If somebody doesn’t have hair, then a toenail will do. This part of the ritual represents sacrifice. It is to show the dead that people are willing to give up a part of themselves in honour of them.
The last part of the ritual is to have a tattoo of the person’s name placed somewhere on one’s body. This shows the dead how much they are missed and that they will never be forgotten. When the person who had their name tattooed dies, then someone else will tattoo their name, and so forth. This shows the connection between all people.
Oops, I forgot to mention. If more than one person has died, you are expected to do this for the first person who died first. The next day, you will perform this ritual at noon for the second person who died, and so on and so forth.
Well, it’s not exactly a holliday, but as close as my grieving, sleepy brain could come.
I guess it’s not exactly a holiday but it works for this exercise. The more you use your imagination and make it your own, the better
Pixiewing, That’s an awesome holiday you made up! I always feel like in our culture, we don’t have enough rituals or rites for honoring the dead. I mean, after the wake/funeral, we don’t really have anything official. In some traditional Pagan cultures, the dead are celebrated on All Hallow’s Eve or Samhain (Halloween) by setting out a plate for them at mealtime. I think that’s a pretty cool tradition.
I almost reinvented Boxing Day until I read what Boxing Day was all about… My holiday was going to be Closet Day, which takes place on December 20th, when everyone would clean out their closets of clothes they no longer wear and donate the ones in GOOD CONDITION to the less fortunate to shelters. So on Christmas Day, homeless shelters, orphanages, etc, would have clothes that had been sorted by size and gender, wrapped and given to people who were there. BUT Boxing Day sounded too close, and that’s the day after Christmas (in other countries anyway).
However, I recently read about a new holiday called Pool Day that they are trying to pass as a national holiday. It was first started by a man in Nebraska around August of 1889. Since it was so hot, he needed a break and decided to stay home in his pool. This was a small town and his employer left the factory he managed to find him at his home in his pool. He eventually was fired for this action and it didn’t sit well with his former co-workers. Labor laws weren’t in place at this time yet either, so holidays were scarce as well as anyone taking vacations if they could afford them. Anyway, each year, a few of his co-workers would protest his termination by not showing up to work. They too were fired and tradition died out rather quickly with most people since times were hard enough as it was. Anyway, some people were stil lable to get away with and began calling it the Holiday Day, when the employees would take a day off in August just to stay home, or hop in a pool somewhere.
As time passed, this day of relaxation stayed “underground” if you will, since congress passed Labor Day for the very reason of giving paid workers a day off. Many were grateful for that, but some still held on to celebrating what slowly came back to being called Pool Day. Some decided to give it an official time of the month, the last Friday in August. This coincides with many people’s vacations, either that is the last day, or the first. The few that are aware of Pool Day will deliberately not show up on that day in memory of what Pool Day is all about.
These same people have also started customs of throwing pool parties either at someone’s house or a community park that local companies sometimes sponsor, depending on the location. Due to semi-”sports” like poker, some have started to include pool tables in these times, and bring them outside by the pool to play. Finger foods and cake is usually served, like a cookout in the backyard.
Some politicians celebrate Pool Day, our current president included. But like I said, there are talks of this day becoming a national holiday for the past 10 years, and it’s possibly 2009 might see it for the first time since our new president-elect celebrated it for the first time last year.
t.sterlings last blog post..how i can’t wait to not leave the house
Wow, that’s such a detailed, in-depth response that I’m wondering if Pool Day is real? I Googled it and didn’t see anything similar to what you’ve described. In any case, Pool Day sounds like a lot of fun
Maybe I paraphrased Wikipedia?
So I lied.
)
I guess I could also say “made ya look!”
But hey, you said make up a holiday with it’s own history and all.
t.sterlings last blog post..how i can’t wait to not leave the house
Very clever! You pulled a fast one but it was creative and super writerly. Nice job.
We could try STFU Day!
Basically, if you haven’t already guessed, we all cease to speak for an entire day and the impending silence seperate the weak-willed from the strong-willed.
If a person cannot speak for a single day then they are to be deemed the nervous type: unable to control their impulses. If you are capable of silence; you’ll find comfort in a book.
No, you may not watch movies or television. The point is to shroud the entire area celebrating this holiday in deafening silence. To not say anything but to think everything. Communication will have to be on paper or makeshift sign language, if you must communicate at all.
This holiday should give people a chance to calm their anxieties and delve deeper into their own mind. Rather than blurting out throwaway answers to small talk or pretentious musings, a person should be able to realize what they truly think and how they actually feel about whatever it is they are encountering this quiet day.
Hopefully, this holiday will enlighten the majority of the people partaking in it. Those who don’t partake, or who do not manage to get through the entire day without cracking will lose one paycheck. It is our hope that the missing paycheck will cause a large enough stir that the person willfully opts to take it easy and relax in the calmness of not speaking at every nervous impulse. To not worry. To cease anxiety. To relax.
There is not historical reason as to why we should celebrate this. Then again, there was a beginning for everything. So, let this year be the first chapter in the long book of yearly silence!
Shane Shearers last blog post..To Live Blog
A holiday for enlightenment – I like that a lot! I think I’ve even figured out what STFU stands for
This reminds me… There was an episode of South Park explaining why Easter bunnies would even have anything to do with Jesus. It inspired me to make a video about why trick or treat has anything to do with Halloween: http://www.puppetkaos.com/2007/10/episode-11-the-truth-behind-halloween/
To summarize it: trick or treat and bobbing for apples are both invented by tooth fairies. They are in shortage of teeth, so they invented activities that are damaging to people’s teeth to make them fall of sooner. And they picked Halloween because this is the time of the year during which the power of the magical creatures are the strongest so they can harvest faster.
Kelvin Kaos last blog post..Ugly Muppet Toy Pageant 2008
I love the idea of the tooth fairy inventing trick or treating so she can collect more teeth. That’s a good one! Not sure about apples though because I think apples are actually good for your teeth. I remember learning in grammar school that if you can’t brush your teeth after lunch, you should eat an apple. Weird? Yes. True? I don’t know. Thanks for sharing your video!