Hallmark-Christmas-Inspired Flash Fiction
Trust me, this will be amusing, if not refreshing...
I know, I know. Most of us love to hate and hate to love— or just simply hate, albeit with a smirk— those corny Hallmark Christmas movies. They’re kitschy and make us roll our eyes. Every. Single. Time. And they only seem to multiply each year, as there are now hundreds of them, all with the more-or-less identical basic plot.
The plot? Fleeing from corporate America/big-city life, a youngish woman moves to a small town with a fictional name, encounters some sort of holiday-oriented challenge (e.g. saving the gingerbread cookie bakeoff, hosting the annual holiday festival, resurrecting some sort of town treasured-yet-neglected holiday tradition or establishment) she is able to meet with a bit of seasonal magic (e.g. Santa’s help, holiday spirit, time travel), ultimately falling in love with the local artisan or towny (usually a Christmas tree farmer or business owner) once she learns to appreciate and adopt the holiday spirit.
Yet it’s highly unlikely these movies will cease to exist anytime soon because people simply love consuming cozy seasonal ambiances full of romance, sugary sweets, over-the-top decorations, repaired family bonds, and happy endings this time of year— especially when they’re predictable.
Yes, clichés and tropes can be annoying, but there’s also a reason we humans have created and continue to exploit them, particularly during the holidays, isn’t there? Probably because many of us appreciate the comfortable predictability such holiday clichés and tropes bring after another hard year toiling away at work and life in general?
I’ll probably write a post about the power and necessity of clichés and tropes one day. For now, however, suffice it to say that most humans (namely, Hallmark Christmas movie consumers) probably just enjoy feeling like all their neighbors are friendly, that grinchy people will always pay their dues, and that their loved ones will inevitably support their wishes and talents. All while they follow their undervalued dreams to own a Christmas tree ornament stand as they find true love underneath the mistletoe. Within the span of a week or two.
And why shouldn’t they? Who doesn’t want to be comforted this time of year, even if it’s all make believe? I mean, isn’t the magic of the season centered around its unbelievability and predictability?
Now, keeping all that in mind, I wonder whether writing Hallmark Christmas inspired flash fiction and story blurbs will make me feel different somehow… lighter or happier maybe? More spiritual or generous?
Laugh and mock all you want at this exercise, because I’ll still believe that what we read and write impacts and influences our moods in astounding and mysterious ways. So I figure, why not take a few minutes to write a bit of corny Christmas flash fiction, or story blurbs for some flash fiction? What do I have to lose?
Don’t forget to leave a comment with the Hallmark-Christmas-inspired flash fiction you would add to the list of excerpts and blurbs below. And feel free to share any writing this list may inspire.
Great Aunt Ethel’s fudge shop is facing foreclosure, forcing Amber to quit her corporate job and race back home to help save it, just in time to fulfil all the town’s holiday orders. But will Amber falter in her determination to save the beloved fudge shop when she learns Shane, the man who broke her heart over a decade ago, is its new landlord?
After Penelope is gifted a magical ornament from a mysterious elf at a busy holiday market stand in the bustling city the day before Christmas Eve, she is thrown five years into the past, where she is faced once again with the decision to stay or leave her small hometown, Christmasville. Will she make the same choice she made all those years ago before the clock strikes midnight, or will she follow her heart instead?
When overworked New York marketing exec Carol Winters returns to her snowy hometown to help save her family’s struggling Christmas tree farm, she clashes with Evan, the stubborn but warmhearted tree farmer who took over after her father retired. As they race to prepare for the town’s beloved Holiday Lights Festival, magical snowfall and a mysterious Santa-like stranger push them toward realizing that sometimes the biggest career move is choosing what, and who, truly matters.
Baker Lena Park needs a partner for the annual Gingerbread Showdown, but her ex bailed at the last minute. Enter Max, her childhood friend and the town’s shy carpenter, who offers to help if she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend for his family’s holiday reunion. Their fake romance becomes complicated as flour flies, sparks ignite, and one accidental snowball fight leaves them wondering if the sweetest recipe of all might be love.
Small-town journalist Harper Lane thinks she’s covering a simple story about a foreign visitor helping with the Starlight Toy Drive. What she doesn’t know is that charming volunteer Alec is actually the crown prince of the tiny European kingdom of Aldovia, hiding his identity to experience a ‘normal Christmas’. When Harper uncovers the truth, a misunderstanding threatens their growing connection, and her career, just as the town’s Christmas Eve Ball approaches.
When acclaimed concert violinist Ellen Hart loses her hearing after a devastating onstage accident, she retreats to the remote mountain town of Elk Ridge, the place she spent childhood Christmases with her late mother. Cut off from the music that defined her life, Ellen spirals into grief until she meets Heath Reynolds, a widowed search-and-rescue pilot still mourning the wife he couldn’t save in a winter storm. As the town prepares for its annual Winter Vigil, a ceremony honoring lost loved ones, Ellen uncovers old letters revealing her mother’s unfinished composition—one written for the people of Elk Ridge. Determined to complete it before the Christmas Eve Vigil, Ellen battles her fear, her silence, and a snowstorm threatening to ground Heath’s rescue team during a missing-child emergency. In confronting their deepest wounds, Ellen and Heath must learn that healing doesn’t always sound like music or look like bravery, sometimes it’s found in the quiet, in the brokenness, and in the courage to hope again. [This one’s a little more serious than the others, but I included it anyway.]
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