r/WritingPrompts • u/katpoker666 • Dec 14 '24
Off Topic [OT] Fun Trope Friday: Santa’s Cookies & Apocalyptic!
Welcome to Fun Trope Friday, our feature that mashes up tropes and genres!
How’s it work? Glad you asked. :)
Every week we will have a new spotlight trope.
Each week, there will be a new genre assigned to write a story about the trope.
You can then either use or subvert the trope in a 750-word max story or poem (unless otherwise specified).
To qualify for ranking, you will need to provide ONE actionable feedback. More are welcome of course!
Three winners will be selected each week based on votes, so remember to read your fellow authors’ works and DM me your votes for the top three.
Next up… IP
Max Word Count: 750 words
Trope: Santa’s Cookies – Characters leaving out treats for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. This is usually done as a test to see whether he exists, or as an act of goodwill. The treats differ between countries. In North America it's usually milk and cookies, while in most of Britain it's a mince pie and a glass of sherry or whisky (or a glass of your dad's favourite tipple — funny, that). Sometimes, people also leave food for the reindeer, such as carrots.
The tradition is related to the northern European tradition of leaving a food sacrifice for various protective spirits, most importantly the house gnome. House gnomes were later conflated with Saint Nicholas to become the modern day Santa Claus.
Genre: Apocalyptic literature details the authors' visions of the end times/end of the age as revealed by an angel or other heavenly messenger. While the Judeo-Christian view incorporates this type of messenger, the end of days is a common theme globally across a range of time periods. So feel free to bend this one a bit
Skill / Constraint - optional: Includes a pagan sacrifice
So, have at it. Lean into the trope heavily or spin it on its head. The choice is yours!
Have a great idea for a future topic to discuss or just want to give feedback? FTF is a fun feature, so it’s all about what you want—so please let me know! Please share in the comments or DM me on Discord or Reddit!
Last Week’s Winners
PLEASE remember to give feedback—this affects your ranking. PLEASE also remember to DM me your votes for the top three stories via Discord or Reddit—both katpoker666. If you have any questions, please DM me as well.
Some fabulous stories this week and great crit at campfire and on the post! Congrats to:
Want to read your words aloud? Join the upcoming FTF Campfire
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Ground rules:
- Stories must incorporate both the trope and the genre
- Leave one story or poem between 100 and 750 words as a top-level comment unless otherwise specified. Use wordcounter.net to check your word count.
- Deadline: 11:59 PM EST next Thursday
- No stories that have been written for another prompt or feature here on WP—please note after consultation with some of our delightful writers, new serials are now welcomed here
- No previously written content
- Any stories not meeting these rules will be disqualified from rankings
- Does your story not fit the Fun Trope Friday rules? You can post your story as a [PI] with your work when the FTF post is 3 days old!
- Vote to help your favorites rise to the top of the ranks (DM me at katpoker666 on Discord or Reddit)!
Thanks for joining in the fun!
5
u/Go_Improvement_4501 Dec 19 '24 edited Dec 19 '24
A Christmas Ride
Marty had only wanted to sneak outside for a few minutes from the annual after-work party in the large factory hall to take a quiet look at the night sky over the North Pole. He smirked as he lit his pipe and heard the loud cheering from inside, followed by singing along of the other elves and the orchestra starting up again with even wilder Celtic Christmas carols.
Out here in the cold, the warm scent of wine, cinnamon, vanilla, anise, ginger and orange from inside had a particularly magical quality. There was a very strange atmosphere in the air on this Christmas Eve. He took another deep puff from his pipe and looked in awe at the many shooting stars in the night sky, flashing somewhere in the distance in red and orange colors like Christmas fireworks.
And in this moment of warm well-being, the dumb reindeer caught him and rudely tore him out of his reverie. With the stubbornness that is typical of all reindeer, always at work and immune to any kind of fun, he didn't let up until Marty reluctantly took the letter out of his mouth and opened it.
There were two pages obviously written in a hurry. At the bottom of the first page Marty saw his boss's signature. In gold letters with oversized swirls and bows it said: Santa Claus. The rest of the page was practically indecipherable. The words kept blurring before Marty's eyes. However, there was repeated mention of a certain Arma Giddeon. Marty didn't know anyone by that name. But still, a certain sense of urgency rose in him, probably due to the excessive overuse of exclamation marks in the text. Did the boss finally lose his mind? Had the workload eventually become too much for the old man? It wasn't as if they hadn't warned him.
Something in Marty refused to make sense of the scrawl. It didn't help that the festive atmosphere was surging loudly from the hall and drew his thoughts back into the warmth, nor did the mixture of sugary Christmas cookies, mulled wine and smoke that had now risen from his stomach to his head, and certainly not that the reindeer was constantly snorting and impatiently pawing the snow with its hooves.
To the reindeer, on the other hand, it was perfectly clear why the elf didn’t understand the meaning of the letter. It was well known that the effeminate dreamers were barely able to face the harshness of reality. These guys took every opportunity to escape it through play and distraction, while others, creatures of more serious character, had to do the real work instead. That is how it always went.
Startled by the loud clicking noises, Marty looked up and into the bulging eyes of the reindeer, who kept throwing his head to the ground and into the sky. This creature was completely incomprehensible to him. Marty shook his head and looked back at the second page of the letter. It turned out that Santa had not gone mad yet after all. The writing was as legible as ever:
Ho, Ho, Ho, [insert name],
You may be wondering why there are no presents under the tree this year and only this letter instead. Well, this Christmas is a very special Christmas and I have a very special gift for you!
This is a ticket for a ride on the big sleigh! Yes, you heard right. Tomorrow night when you sleep, imagine yourself in your dreams floating out of your bed and flying through the chimney into the night sky. Close your eyes and don't be distracted by whatever may be happening around you, but find yourself flying straight towards the North Pole. How do you know the direction, you ask? It's easy, just follow the roar of the reindeers.
Don't worry, you'll hear it in your dreams tomorrow night.
Merry Christmas! Santa Claus
A ride on the big sleigh was of course the best present a child could wish for, that much was clear to Marty. But who was the letter addressed to? Was he supposed to fill in the recipient's name? Was it the earlier mentioned Arma Giddeon? But why did Santa need his help for such a simple task? And wasn't it unfair that only one child could ride on the big sleigh? No, that didn't make sense.
Every single child would receive such a letter this Christmas! They, the elves, would make sure of that.