Snowstorm Story

Okay,… I’ve been asked to come up with a short Christmas story for NorfolkPlaces because apparently, I’m “not too bad” at doing that. I mean, I don’t mind, it’s kind of what I do, writing stories and all that jazz. But I can’t turn it on like a tap and, shazam, here’s a shiny new story. Not one with polished prose, and accompanied by illustrations anyway.

But, I’m a professional. And I also said I would throw in the occasional story as part of my “Mark My Words” column, so, yeah, I just got on with it.

The thing is, I haven’t written a festive story for a while and I needed some inspiration. I sat down for a while and puzzled my puzzler in the hope an idea would come along. It did, which is quite handy . A few years ago I wrote an article for NorfolkPlaces titled “Stocking Up With Greener Fillers“, and included a very short story as the introduction to the article. The story featured Father Christmas and Mrs. Christmas (yeah, I’m old school and prefer Mr. C to the Santa moniker), and there is mention of an elf called Nestori. I’ve been contemplating giving Nestori his own story for a while, so, here goes!

Because of the short time scale to write something, I didn’t have time to agonise, review, re-write, agonise again, and polish the prose. Let’s face it. They don’t pay me enough to do that. In fact, they don’t pay me at all. (“We’ll get you a Christmas ham!”) That aside, I think it’s a nice little follow-up to an off-the-cuff story written (checks notes) 5 years ago. Nestori has waited long enough. Let’s head to the North Pole…

A Snowstorm in an Eggnog Cup

Wisps of snow swirled outside the frosted windows of Father Christmas’s workshop . Inside, twinkling fairy lights illuminated toy-making elves. Among them, Nestori, one of the youngest elves at only 305 years old, sat fidgeting in his chair.

“What’s troubling you, Nestori?” asked Father Christmas, peering over his spectacles.

“Well, Father C,” Nestori began, “I’ve been watching the Glover family for a while now. Individually, they are nice, but they’ve been arguing non-stop as a family. Even now, on Christmas Eve!”

Father Christmas sighed. “Ah, yes. The Glovers. They’ve forgotten the spirit of togetherness, haven’t they?”

Nestori’s eyes sparkled with mischief, and he tugged on his green tunic, “Eek! I’ve got an idea! But, well, it’s a bit…extreme.”

Father Christmas leaned back, intrigued. “Go on, lad. I’m listening.”

Nestori leaned in. “Let’s make it snow. Inside their house. All day!”

The room fell silent, broken only when the other elves, who were pretending not to listen, let out a collective gasp!

Father Christmas’s belly shook as he howled with laughter. “Snow… inside? Ho! Ho! Ho! They’ll argue about that too!”

“Maybe at first,” Nestori admitted, “but I think it might bring them together. If they work as a team they’ll enjoy it.”

Father Christmas tugged his beard thoughtfully, then grinned. “It’s so mad, it just might work. Off you go, Nestori. Let’s see if your idea can warm their hearts with a little icy magic.”

So, on Christmas day, the Glovers woke to an astonishing sight: Their living room was blanketed in fresh, fluffy snow, which continued to flutter in the air.

“Whose idea was this?” snapped Mrs. Glover, glaring at her husband.

“Well I didn’t do it!” he responded, equally annoyed.

The stairs creaked as their youngest, Molly, crept down the stairs.

“Wow!” cried little Molly, her eyes wide with delight. “Thank you, Mum. Thank you, Dad. Merry Christmas! Let’s make a snowman!”

At first, the parents grumbled. After all, there were several tons of snow in their house and they didn’t know why. They should’ve been on the phone with the insurance company, but it was Christmas day, so they started rolling giant snowballs for the body and head.

Mr. Glover found the perfect carrot for a nose, Molly collected buttons for the snowman’s chest, and Mrs. Glover dug out an old striped scarf.

Even Reece, their moody teenage son, put down his mobile phone and helped. Wrapped up with as many layers as he could wear, Reece ventured outside to find sturdy sticks for arms and handed them to his little sister.

“They’re perfect,” Molly said, prodding the sticks into the snowman’s sides.

As the snowman took shape, there was a change in house – Everyone was happier. They communicated as they made the snowman, threw a snowball or two, chatted, joked, laughed, and, for the first time in months, worked together.

As the final piece, a cardboard cereal box hat, was added, the snow stopped falling and the snow on the living room floor disappeared. Only the snowman remained – A permanent reminder of a wonderful day spent together.

“So, that just happened,” said Mr. Glover and they all laughed.

Then Reece asked, “What time is dinner?”

Mrs. Glover gave him a look, but instead of arguing, she said, “Well. The turkey is still in the freezer, so it depends on how long the take-away delivery will be. Pizza?”

That evening the Glovers sat together around a roaring fire as they shared an extra-large pizza, exchanged gifts, and enjoyed being together.

“Best Christmas ever!” said Molly, as she snuggled next to her parents. “Can we do the same again next year?!”

Outside, Nestori smiled as he watched through the window.

He whispered, “Mission accomplished,” and with a snap of his fingers Nestori vanished into the snowy night.

I hope you enjoyed this snowy tale. For those of you interested in the story writing process, this is very much a first draft. A brain-dump of an idea tweaked sufficiently to be (hopefully) an engaging read for the purposes of this article, and perhaps you’ll read it with your little ones on Christmas Eve. Personally, and I know it differs for other writers, I will often leave it a while before revisiting the story and hacking it around. I’ll agonise over it for a while, then the red pen will come out, I’ll pull it apart, I’ll add and remove bits, reorder, rebalance, simplify the language, remove over-use of superlatives and some of my , chuck it at the wall and see what sticks. It can be a painstaking process and the story will sometimes bare little resemblance to the first version, especially when you get an idea that takes the story in a different, more exciting direction. Who knows, I may tweak this further, or it may get the full treatment.

The following books by Mark J. Towers are available on Amazon.

The Christmas Starfish ⭐🎅
Mr. Starfish and the Mystery Skull ⭐💀
Strawberry Scoreberries 🍓⚽
I Wish It Were Raining ☔☔