by Aaron Gansky @ADGansky

As we delve headlong into another holiday season (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, New Year’s etc.…), I hope you and your family have a wonderful and restful time. But I’m also aware the holidays can be just as stressful as they are joyful. Cleaning house for guests, out-of-town travel, feasts to prepare (and clean up after), shopping and wrapping—they take a toll on you. And, of course, there’s always the first Holiday after losing someone special to you.

Just as they are for us, holidays are an important part of fiction. Countless movies take place on or around the holidays for a reason. How many of your stories mine the emotional depths of a holiday season? It doesn’t have to be Christmas; it could be the 4th of July.

Or, if you’re writing a Sci-Fi or Fantasy, maybe it’s a completely fictional holiday (like the Festival of Moon, or the Celebration of the Conquering, or the Solemn Observance of the Victory of the Undead Hordes). Here’s an opportunity to world-build. What is the holiday? What does it celebrate? What religious ties does it have? Has it changed over the course of the hundreds of years it’s been celebrated? What rituals and rites are associated with it? What does it look like for the rich? For the poor?

Here are a few of the things holidays can do in your fiction:

• Draw on a preconceived perception of a widely celebrated cultural observance
• Establish several rituals and rites and religions
• Establish a ticking clock (something must happen before Christmas, or Thanksgiving, or the Feast of the Undead, or Vulcan Independence Day)
• Provide a colorful backdrop for a story that might otherwise have a bland setting
• Twist something we’re familiar with just enough to make it strange and uniquely appealing  (Christmas in the Bahamas, Valentine’s Day for a polygamist, Easter in Australia)
• Act as a marker of a significant moment in a character’s life (some tragedy at Thanksgiving, or getting an engagement ring on Christmas Eve, or a break-up on New Year’s Eve).

The above list is far from exhaustive. Feel free to chime in and mention some other things holidays can do for fiction.

Take a moment to examine your story and ask yourself if you’re properly delving the depths of the holiday season. Or, if your story does not account for holidays, think of a way to incorporate one. How might it benefit your story? How might it better inform and develop your characters?

In addition to being a loving father and husband, Aaron Gansky is an award-winning novelist and author, teacher, and podcast host. In 2009, he earned his M.F.A in Fiction at the prestigious Antioch University of Los Angeles, one of the top five low-residency writing schools in the nation. Prior to that, he attained his Bachelor of Arts degree in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from California State University of San Bernardino.

He lives in quiet little town in the high desert of southern California with his family.