Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 23:27

IF there is any team that most represents

 the dad.

Santa Claus is in the Living Room, written by Santiago Roncagliolo

 

Theme or Short Introduction

Memoir of living in a screwed up broken family. 

Intended Audience

Adult

Length

Short story.

Memorable Quote

The new boyfriend treated me well and made Mom laugh. On the other hand, Dad . . . well, he kept on being Dad. He went along promising me that one day he’d get back with my mother and from time to time made tender gestures – like bringing her flowers or giving her a kitten. Without fail, those gestures backfired: Mom would find out he’d stolen the flowers from the neighbor's garden. Or she’d remind him – at the top of her lungs as usual – that I was allergic to cats.

Feedback Requested

I hope to keep Tending Turnips short and simple and easy for readers to find good short-stories.  I think having headings will enable the readers to find the story with more ease. Let me know if this is helpful, thanks Gregory D. Rothbard 

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 11:27

Sometimes the greatest surprises are awaiting for us in our technologically enhanced dreams.  Here is such a story: Spider by Duncan Shields.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 9:27

Hansel and  Gretal were forced into the deep dark wood, where they meet a witch who brings them to a wonderful gingerbread house; only to find evil in the most pleasant of Gingerbread Houses. 

But what of the witch?  She is described as a heinous specimen, for which had no right in doing those evils so described.  But, didn't she have a right to these castaways?  Didn't she feed them, in a time of famine? House them from the evil black forest? So were they hers to eat?  Wink. Wink. Nod. Nod.

So what does this have to do with Christmas?

First, I have noticed some awesome looking gingerbread houses for sell at our local Publix Grocery Store.  

Second, during this time and season, there are plenty of young children who's parents have abandoned them to the wiles of the world.   This year we must think of them when we are having a grand time with our family.  We must also be thankful for the times we get to spend with our family, and the gifts we lovingly can give to each other.

Innagural Winter Short Stories Festival 8:27

Father Frost a Russian Fairy Tale:
Fairy Tales are dark things.  They tell us of a subteranean darkness.  This story is similar to the little match girl, in that it shows the need to protect youth from the adult mean world.

Deserted by her father, the poor girl sat down under a fir-tree at the edge of the forest and began to weep silently. Suddenly she heard a faint sound: it was King Frost springing from tree to tree, and cracking his fingers as he went. At length he reached the fir-tree beneath which she was sitting, and with a crisp crackling sound he alighted beside her, and looked at her lovely face.

I was listening to the Schnitt-Show yesterday, and he was talking about a teacher who told her elementary class that Santa was not real.   This is not her job.  Her job is to allow the children to be formed by their parents, and allow these parents to celebrate the miracle of St. Nick.  A teacher should protect her students from the cynical adult world.  The only cure from the icing of ones heart is to embrace the myth.  The Father Frost story ends with a warning about what happens when adults keep the warmth of home away from their children.

"At that moment the door flew open, and she rushed out to meet her daughter, and as she took her frozen body in her arms she too was chilled to death."

Innagural Winter Short Stories Festival 7:27

The Christmas Gift that Came to Rupert by Brette Harte

Little drummer boy,
beats on his drum, announcing the
arrival of Christmas.

Innagural Winter Short Stories Festival 5:27

Our Lady's Juggler is another story about the gifts we give to others.

Unfortunately, this is not a sound recording yet, but hopefully this will change as this is a public domain story, so here it is in its written form. 

Innagural Winter Short Stories Festival 3:27

The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen is a story of what it means to be young and to yearn to be taller, greater, and statelier.   A lonely tree compares his boughs to others and finds them lacking.   But is the tree really lacking anything this Christmas season?  The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson.

Innaguarl Winter Short Stories Festival 2:27

Who would want to kidnap Santa Clause?  Will the old demons of wanton behavior be able to upset the kids on Christmas?  Will the Spirit of Christmas prevail, find out in the Kidnapped Santa Clause by L. Frank Baum.  L. Frank Baum "The Kidnapped Santa Clause"

Innaguarl Christmas Short Stories Festival 1:27

We begin the Christmas Short Story Festival Year One 2011, with the master of the Christmas stories, Charles Dickens: The Haunted House by Charles Dickens.(Listen to on Libri Vox)

Summary

The most haunted house is haunted most by our past experiences.  Or do ghosts really haunt the house?  This question is answered in the story, The Haunted House.  A remembrance of friends and family together again.
Not included on the Libri Vox recording was the second part of The Haunted House by Charles Dickens, titled The Ghost in Master B.'s Room.  The first part dealt with the outer ghosts that may haunt us this Christmas; the second part deals with the inner parts that may haunt us during the holiday, that we are the thing that is to be afraid, that we are in care of a skeleton as a mortal companion.

Deli Clerk Has Work To Do

The customer yelled at the Deli Clerk, "You suck, you have no personality...at all."
She lit the air with her anger.
The deli clerk was trying his best, but today was not a good day. 

"There are days your best isn't close to being good enough."

Where did this comment originate? Why did it fall on the clerk?  Why this moment and not the next.  The customer had built up to this moment; she awaited a moment when she would be able to tell someone off.

The tension of the day had mounted, bill collectors, unsatisfied customers, angry bosses, annoying coworkers, boredom, her kid's Christmas wishes hanging in balance, all had boiled up to this moment in the grocery store.

And now she had her moment.
She did not hesitate.
She aimed and fired.
The flare of angered synapses hung in mid air.
Pow!
The clerk stood stun and look back with a filthy grin, and a deadened look.  Mam, you can feel anyway you like but you can't stop me from helping you. Bring it on.  I got a job to do.