This season, I wanted to offer something different.
Not another checklist.
Not a “write faster” challenge.
Not a shiny, surface-level holiday prompt pack.
Instead, I created a gift for writers who want to slow down, go inward, and write with intention—across any genre, including fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and poetry.
✨ Introducing: 100 Christmas Writing Challenges
These prompts aren’t about forcing joy or recreating postcard holidays.
They’re about:
- memory and time
- grief and healing
- belonging and identity
- love, distance, and silence
- transformation, endings, and becoming
They’re for writers who:
- feel complicated about the holidays
- write through chronic illness, grief, or burnout
- prefer depth over productivity
- want prompts that hold space instead of rushing answers
This collection was designed to meet you where you are, not where tradition says you “should” be.
🌲 What Makes These Writing Challenges Different
Each challenge is intentionally expanded and reflective, inviting you to:
- Write scenes, not snippets
- Explore inner change, not just plot
- Use the same prompt for fiction, essay, memoir, or poetry
- Sit with complexity instead of resolving it too quickly
These aren’t “finish in 10 minutes” prompts.
They’re invitations to:
- linger
- question
- listen
- return to the page gently
You can spend one session or several days with a single challenge.
🖋️ Designed for All Writers & All Genres
Whether you write:
- fantasy, romance, horror, or literary fiction
- personal essays or reflective nonfiction
- poetry, prose poetry, or hybrid work
- journal entries you never plan to share
These challenges are intentionally open-ended, so your voice—not the prompt—leads the way.
Each one can be approached as:
- a scene
- a lyric meditation
- a braided essay
- a journal reflection
- or a single powerful paragraph
There is no “right” outcome—only honest engagement.
❄️ You Don’t Have to Write Happy to Write Meaningfully
One of the quiet truths of December is this:
Not every season of life feels festive—and that doesn’t make your writing less valid.
This gift was created especially for writers who:
- feel pressure to be joyful
- struggle with the holidays
- are carrying grief, fatigue, or change
- want permission to write what’s real
You are allowed to write Christmas as:
- reflective
- unresolved
- soft
- dark
- quiet
- hopeful in small ways
All of it belongs.
🎁 How to Use This Gift
You might:
- choose one challenge a day
- circle the ones that call to you and ignore the rest
- write only a paragraph at a time
- return to the same prompt year after year
- use them as journaling anchors when words feel far away
There’s no deadline.
No completion requirement.
No pressure.
Just a page, a pen, and your voice.
🤍 A Gentle Invitation
If you’ve been feeling disconnected from your writing…
If December feels heavy or complicated…
If you want to create without forcing cheer…
May these prompts meet you with kindness, depth, and room to breathe.
You don’t need to write the Christmas story you think you should write.
You only need to write the one that’s true.
— Sara
Sara’s Writing Sanctuary
Sara's Writing Sanctuary 