Merry and Wonderful Writing Prompts For the Egg-Nog and Sugar Cook Laden
Ah, the holiday season is here! Many cities and whole regions are covered in blankets of white, leading many to desire a good old-fashioned sleigh ride with bells and horses hightailing! Other regions will stay warm and tropical but evergreen decorations and holly still abound along with carols and good cheer. Families will soon be gathering again for conglomerations of food, gifts, laughter, and love. Whole communities will do the same, coming together to celebrate even more what is unboundedly good, beautiful, and sacred at the heart of things.
For writers, too, the holidays also bring a special glow. By bringing pen to paper, writers can fully utilize their craft to help spread the merriness and brightness floating in the air. For writing prompts, the sky is the limit with possibilities. However, if anyone may have already felt the egg nog or sugar cookies kick in and bring a bout of writer’s block, let’s explore a few holiday season prompts to help get you started.
Those Fantastical Numinous Beings and Creatures Glowing in the Holiday Allure
Before we get to Santa Claus(or his cultural and spiritual counterparts), let’s not forget the countless other amazing fantastical creatures that skate on the ice of holiday magic. Just Santa’s North Pole is a place of enchantment and transcendent mystery — polar bears, toy factories, and elves that have been working hard since humanity’s dawn.
And then you have Santa Claus(or his numerous counterparts). All of those super-magical powers unmatchable only to the Divine? Let’s get in the sleigh, climb down trees, or stuff down those cookies and milk! The writing possibilities here are overwhelming! Imagine you could just spend the whole season crafting magical stories that could make new bright children’s books or even engage adults at the winter holiday luncheon! Get those stories, poems, and new song lyrics started. Do we even have some analytical essays? Scholars and analysts get ready for titles such as “Exploring the Long-Term Effects of Santa’s Diet: How Could He Really Eat All of Those Cookies?” or “An In-Depth Exploration of the Aerodynamics of Reindeer Flight.”
Those Enchanting Miniature Worlds
The holiday season brings magic and wonders to countless homes, streets, and whole neighborhoods. And it is not just our actual communities that are enamored with magic. Homes, shops, businesses, and community establishments are adorned with miniature homes and communities. You’ve got those model railroad holiday extravaganza sets. There is no shortage of miniature holiday homes and villages. Whole truckloads of sweets are needed to keep up with just a few of those gingerbread houses constructed in countless homes.
What might life be like in those model railroad worlds or whole miniature villages? Could it be possible for one small spark of the Cosmo’s illimitable creative energies to bring those gingerbread walls and gumdrop windowsills to life for just one moment? The inanimate objects bring enough unbounded wonder themselves, and why don't we numinous humans capture just part or parcel of those miniature worlds’ countless stories? Ought our bright and buoyant miniature village become a glowing destination for a far-off royal to make an expected visit? If we have no other discipline but to sneak a few bites from the roof of Gingerbread Manor, this itself is an amazing story if we imagine small gingerbread people cowering in fear of the sweet-eating giant! And what happens when the holiday magic is over and all of those magical worlds find their way to boxes or other undesired locations? Again, our imagination can glimpse the continued life of these fantastical worlds.
Holiday Horror, Gloom, and Resilience
Yes, this is the most wonderful time of the year. Unless, of course, you are “Mr. Grinch” or “Mr. Scrooge.” In truth, there is much more to the dark side of the holidays than “Bah humbug!” The holiday season can bring increased occurrences of mental illness and dark experiences. And here we have the ever-wondrous craft of writing to help lighten the toughest loads.
Why not craft up a not-so-merry story of holiday terror(there are plenty of archetypes to choose from)? You could do a Scream: Holiday Version! What about a reenactment of the holiday grump finding new seasonal joy plus lasting life meaning? Or how about a personal piece to help you board your way through some thick snows of personal angst or pain you may face during the holiday season? Writing can be a key craft to help you capture the season’s spirit of resilience that itself happens to be ever-enduring throughout the year.
Probing the Deeper Questions— Spiritual, Personal, Philosophical
Okay, we will not get very far into the holiday season without pondering those deeper questions. They are floating around in the background of the repetitive music, piles of sweets, and evergreen trims. What is the real meaning of the season? How ought we be trying to live out these ideals and virtues throughout the year?
Those are all amazing mainstream spiritual, moral, and existential themes to consider. But each of us also has our own unique and unconsidered personal or communal themes to consider. Whether we celebrate Christmas, Hannakuh, Kwanza, or numerous other holidays(or just enjoy the winter season’s spiritual energies), how do the holiday experiences and rituals from our own cultural and spiritual viewpoints help us to better connect with what is sacred and numinous at the heart of things this particular season? Are we needing a special religious celebration to help us rekindle our awareness of not even a small part of Divine Love blanketing the whole world? Do particular objects or customs help us to recall the memory of lost loved ones or summon the still-living past? There really is no limit to the meaning we can make out of those deepest questions and how much of our deeper life’s movements we can begin to capture.
So these are just a few of innumerable writing themes that are available during this holiday season. The sky sending down soothing snowfalls is the limit to amazing enchanting holiday writing themes. What ideas or subjects are holiday bells ringing in your imagination’s ears? What unboundedly wondrous riches are you hardly beginning to mine this season?
