UPDATE (11/17/24, 4:43 PM AKDT): A handful of changes have been made to the contest announcement. The most important to note is a new rule requiring that any participant have at least ONE story already posted to the wiki, so that there are as few low-quality entries as possible. It should also be noted that a change has been made to the author's note, so if you already have the old note applied to the top of your document, please replace it at your earliest convenience!
Hello, all you creepies and crawlies of the spookiest wiki on the web! Now that Halloween's come and gone and we're smack dab in the middle of November, we from the administrative team are here to give you our sincerest wishes for the happiest of holiday seasons this year (here's hoping you survive another straight month of non-stop Mariah Carey), and ALSO to announce that we have a new contest for all you who love to write! In the spirit of the upcoming Christmas celebration, this year's contest will revolve around none other than the jolly old toymaker himself, Santa Claus!
Though this time around, that's not quite the whole story for this year's challenge. Actually, your main subject for this competition isn't ol' Mr. Claus himself, but rather the various versions of jolly old Saint Nicholas from around the world! (Even when they live and work right next door together at the North Pole.) There's a version to tackle for nearly every country on the planet, and boy, is there no LIMIT of ideas that you'll have at your disposal!
Contest Theme[]
For this contest, you'll be writing a short story about ONE of Santa Claus's international partners from any corner of the globe you so choose. There's a vast number of choices available to you, and I'll list a handful of them here:
- Ded Moroz (Russia), who wears a long and fluffy blue coat and has the powers of ice and winter at his fingertips. He's perhaps best known for having an adopted daughter named Snegurochka, who was originally made of snow before undergoing a Pinocchio-like transformation right before nearly melting in the spring. He's also known for being a trickster, even occasionally freezing people to death because they're jerks. Maybe that's why he was banished into the wilderness during the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution? Hard to say, but at least they seem to have given him back his freedom. I think.
- Père Noël (France), who travels with a donkey named Gui that happily eats the carrots and other such goodies that children leave out for him in shoes set beside their fireplaces. And Mr. Noël is only all too happy to repay their kindness by filling those freshly emptied shoes up with toys, candy, coins, and other things small enough to fit. But he's also followed by a far more malicious figure named Le Père Fouettard, who finds the naughtier youngsters to beat the living mess out of for their transgressions. Père Fouettard will also travel to other European countries, while his somewhat nicer cousin heads down to Cajun Louisiana to travel around in a pirogue led by eight alligators!
- The Befana (Italy), an old and kindly witch who travels around on the 12th day of Christmas (which in layman's terms is January 5th) to greet kids all around the countryside. She was once invited by the three magi to come see the young baby Jesus in his cradle, but she was determined to get her household chores done first. But when she saw the star of God start shining in the sky, she hastily zoomed out her magical broom to find the birthplace, giving presents to kids on the way. She never did find the young savior, though, and now she does that present-giving thing full time. While good kids get lots of nice things, troublemakers get coal, onions, and...burning cinders. Ouch.
- St. Nicholas (various European countries) is that guy that has two assistants, a super cool angel of light that gladly gives presents to good children and the goddamned Krampus himself. I think you guys are creative enough to fill in the rest for that one.
And PLEASE keep in mind that these are only a few out of many possible choices you have available to you! If none of these appeal to you, then use the magic of Google and search through the numerous other options you have 'til you find one you like!
Your job will be to take these characters and put them into original little tales of trouble with appropriately fresh, festive, and absolutely terrifying twists!
Banned Subjects[]
Unfortunately, a couple of Kris Kringle's cheerful old cousins have had to have been restricted from contest usage due to the problems that they pose to the theme and/or the wiki.
- Santa Claus (USA), the jolly old red-suit-wearing elf who's been creepily contorted countless times for a number of horror stories, both great and small. Though he's always a blast to write about and has endless potential for unique tale-telling, for the sake of having some real variety in this contest, he will be barred from usage here. Having Santa as the focus of your story will be an instant disqualification.
- Sinterklaas (The Netherlands), who's not especially unique compared to other versions of the good old Saint Nick save for his riding a white horse and, far more controversially, his now-notorious right-hand-man Zwarte Piet (“Black Pete”), who in the 2020s has become an incredibly divisive figure due to his usage of…let's just say, culturally outdated fashion. And without Piet, this version of Santa just doesn't stand on his own. If you feel like writing a story specifically about a Dutch version of the big guy, please use the generic European version of St. Nick instead.
Judge Panel and Criteria[]
On this particular contest's panel of judges will be myself (of course), the ever-patient and distinctly tasteful, aristocratic, magnanimous, dashing Cornconic (who wrote all those funny words), and the ever-imaginative and supremely talented RedNovaTyrant! For this contest, we'll be judging based on a familiar 40-point five-criterion system that was developed by Cornconic a while back, with the first three criteria being the most important (worth as much as 10 points each) and the last two being the icing on what we hope are some very excellently prepared cakes (each worth up to 5 points).
The criteria that each story will have to meet are as follows:
Execution[]
The number one most important detail by far. While everything else can still prove vital to the quality of a spooky story, this is the one that absolutely makes or breaks it. Some things to consider when working on this aspect:
- Writing believable and well-rounded characters
- Well-described settings that readers can clearly visualize and evoke emotions from
- Investing build-up that leads to a satisfying climax and resolution
If your story is written too hastily or sloppily, then it is almost certain to lack any of these qualities.
Originality[]
In short, avoid these as much as possible. Using the characters provided to you, the story you tell should be as unique and interestingly told as possible, and if you do find yourself using well-worn old tropes and storytelling conventions to build your story upon, then try taking them in fresh new directions and doing things with them that aren't often done!
Use of Theme[]
This one is important because…well, why participate in a St.-Nick-themed contest if your story has little (if anything) to do with St. Nick or any of his various worldwide counterparts? No matter how good the tale you tell is, if it's only tangentially related to the theme at hand, it's unfortunately bound to score very low in this category.
Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar[]
This criterion is rather self-explanatory. Your story should be as well-written and clearly told as you can possibly make it. Be sure to consistently proofread your work as you write it out, as it will fail to score high here if another editor has to swoop to your rescue after it's already been posted. You should also try to avoid using an overabundance of overly fanciful words, for the raison dêtre that an abstruse and involuted lexicon of rhetoric is incredibly difficult for a casual reader (or even a more involved one) to read through without constantly being pulled out of the story.
Syntax[]
This one is a bit more subtle than mere proper spelling and usage of grammar. Your story should be one that someone can sit and read through without having their immersion in the story broken by clunky phrasing, overly long and descriptive paragraphs, and unannounced changes in point of view. Even if your story is told with impeccable English, it won't score high here if the English isn't used properly.
The Rules[]
- All participants must have at least one other story already posted to the wiki in order to qualify. This is to prevent as many no-show contestants and low-effort entries as possible.
- All those who wish to participate MUST comment on this blog post saying that they would like to claim a spot. The first 25 people to do so will be added to the registry list for this contest.
- All entries must at least loosely adhere to the theme of the contest. Any entries that have nothing at all to do with the contest will immediately be disqualified.
- All entries must be posted on the Creepypasta Wiki. If you try to enter in a story posted on Google Docs, Wattpad, Pastebin, Quotev, or elsewhere, it will not be counted.
- All entries must meet Quality Standards.
- All entries must be entirely original and exclusively written for the contest. Any works submitted found to have been written prior to said contest will be disqualified.
- All entries (excluding poems) must have a word count from anywhere between 500 words to 10,000 words in all.
And as always, please feel free to drop by the Writers' Workshop to get early critique on your story when needed!
Story Formatting Guidelines[]
A quick shout-out to Cornconic for letting me borrow his words here!
As well as all the relevant categories (including the contest category), entries must include an author's note indicating that the story is for the contest. This can be achieved by copy-pasting the following template at the very top of the page:
{{AN|This is my entry for [[User:Postuhenin|Postuhenin's]] Santa's Not-so-Little Helpers Contest. I chose _____ from _____ as my subject.}}
Entries must also include the 'by-user' template at the very bottom of the page to make it clear who has submitted the story:
{{By-user|insert your username here}}
The Deadlines[]
For this contest, we will permit up to 25 entries sitewide. If you wish to participate, as stated in the rules, you MUST state your intent in the comments, and you will be added to the registry list.
Though the contest has technically already begun with the publishing of this very blog post, submissions will not be open until the 25th of November, to ensure that all participants have spent at least a little time writing their stories. If the stories were pumped out within a handful of days, they likely wouldn't be worth the read at all!
Be sure to spend as much time as you need to refine your story and make sure it's of the utmost quality. If you have to submit the story on the very day of the deadline to accomplish this, then feel free to do so (though for the judges' sake, please try to be as timely as you possibly can).
Once your story has finally been posted to the wiki, try to refrain from making any further edits unless absolutely necessary, such as in the case of fixing typos or misplaced words. The deadline for all submissions is the 17th of December (which just so happens to be my brother's birthday)! Making a few small modifications to your story from the upload point onward is fine, but too many will lead to it being marked down in the scoring department.
As soon as the story is published, comment the link down below! (You can also modify your original comment to add it in, but this may take longer to be noticed.) The winner of the contest will most likely be determined on approximately the 22nd of December!
The Rewards[]
The top three prizes this year are a tad more lucrative than in contests of years prior. The winners' Christmas prizes this year will be as good as anything Santa Claus himself could bring, and will include e-gift cards, sponsored by myself, to any business of the winner's choosing (so long as said business allows the usage of e-gift cards).
For each of the top three winners, the prizes will be:
- A $125 gift card
- A $50 gift card
- A $25 gift card
If you happen to be the winner of one of these three prizes, please contact me at @Postuhenin on Discord. DM me your e-mail address and name the business you would like the gift card to be for. Not only that, but as in years prior, the top four entries will each be narrated by three very talented YouTubers whose names have become synonymous with spooky storytelling:
And this is, as always, a very helpful way of getting your stories out to larger audiences and drawing more eyes into your various other works as well, not to mention all the extra recognition you'll receive!
And as the absolute crowning jewel of accomplishment to the #1 prize winner, the absolute highest-performing story will win the incredibly rare and enviable Contest Winner category!! Out of several thousand stories uploaded to our long-standing wiki over the years, only slightly fewer than three dozen have ever successfully achieved this accomplishment! It's one of very few categories featured in the "Story Content" drop-down box, which will of course garner all the more traffic to your terrifically-told tale!
Finally, the winning story will receive a spot on the front page of the wiki, so write, write, WRITE! And ho, ho, HO!
Conclusion[]
Sorry if this page isn't laid out as tidily as contest announcements in years prior. I've done my best to organize everything where it should go, but due to ADHD wreaking havoc with my brain all month long (and really all my life...but that's a different story), it's been a bumpy ride getting this blog post posted. But with the contest finally out here, all of you have an entire month to get your short stories written and completed for this very merry holiday-themed competition!
If there are any further questions you might have regarding it, just drop a message on my talk page and I'll get right around to answering it! Once again, make sure to spend as much time as you need to make your story as good as you can get it, and remember: have fun! The number one most important thing you should always consider when participating in these contests! And no matter what, have the absolute HAPPIEST of holidays! :)
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