Vintage Christmas Short Story Contest

Officially, this contest is now closed, but I've given the green light to a late entry or two. If you still want to enter and need another day or so to finish up, please let me know if you haven't already. For the rest of you, closed! Judging is already in progress, and I hope to announce the results on Christmas Eve.

Entry Gallery

Come on, people! The deadline is TOMORROW and I only have two entries. Let's get the rest in! Please be aware that if they're a bit past the deadline, it won't matter. Just get them done as soon as you can. We don't want this contest to be a flop, now do we?

Halloween is over, and for many of us, that can only mean one thing: time to get excited about Christmas! Let us begin with a few definitions from good old dictionary.com.

vin·tage
[...]
9. representing the high quality of a past time: vintage cars; vintage movies.
10. old-fashioned or obsolete: vintage jokes.
11. being the best of its kind: They praised the play as vintage O'Neill.

(If you don't know what Christmas means, I suggest you look it up yourself.)

The Contest

To put it simply, this contest is open to short prose fiction that fits the theme of Vintage Christmas.

To go into a little more depth, this could mean a number of things. We all know, for example, that nobody did Christmas like the Victorians, so perhaps a little Dickens or Alcott homage is in order. We also know that Christmas is better the younger you are, and any writer who can recapture that magic will surely bring joy to all of us. Then there's the first ever Christmas, told countless times by Hollywood, casts of schoolchildren and, of course, the original Luke and Matthew. We can all call to mind some traditional carols, and visualise a traditional Christmas card: snowmen, robins, candles, holly; presents wrapped in red ribbon; Father Christmas (or your preferred name for him) plus reindeer; a curious kitten batting at a shiny bauble... Old-fasioned Christmases are the best!

Then, of course, there are all the other millions of ideas that you may think of. Please interpret the theme however you see fit. I know that the theme in itself isn't very multi-cultural. Whilst I don't wish to sound paranoid about what this may make some people think of me, I do wish to stress that everyone is welcome, and I'll be glad to see stories exploring other faiths and festivals alongside the Christmas theme.

Rules
This contest is open to prose fiction only. No fanfiction, please (note: for this contest, fanfiction does not include homage to texts which are out of copyright; such entries are acceptable).
Please submit your story to the appropriate gallery, in accordance with dA's submission rules, and then send a link to me via note, making it clear that you are entering my Vintage Christmas Contest.
The deadline for this contest is Monday 17th December, 2012, hopefully to be judged in time for Christmas Eve.
Judges are encouraged to start judging as soon as entries appear in the contest entry gallery, so please make sure your story is quite ready before you enter it.
To help us get the judging done on time, I must ask that your story doesn't trickle too far over 3,000 words.
Finally, don't be anxious and feel that you need to ask me a lot of questions. If you enter with a short story written in English (as per my own limitations), and you can explain (if necessary) how it fits the theme, it will be welcomed into the contest. (That being said, if you do have a question, don't hesitate to ask.)

Judges

ThornyEnglishRose
TheSkaBoss
Lucy-Merriman

Prizes

To claim some of these prizes, you'll have to be comfortable with giving donors your home address. But you know they're not going to do anything untoward with it, I'm sure.

First Place
800 from ThornyEnglishRose.
400 courtesy of thorns, via me.
A copy of Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle, from Lucy-Merriman.
Christmas presents from TheSkaBoss.

Second Place
400 from ThornyEnglishRose.
300 courtesy of thorns, via me.
A copy of Holidays On Ice by David Sedaris, from Lucy-Merriman.
Christmas presents from TheSkaBoss.

Third Place
200 from ThornyEnglishRose.
100 courtesy of thorns, via me.
A copy of The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket and Lisa Brown, from Lucy-Merriman.
Christmas presents from TheSkaBoss.

I currently have a donation pool open, to go towards prizes and judge appreciation. If you'd like to donate, please go to my main page, and know how awesome you are. If you would like to offer anything non-points-based, such as a journal feature, please let me know. Thank you!

Prize pool donors:
kel20
orphicfiddler
Euxiom
SubjugatedSandwich

Finally

As always, please spread the word far and wide about this contest. For any support you have shown or will show - faving, donating, entering, judging, word-spreading etc. - I thank you. Good luck, everyone, and happy holidays!

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