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13 December 2025

Posted by Melissa Dehn

Junior & Young Writers Week 5: Christmas Zines

The last writing
session of 2025 was cosy and jolly, with chocolate, cards, and Christmas music
(or, in the case of the young writers, atmospheric sci-fi music). We opened the
session by describing our weeks as wrapped presents: a hastily wrapped football
with holes, a present wrapped in endless wrapping paper, and chocolate wrapped
in chocolate.

To warm up,
we had a quick game of Alternate Uses, followed by Disaster Chain – accompanied
by a little creativity-inspiring chocolate.  

The first,
festive exercise of the session was a Winter 3 Word Story. All of the writers came
up with Christmas-themed words, after which a generator randomly assigned three
words to each writer. The writers came up with their own, often humorous,
versions of a Christmas story that included the three given words.

Finally,
the rest of the session was spent creating zines: a small, handmade booklet. All
of the writers were engrossed in their task and made interesting zines on
festive topics of their choice:

  • Henry: How
    to make tasty Christmas food, including dipping brussels sprouts in chocolate.
  • Juno: An
    explanation as to why gerbils are the best (early) Christmas present. Key
    reasons include that they look cute in Santa hats and are too quiet to disturb Santa
    when he climbs down the chimney.
  • William:
    How to survive Christmas? Start by not letting baboons into your house.
  • Haimish: A
    robin’s guide to surviving Christmas. Hide your house so others don’t eat your
    food.
  • Evan: Santa’s
    guide to delivering presents. After ensuring that your reindeers can fly, order
    a bottomless sack from eBay. Always remember to eat the cookies before going
    back up the chimney.
  • Catherine:
    Traditions of the cake cult universe. Cake is not edible on the planet.
  • Eddie: How
    to deal with kids screaming at 2 & 4 A.M. You could cook the kids, dress up
    as Santa and scare them – or simply just end your own existence.
  • Sonny: The
    Christmas Witch. See pictures for a drawing of the witch and her house.
  • Daisy: Christmas
    advice, such as calling your friends at 4 AM, opening your presents before 5 in
    the morning, and forcing your family to listen to Bob Dylan’s Christmas songs.

Overall, a lovely
final session of the year. Thank you very much to Frankie for leading the sessions, thank you all for a fun term, and Happy Holidays!





























-Melissa

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