Essential Advice for Writing a Christmas-Themed Story

From Charles Dickens’ 1843 classic A Christmas Carol to Terry Pratchett’s ’90s fantasy Hogfather, there is a long and diverse tradition of Christmas stories in British literature – and tackling one yourself is no easy feat if you want to walk in the footsteps of these giants. But never fear; we’ve honed down a practical list of tips for taking on this festive challenge.  
 

• Think Carefully About Genre  
  

Christmas-themed stories don’t just have to be happy-go-lucky, cheerful tales of love and goodwill – and often the best ones aren’t. You could write a Christmas murder mystery, or transplant the holiday into a fantasy world, or even weave in some gory elements of the horror genre. Consider experimenting with the boundaries of genre to create something original and exciting that’s going to keep your reader on the edge of their seat. Some great examples of tales subverting festive expectations are Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Match Girl or Willa Cather’s The Burglar’s Christmas. It might just take breaking the norm to perfect your Christmas tale. 
 

• Lose the Clichés  
  

We know Christmas is a time of tradition and ritual where we see the same clichés resurface year after year, but originality is the prime ingredient for a memorable narrative. You need to invigorate your readers by steering far clear of the predictable and banal; describing the snow like icing sugar or Santa chuckling with his potbelly and reddened cheeks is unfortunately something we have all seen before. Try and find imaginative ways of depicting the winter landscape using unusual and unexpected metaphors – or find a unique take on Santa’s characterisation! Maybe you could re-envision the familiar icon as a cantankerous postman, or even a promiscuous ladies’ man. The possibilities are endless, so have some fun with it. 
 

• Don’t Overdo the Christmas Elements 
  

This one is going to seem a little counterproductive, but bear with us. Good writing is about precision – you don’t need to waste paragraphs and paragraphs describing decorations, snowflakes and how Mariah Carey hits that high note. Don’t worry, we know what a bauble looks like! Overdoing descriptive passages about those Christmas elements can detract from the overall meaning and intent of your story. Instead, you should use those elements as a way of embellishing and framing the central plot and characters of your story – the reader definitely shouldn’t drown in them.  
 

• Question your Christmas Expectations 
  

It can be easy to forget that Christmas traditions vary not just from household to household but also culture to culture. Maybe an exciting way to approach your writing is to do some research into Christmas customs outside of your own bubble, whether that’s your aunt who lives in Lancaster, or looking even further afield to something like Austrian festive rituals. For instance, in Austria the figure of tKrampus is the demonic entity responsible for punishing badly behaved children during the festive period and is often portrayed in Christmas parades donned in terrifying carved masks and, once upon a time, animal skins. This is undoubtedly the perfect foundation for a Christmas horror! Either way, playing with the expectations of what Christmas should entail could be a stimulating way to bring some originality to a festive tale – whether that involves something quite as chilling as Krampus or not.  
 

• What Do Your Characters Think of Christmas? 
  

We’ve certainly all seen the trope of the virulent Scrooge-esque Christmas hater, just as we’ve seen the trope of the dewy-eyed Christmas-obsessed dreamer. These two polarisations of characterisation have been done before time and time again, so let’s switch it up! Try and formulate a complex and layered relationship between your characters and Christmas. Did they lose a close family member around the Christmas period, bringing all those complications of grief and nostalgia? Is Christmastime the only time they get to see a certain person, so it’s a bittersweet sentiment? Or do they have specific obsessions and neuroses attached to Christmas rituals – and why?  
 
E. M. Forster wrote about the distinction between ‘flat’ and ‘round’ characters, the former being one-dimensional stock characters and the latter being multifaceted, fleshed-out characters capable of complexity and contradictions. It’s important to remember that a successful story, regardless of whether it’s festive or not, is reliant on those ‘round’ characters. Nurture them!