Five Writing Prompts to Keep You Warm

1-With nothing to do one cold winters day some boys in a small Polish City in the 1920's take turns pretending to smoke so that they can watch each other get scowled by the elder ladies of the village. And even though they are brave enough to face the wrath of a woman who'll box their ears they encounter something that startles them all back to their mothers.

2-A powerful hermit wizard in the mountains of Japan is going stir crazy in his cave because he pissed off a tribe of powerful serpents with shape shifting powers. Now he can't leave until winter comes and he's getting serious cabin fever.

3-Some Christmas elves creep into a house in Japan to check on things in that country for the first time (back when the Japanese first started celebrating Christmas with a Santa Claus). While inside they run into some Chochinobake (Mischievous paper lanterns that have come to life because they are more than a hundred years old). This is a strange encounter between the spirits of two different places, in order to figure out what happens when they meet each other you need to give characterization to mythical beings.

4-Write a story about Woden as Santa. Riding around hunting evil spirits while also delivering presents and luck to people.

5-In one folktale the yukionna marries a woodsmen who doesn't know who she is, than later leaves him because he finds out. Now he has to raise the children of a snow woman all alone. Write a scene from this.