Use the Five Senses to Describe … Your Christmas Kitchen

If you love to bake and cook during the holidays, and love to write as well, here’s a writing prompt for you: use the five senses to describe … your Christmas kitchen.

My husband is a fantastic chef, and I’m the baker. So my Christmas kitchen is a bakery. Here’s a list of things I notice while whipping up my family’s favorite Christmas treats.

SIGHT: Shiny silver mixing bowl. Sprays of white flour or sugar on the burgundy counter. Brown or tan batter. Oily film on cookie sheets. Glowing screens on stove. Black wire racks.
SMELL: Cloves, cinnamon, chocolate.
TASTE : Quick tastes of sweet chocolate or batter.
TOUCH: Heat from the oven. Rumpled sugar and flour bags. Smooth utensils handles.
HEARING: Swish as flour or sugar is poured into a measuring cup. Sound of spatula mixing batter. Conversations. Laughter. Banging batter off utensils.

Now I can take those observations and work them into a story. Like working ingredients into the batter!

*****

I viewed the wreckage as my niece and nephews sat beached on the couch and watching Charlie Brown and Snoopy figure out the true meaning of Christmas with the smug smiles of kids who’ve eaten way, way too much sugar and know it.

Flour and sugar sprayed on every horizontal surface. My silver mixing bowl dull under a coating of flour. Tan batter from the apple bread smeared across the counter with few stains clinging to the backsplash, a reminder of when Noah and Ollie dueled with batter-covered spoons.

Myla hopped off the couch and dashed over to me. “Did we make enough cookies for Christmas dinner?”

“We have a dozen chocolate spritz cookies and ten gumdrop cookies.” I wiped back my bangs and warm chocolate came off my fingers. “That’s not nearly enough for the whole family.”

Myla stared at the two plates of cookies. “I thought you said we needed to make six dozen.”

“You guys sampled a lot.”

Noah twisted around, looking over the back of the couch. “Mom and Dad aren’t coming to get us until after lunch tomorrow, right? Could we bake some more tomorrow?”

“Could we?” Ollie echoed, plopping down beside his brother.

I smiled. “I guess we’ll have to.”

*****

Describe your Christmas kitchen. Here are more Christmas writing prompts.

December 15, 2025 2

Use the Five Senses to Describe … Your Favorite Christmas Decoration

When I reviewed which writing prompts and questions have been the most popular, the ones where I asked you to use your five senses to describe a setting have been by far the most viewed.

So I’m giving those prompts a holiday twist and asking you to use the five senses to describe your favorite Christmas decoration. My favorite is my mantel. I love pulling together a variety of decorations to make what is basically a work of art.

So here’s my list of some of the many things I put on display, using my five senses.

SIGHT: A lot to work with here. The garland is, surprisingly, pine green. The lights in the garland are multicolored. Red candles. Transparent hurricane shades. Many shades of red from Santa Claus’s coat to the ribbon on Rudolph’s neck. A color photo. A pencil sketch. Dull brown of the iron stocking hangers.
TASTE and SMELL: Nothing for those senses, unless my garland was made of real pine.
TOUCH: Another bonanza of sensations. The iron stocking hangers were cold when I got them out of the bin in the basement. Smooth hurricane shades and candles. Soft fur or cloth. Smooth plastic bricks. Bumpy, cool plaster figurines. Smooth glass or porcelain. Feathery fake birds.
HEARING: Not much for this sense except the crackles, crunches, and squeaks as different materials rub against the garland. Although I did find out that Rudolph is musical. I pressed a spot on him, and his song came out in a static-y, off-key way, like the battery is just starting to lose power.

So how could I works these sensations into a description? Read on!

“I need someone to decorate the mantel,” my boss Sandra said. “The box for it is …”

“I’ll do it!” I raised my hand.

The mantel in the old house that was now an antique store sat above a fireplace in what must have been the parlor a hundred years ago. And the man who’d visited us five times in five days without buying anything was hanging around in there again.

“The box is in the basement,” said Sandra.

Not my favorite place in the old house with its rickety steps, stone walls, and smell of dead air, but I got the box and spread the prickly fake garland on the mantel.

The man, maybe forty, was frowning at a roll top desk.

I placed a smooth hurricane shade on the mantel.

He moved over to a wall covered in paintings and photographs with more stacked against the wall on the floor.

What did he find so interesting in this room?

The antique iron stocking holders chilled my hands as I spaced them on the mantel.

Now he was examining a velvet settee.

As I nestled the smooth, glass blown ornaments in the garland, the man seemed fascinated with every object in the room. No, not quite. He didn’t look at anything in the center of the room. Just the items set against the walls.

The man appeared to look at each of the paintings leaning against each other. But he actually seemed more interested in the wall behind them.

I lifted a Santa doll to the mantel and then lowered it.

Was the man more interested in the room than the antiques? But why?

Here are more Christmas writing prompts.

December 8, 2025 3

What Do You Want Me to Repost?

As the year draws to a close, my theme this month on JPC Allen Writes is reposting my most popular posts. But before I do that, I wanted to ask readers: what do you want me to repost? Would you like a tip on developing characters or some other kind of writing advice? Or a book rec? Or one of my writing prompts from Monday Sparks? Let me know so my reposts can be the most valuable to you!

December 1, 2025 1

Creative Thanksgiving Writing Prompts for Short Stories

With the holiday upon us, I’ve made a list of six creative Thanksgiving writing prompts for short stories. The one thing I kept in mind while creating the list is that the idea has to be something a writer can explore in 1,000 to 10,000 words.

Thanksgiving road trip: This idea works for both drama and comedy, novel or short story. The key for a short story is to limit the scenes. For example, a comic novel about all the trouble a family gets into while driving a long distance for Thanksgiving dinner could cover a few days and a lot of humorous mishaps and catastrophes. For a short story, you should make the drive shorter and choose fewer comic conflicts but those conflicts can still be as outrageous or ridiculous as you want them to be.
Passing the torch: This short story can be a humorous or poignant or both as the younger generation takes over Thanksgiving preparations.
Family conflict: Again, this can work for both comedy or drama. For a short story, choose only one conflict. You don’t have room for subplots.
Kitchen disasters: The dinner that, somehow, goes horribly wrong.
The unexpected guest: The guest who was not invited or one that comes out of nowhere poses a lot of potential for a short story. You might even turn it into a Thanksgiving thriller (That sounds weird, but I may have just invented a new subgenre of crime fiction.)
Thanksgiving from a kid’s POV: Take a trip down memory lane to find inspiration in how you viewed Thanksgiving as a kid. My family had to eat two Thanksgiving dinners in one day. For lunch, we’d go to my mom’s parents. For supper, we’d go to my dad’s. Passing out from overeating was a real possibility.

Here are more ideas for using November in your stories.

What creative Thanksgiving writing prompts for short stories do you suggest?

November 24, 2025 2

Let This Photo Inspire a Short Story

Last week my writing prompt discussed how you can outline a short story from one picture. I don’t outline a lot when I write a novel, but I think outlining is more helpful with a short story because it is short. An outline keeps us writers on track, helping to prevent us from going off on tangents that just won’t fit in a short story. So I have an outline for how I let this photo inspire a short story.

Beginning: Grandpa is grumping along the lake at a local state park because his wife is helping their daughter with her newborn. He has no idea how to entertain kids. The only reason the group is at the marina is because grandson Liam wants to try his new fishing pole.

Middle: One mishap after another happens to Grandpa as he, Liam, and little sister Ava try one fishing spot after another. Ava accidentally drops the open tack box on Grandpa’s foot. Liam snags his line on an underwater branch and Grandpa has to wade in and get it. Ava wanders from the shore of the lake, and it takes Grandpa awhile to find her picking flowers. Then Liam hooks a catfish and Grandpa runs the barbels in his hand as he tried to unhook.

Ending: Grandpa has had it and tells Liam he can only have one more cast. Liam tries to argue, but Grandpa is adamant. Liam hooks a fish but slips and loses his rod. Tearing up, he lays in the mud on the bank. Grandpa flings himself into the water and grabs the pole just in time. When he comes back to the bank, muddy and soaked, Liam’s face is glowing with appreciation. Ava takes his hand and asks if he’s all right. When they get home, Liam and Ava talk over each other as they tell their mom how much fun Grandpa is. Grandpa listens, shocked and pleased, as he removes his drenched shoes.

Here are more prompts for writing short stories.

November 17, 2025 2