Today's photo is of Christmas bells. Christmas in August? Not really. They are featured to remind you that if you want to submit a December holiday themed story, article, essay, or poem, now is the time to submit.
Magazines and ezines work way ahead of an issue, so they are selecting those December holiday stories during the summer, even as early as May or June. It depends on the publication how far ahead they work.
The same goes for stories dealing with Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day, St. Pat's Day, Easter, Passover, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Flag Day, Halloween,Thanksgiving, and Hanukkah. For each one, you should try to submit around six months prior to the holiday.
The one problem some writers have is writing about a winter holiday in the heat of summer. How do you get in the mood? Maybe listening to Christmas music would help a bit, or looking through winter scenes in your photo collection or those found via a search engine. Try reading a Christmas story which might trigger one of your own.
Something else you can do is to write the story at the time of the holiday, whether December, February, or May. Then hold it in your files for about six months and submit. The problem with this method is that you must remember that you have that great Valentine story ready to go. If you're in the habit of writing notes to yourself, that would help, or put a note on your calendar when the submission should be sent. I would suggest doing one final edit before sending. After the piece has been resting so long, you might see places that can be changed for the better.
Plan ahead when you write a holiday story.
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