December 22, 2023.

Every week we post six lines of a story of ours, a work-in-progress or from someone else’s work that we recommend that has LGBT characters on Rainbow Snippets, here; https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/?multi_permalinks=24307088435601223&notif_id=1703302181358719&notif_t=group_activity&ref=notif

No better place on Christmas Week to visit than a Christmas Party. And no better book for our purposes than ‘Nathan Burgoine’s excellent Christmas story “Handmade Holidays.” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55992618-handmade-holidays?ref=nav_sb_ss_5_17  The book follows Nick, on his own after his homophobic parents toss him out at age nineteen, on a series of Christmases over the years. Nick and his friends call themselves “The Misfit Toys.” Let’s join them. The party is in full swing…

“When your number comes up, you get to pick an ornament off the pile,” Nick explained to Erik, while Haruto shredded the wrapping paper. “Or if you like something someone else already has, you can take it from them, and they get to do the same thing—open a new present or take something someone else has. But the ornaments can’t change hands more than once a round. Once they’re all open, you trade instead, or you can keep the one you’ve got. You’re in the deck three times.”

‘Nathan Burgoine says that the collecting of Christmas ornaments to symbolize a year came from his own experience. Which he put into the highly recommended book.

Next Week; A New Year’s Eve party that does not turn out as well.

And I wish you all the very best for the Holiday Season! —–jeff