Christmas is a magical time of year. A time that engages all five senses in their entirety.
Your five senses:
Sight Hearing Touch Taste Smell
When you read each of those words, and think of this season, what ideas come to your mind?
I’m going to name just a few, and I think that you can name so much more.
Sight: the perfectly decorated tree, snow falling from the sky, Christmas lights twinkling on houses.
Hearing: Michael Bublé singing Let it Snow, Nat King Cole singing Joy to the World, all the songs from The Nutcracker Ballet
Touch: your child’s or grandchild’s hand placed softly in yours, a soft fluffy blanket draped over your lap, ribbon sliding through your fingers as you wrap presents.
Taste: Gingerbread, Christmas Cookies with frosting, eggnog with a smidgen of dark rum and cognac (because that’s the only way I’ll even think of drinking eggnog)
Smell: Cinnamon-scented pinecones, evergreen trees, freshly baked cookies
Now it’s your turn.
This week’s writing prompt: Describe the stereotypical scene of Christmas. Using all five senses, describe what is happening in the scene. It can be a scene where a lot happens, or you can describe a stagnant scene as if the narrator is describing a picture. Make this your own. Whatever comes to your mind, is correct.
The scene I am looking at right now includes:
· Sight: My tree is gorgeous this year. I watched a YouTube channel that taught me how to decorate with ribbons. It looks like something you would see in a department store window.
· Hearing: My dog, Cooper, is eating his dinner. Crunch, crunch, crunch. But I’m also listening to Christmas music. Michael Bublé, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby. The best of the best.
· Touch: The keys on my keyboard are soft and the perfect size for my fingers.
· Taste: I just had a Hot Buttered Rum at McMenamins on the Columbia River. Yup, that was yummy. Cinnamony and with the perfect ratio of ingredients.
· Smell: To be honest, the smell in our home isn’t fantastic. I wish it was the perfect combination of cinnamon and evergreen, but it’s not. Our garbage disposal, dishwasher, or something inside that system has broken. The mashed-up food particles/yucky water seeped into our kitchen floor and caused an odor that I can’t describe. (It also ruined our flooring, but that’s a subject for another post.)
So now I will take those notes and write this scene. Go ahead and give it a go! Make your list of notes and create your own scene. You can then take it further to write a short story.
Have fun!
