HOLIDAY WRITING

by Deborah Elliott-Upton

While vacationing in Ft. Lauderdale one year with my sister and brother-in-law, my husband and I found ourselves at an Oktoberfest celebration. We’d never heard of the event, which was a shame, because it was a lot of fun. Probably the most fun was when my sister – sneaky girl that she is – told the bandleader that I absolutely loved to do the Lindy and they should ask me to join their dance troupe who was performing for the gathered crowd. The band did as she asked and when the dance leader dressed in lederhosen came to me, I smiled, shook my head and pointed to my sister, “She’s the one who does the Lindy,” I said. He quickly scooped her up and away they went. My husband – being the good-looking one in this couple – was also chosen by a lovely lady who twirled him into the mix. Being good sports, our spouses danced the best they could while my brother-in-law and I laughed so hard our sides hurt. The moral of this story: Don’t try to outfox a foxy lady, especially when she’s your oldest sister and knows what mischief you are apt to create. ?

Placing holidays within a short story is either very good or very bad. The good thing is everyone relates to a holiday setting – even if it is one you haven’t personally witnessed or been involved in celebrating. I’d not encountered an Oktoberfest, but if a writer took the reader to one, I’m sure we would come away from the read with a new perspective. If the writer is very good, we would practically hear the brass bands, smell the sausages and see the people in their colorful costumes.

When Americans read a story set at Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July, we should also welcome memories of scents, sounds and visual images invading our thoughts. The writer should make the occasion just as familiar to a worldwide audience, making them feel at home in the setting.

Stories written for a specific holiday vie for a one-time-a-year spot in a magazine. A story that takes place on New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, or Halloween probably faces stiffer competition than a non-holiday story. Yet, it is tales of A Christmas Carol, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The Thanksgiving Surprise, Nancy Drew Notebooks #9 that we remember when other stories evade our memory.

Writing for a specific holiday isn’t as easy as one might think. As I mentioned in an earlier post, trying to summon up blizzard conditions mentally when the temperatures are soaring outside is difficult. I cranked up the air conditioner while writing my Christmas-time submission for The Gift of Murder. Others probably thought I was turning my summer home (which is also my winter, spring and fall home) into a version of the North Pole. And I was, in a manner of speaking. I pictured my escaped convict traveling through snow drifts, hitchhiking with a frostbitten thumb. I hope when reading my holiday crime story, “An Unexpected Gift,” the reader gets a sense of the chill.

When I watch my favorite movie – which just happens to be a holiday movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life,” I remember my family cuddled together on Christmas Eve beneath Grandma’s quilt, the one with all the colorful prints that remind me of a kaleidoscope. Sipping steaming mugs of hot cocoa with frothy half-melted marshmallows crusting the rim, we kids were anxious for tomorrow morning to come when we could open the presents beneath the tree.

The first memory I have of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was the Walt Disney animated version. My sisters and I – this was before our baby brother was born – sat Indian-style on the carpet in front of the TV. Mom kept hushing us when we’d scream at the sight of the Headless Horseman. Dad never said a thing, but I remember him smiling because I think he knew it scared Mom a bit, too. He was the only male in the household for quite a few years, so I imagine he didn’t know what to do with his gaggle of girls shrieking when the horseman threw his jack o’lantern head toward Ichabod Crane.

Do you have a favorite holiday short story, novel, movie or song? Are there certain scents that remind you of a holiday? Isn’t a memory nudging your mind just about now?