Here’s a very light workshop (pardon the pun).
When we think of the Christmas season, we picture colours. The red of santa’s coat. The green of a mistletoe wreath. The gold of decorative baubles. The white of freshly-fallen snow. You could even change these into metaphors and similes:
As white as freshly-fallen snow.
Green like a mistletoe wreath.
The concepts listed above are universal, or very nearly. Consequently they border on cliché.
I have found that the best way to create fresh metaphors and unique similes is to draw on personal sensory experience. If you really stopped and thought about what comes to your mind when you consider things like colours, you could be onto something marvellous that helps give your writing that little bit of extra flavour.
With that in mind, here is my simple challenge to you…
The Workshop
Pick a festive colour. This could be one of the options I referred to earlier or one that I’ve neglected. Take that colour and write something like the following:
As red as…
Gold like…
As white as…
Green like…
Write a list of similes or metaphors or any other relevant literary device. Try not to overthink it or judge your choices. The important part of this exercise is to discover exactly what festive colours mean to you and what memories they trigger.
Take twenty minutes. If you find yourself extending the metaphor or simile to a longer passage of writing, just go with it. There really is nothing like sense memory to generate words.
“Christmas baubles” by Peter_Gallagher is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Owen Townend – December 2025
Huddersfield Authors Circle 
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