It's that time of year... the leaves have fallen, the sky has turned grey and the cold winds of winter are starting to blow. But inside, a fire is crackling in the hearth and a warm cup of cheer sits by our side as we take pen to paper. The elfwriters are hard at work, penning their letters to Santa, and we get to see what happens...

This year's challenge is a hybrid, of sorts. In the past, we have offered intros to be used in some, and had others be completely original by the authors. This year, we offer the best of both. For those who wish to use an intro, we have four letters penned to Santa. (These letters must be used exactly as offered.) For those who wish to write their own, that is an option! But each story must begin with a letter to Santa. These letters can be penned by a member of the team, one of their children, or perhaps it's a letter that the team intercepts---you decide!

For those writing short stories, we have raised the word count limit to 7,000 words. And as always, the intro we provide is not included in the word count.

To begin, simply give your story whatever title you wish followed by your screen name (ie: My Special Wish - flip), place your rating in the description line, and then start your first post with the letter.

The challenge opens for entries on Friday, November 23 and will close at midnight in your time zone on Saturday, January 5. At that point, readers will be able to vote for the best story in the following categories:

Christmas Joy : Best Romance
Christmas Gift : Best Plot Development
Christmas Lights : Best Original Character
Christmas Caper : Best Mystery
Christmas Spirit : Best Use of the Christmas Theme in a Story
Christmas Memories : Best Short Story (under 7000)
Christmas Crackers : Best Comedy
Christmas Angel : Best Novice Writer (no more than three complete stories or scenes on site as of 11/23/07)
Christmas Magic : Best Full-Length Story

Challenge within a challenge:

Best Mistletoe Moment : incorporate a mistletoe scene into your story to be considered for this category!

Best Epiphany : the term epiphany means to reveal.. Develop the growth of a character who achieves a personal Epiphany during the holiday season to be considered for this category. It could be Christmas related like when the Grinch suddenly understood that maybe Christmas wasn’t about presents at all. Or it could be about personal growth like when Jimmy Stewart’s character in “It’s a Wonderful Life” finally realizes how valuable his contributions have been.

A few other guidelines before we begin:

* You may enter this challenge twice but at least one of your stories must fall into the short story category. If you are entering the challenge only once, your story can be any length. The first story must be completely posted before you begin the second story.

* Stories must be standalones and complete, but they can be AU (Alternate Universe) stories or crossovers with other television shows (must have STFBE characters in it though). They may use characters from another story, but must stand entirely on their own, making complete sense to the reader without reference to or reading of the other story. Cliffhanger or "to be continued" endings are not allowed. Should your story spark a sequel at some point in the future, that is fine - but it should not be planned that way.

* These stories should not be posted elsewhere until the challenge has concluded and the voting results have been posted.

Let the challenge begin!

Letter #1

Dear Santa,

Just so you know right up front, I was nowhere near the hayloft when my brother broke his arm and the incident with the runaway lawn mower was grossly over-exaggerated by certain parties. (I could name names, but I won’t in deference to the season.) I’ll admit to the flood in the basement, but there were extenuating circumstances. I won’t bore you with the details, but the matter has been resolved and my depleted college fund is proof of that.

Oh, and I honestly didn’t know that holding the bottom of a coke bottle over a piece of paper on a scorching hot day would really start a fire or I never would have suggested that my brother and his boy scout friends try it. I just wanted to keep them out of my hair for a while. No harm was done – not even a singed hair – though the way my mother carried on you would have thought the whole house burned down, not just the garden shed. It was terribly old and likely a firetrap all on its own even without the aid of said coke bottle and paper anyway.

The whole mice infestation in the basement walls can’t be totally blamed on me either, though there are those who are fond of pointing fingers in my direction. Yes, I did spearhead a humanitarian campaign to rescue those lab mice and of course it was successful, but seeing as it’s winter and cold outside I couldn’t very well let them loose in the snow could I? They’d have frozen to death. So I thought they could camp out in the basement until the weather got warmer. Personally I think hiring an exterminator was a little extreme but it was either that or have Mom walk around on chairs the rest of the winter.

And it was not my fault that the freezer mysteriously got unplugged and nobody noticed until the rotting smell offended my mother’s sensibilities. By then we lost everything – all the homemade frozen (no longer) jam, the cuts of meat from Great-Grandpa’s farm, the Christmas cookie blitz cookies (31 dozen) and…well you get the picture.

Poor Mom, she’s had a rough year – she claims that because of me she has survived flood, fire, famine and pestilence. As you can tell she is a bit overly sensitive this season so I strongly suggest you do not give in to my brother’s pleas for a Newfoundland dog. She would not handle that kind of surprise under the Christmas tree this year.

As for me, I’m easy to please. I’ll be happy with anything so long as it’s not a lump of coal.

Yours with few expectations,



Letter #2

Dear Santa,

So how have you been? How is Mrs. Claus? Is Rudolph okay? My brother said he had a nose job but I hope that’s not true. I like his red nose and you wouldn’t make fun of him, would you Santa, just because he’s different? The song says the other reindeer did – but I’m hoping you put a stop to that. I know what it’s like to be teased and made fun of. Will you tell Rudolph that I love him just the way he is please? I’d write a letter to him myself only I don’t think reindeer read. Do they Santa?

Momma says I shouldn’t be greedy so I’m only going to ask you for one thing and it’s not just for me. It’s for Momma and my brothers as well. One gift for the whole family. That’s not greedy is it?

So what I really want for Christmas this year more than anything else in the world is my Daddy. Can you bring him home for Christmas, Santa?

Yours most hopefully and sincerely…



Letter #3

Room 115
Hillsdale Elementary
Washington, DC

Dear Santa,

This is stupid. Mrs. Bryson is making me write this letter. She says I can say anything I want to as long as I have it in proper form starting with the salutation. I wanted to put: To Whom It May Concern, but she wouldn’t let me. She says when you know the name of the person you are writing to you have to use it. Well, your name may be Santa, but you aren’t a real person. I don’t believe in you! So there!

Now here’s the body of this letter. I am supposed to say something nice about you but since you don’t exist, I’m not going to bother. Next I’m supposed to tell you what I want for Christmas…again…why bother? It’s not like you’d care any more than anyone else does if you did exist (which you don’t) so listing a bunch of stuff would just be stupid.

Now for the conclusion. It’s supposed to summarize the main message in this letter. That’s easy. I can do it in one word. Stupid.

Complimentary close. People always use Sincerely or Yours Truly…but I think I’ll go for

Stupidly,

Jeremy Brown
Mrs. Bryson’s third grade class

Postscript: Mrs. Bryson added this for extra marks. We have to do an acrostic poem of your name. This is mine.

S is for how stupid Christmas is
A is for how awful it is that adults lie to kids about you
N is for how I’m NOT a believer
T is for how terrible Christmas makes me feel
A is for absolutely nothing

Put them all together and what does it spell? Like I said…stupid.



Letter #4

Dear Santa,

Roses are red
Violets are blue
It’s no secret that
I love you know who.

Sigh...as if it’s doing me any good. Why should it be so hard to find a man – the happily ever after kind? The type who likes children and dogs and a woman with a sense of humor? Well, I guess he wasn’t hard to find, just difficult to catch. Perhaps Mrs. Claus might have some advice?

Don’t mind me, I’m not really asking for anything, just humoring my niece who insisted I write you something from the heart.

Happy holidays,

Tina,

Can we use more than one of the letters in our story?

This is going to be so much fun!

Glad you think this challenge is going to be fun! You may use only one of our letters as your intro, however you can make up as many of your own letters as you like!


kav