Christmas has come and gone but a pun as bad a Litmas will always live on forever in our hearts. Grudgingly. Even those who don't like Christmas are sad to see it go: there's no longer a reason to get away with acting like Scrooge, there are no more men dressed as Santa Claus to assault in the street when they get too close, and there are no more Salvation Army collectors on each corner to drop foreign currency into with a gigantic grin.

Luckily, here's some great reading to ease the transition from Cold-But-Festive, to just plain Cold.



Poetry: Your Holiday Landscape

You were asked to write a fixed form poem that details/expresses your local culture/landscape's traditions during high holidays. ^PoeticWar and ^StJoan judged, and here are your results:

3rd - Christmas Lights by =MaskedVengeance (3 month sub!)


2nd - The Shamas Candle by =WineWriter (1 devWear shirt, or 6 month sub!)


1st - The Student December by *ThornyEnglishRose (1 devWear Hoody, or 1 year sub!)



Prose: Winter Flash

To celebrate the new Flash-Fiction category in the wide wild world of prose, we asked people for Flash-Fiction with a winter theme. ^StJoan and ^GunShyMartyr were responsible for this one:


3rd - Freezing by *BerylAlexandros (1 month sub!)


2nd - The Getaway House by *ThornyEnglishRose (3 month sub!)


1st - melting by ~IfrozenspiritI (1 devWear shirt, or 6 month sub!)



Prose: Christmas Prose

Lastly, a very simple and sweet contest: write a story with a Christmas theme. ^GunShyMartyr wrestled with this one and here's what fought back:


3rd - Old Nick by ~futilitarian (3 month sub!)


2nd - Charlie the Christmas Cat by ~ninja-librarian (1 devWear shirt, or 6 month sub!)


1st - Christmas Eve, 1887 by *Zhinggibiis (1 devWear Hoody, or 1 year sub!)



Cross-Genre Contest: Letters to Santa

The infamous `GeneratingHype also joined the Litmas party with a charming contest that asked for Letters to be written to Mr. Claus. The winning entry winning entry has been announced (Congratulations ~ConcreteSins), but be sure to watch this space for the remaining winners and news article.



So that's it for me, Christmas, and Litmas for another year. I'd like to thank all of the participants who sent in bribes of chocolate and vodka. We didn't allow them to influence our decisions of course (well the vodka may have a little), but we enjoyed them. Thank you to everyone who entered. There were several entries that made some of these decisions very difficult.

Until next year, Merry Litmas.