It’s hard to believe we are smack in the middle of December already. Where does the time go? One event that many kidlit authors look forward to this month is author Susanna Leonard Hill’s annual Holiday Writing Contest. What makes Hill’s contest so much fun, and challenging is that each year we are given a prompt to develop our stories around and our word limit cannot exceed 250. Those of you out there who think writing children’s books is easy, don’t know the half of it. There are many rules to follow in developing books for young readers and conveying an entertaining tale in a handful of words that show more than tell can be exceedingly difficult.
This year’s contest theme is countdowns. Contest participants are to write a holiday story in 250 words or less with some sort of a countdown, central to the story. And there have been so many creative takes on this challenge. If you’d like to read the entries or join in the fun you can check out the entries on Hill’s blog: https://susannahill.com/blog/
I’ve thrown my hat in the ring and am sharing my story here. It was inspired by my memories of life with a very special cat named Ernie, many long Christmases ago.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Mittens’ First Christmas
There once was a little black furball with snow-white paws.
Mittens was her name, and mischief was her game.
December had arrived and Mittens hid, watching as her family prepared for Christmas.
Ben hung one sprig of mistletoe in the hallway.
Mom polished two golden angels in the dining room.
Maya added three wisemen to the manager.
The mailman delivered four festive cards.
Tonya tied five beautiful bows to packages.
Grandma baked six sugar cookies for Santa’s plate.
Sylvie taped seven shimmery stars to the refrigerator.
Amos arranged eight candy canes in a jar.
Dad draped nine greenery garlands over the windows.
And Grandpa tossed ten rows of tinsel onto the tree.
For weeks Mittens carefully tiptoed and sniffed around the decorations and considered climbing the twinkling tree.
At last, Christmas Eve arrived. Everyone placed gifts beneath the tree, including one for Mittens.
While everyone slept, Mittens’ nose began to twitch. Her package smelled divine!
She frenziedly ripped into the package. Aha– a tiny felt mouse!
Mittens pummeled, licked, and chomped it until suddenly, the room whirled, her eyes swirled and
BA-ZZING… Mittens went WILD!
Later, everyone awoke to open their gifts. Imagine their surprise finding:
Ten trails of tinsel
Nine lopsided garlands
Eight crushed candy canes
Seven scattered stars
Six crumbled cookies
Five unraveled bows
Four crinkled cards
Three missing wisemen
Two fallen angels
One mangled mistletoe
And Mittens in the Christmas tree!
That was the year Mittens’ family learned you should never give kittens catnip for Christmas.
Little Seeds Read 