…are the glittery comet tails of vanishing connections.
“Busiest year yet.” Crumple.
“Sorry I’ve been out of touch.” Toss.
“Promotions, renovations, travel.” Bin.
“Remember the afternoon light, that time we ditched staff training to hike in the snow?”
One for the mantelpiece. Glowing evidence of a friendship still in orbit.
Joanna Norland is a UK-based playwright, currently collaborating with Shake-Scene theatre company on an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Hello! As this will be my last story of the year, I wanted to give heartfelt thanks to the wonderful community of writers and readers at fiftywordstories.com — and a applause to site creator and curator, Tim. Thank you for keeping me reading, writing, thinking, laughing, tearing up and experimenting with new forms. This forum, and everything you do to keep it going, adds so much to my life.
I echo your thanks to Tim and to this community. It’s a daily reminder of what just 50 words can do in the right writers’ hands…
I loved this one!
blush – thank you. xx
Lovely Jo!
thank you!
I enjoyed this one, with it’s honesty of emotions.
thank you!
Nice little story! Really liked this one – especially at this time of year when cards to and from people you haven’t heard from all year flow back and forth like guilty little telltales!
Yup . . .nice way of putting it.
Fantastic capture of this particular seasonal truth…
thank you so much.
She’s her authentic self. Hold. ❤️
thank you-what a lovely comment!
Primo! Brings to mind oh-so-many long-gone friends with whom we no longer trade cards. Melancholy and poignant, sweet but sad, and both hard-hitting and oh well.
thank you!
I 💙 this. It’s great – puts the dreaded 🎅🏼🎄 round robin letters in their place. Only a few true connections survive & really matter.
yup! and they are gold.
As the price of stamps go up, my card list goes down. Last year I made a little booklet of 50 word stories, named it Tiny Treasures, and sent it to my “mantelpiece” friends.
Lucky friends! That’s a very meaningful gift. Agreed – it occurred to me that this story is capturing a moment in history that is slipping away – I receive and send fewer cards each year.
Love your stories, Joanna :)
thank you-you are a tremendous writer!
That’s so kind – thank you! :)
Looking forward to reading more of your wonderful stories in 2026…
back at you!
I was rooting for this one!
thank you so much!
Great writing – such a truth. Well done. I loved it. Merry Christmas. xx
thank and happy hols to you, too!
A perfect story. Thanks for writing and sharing!!
thank you!!
I missed this one the first time around – so glad I got to catch it after all.
Fifty words of perfectly-said.
blush!! thank you. xxx
So spot on. I wonder what you might write with the dreaded holiday letter, that multi-page tome detailing the minutiae of the lives of folks you’ve not heard from for, what? a year! as your topic? Oh, to find one of those fat, multi-stamped envelopes in one’s mailbox. The horror, the horror.
In one of the Adrian Mole diaries, Sue Townsend lampoons the holiday round robin letter to devastating effect. Tears running down my cheeks just thinking about it . . .
Only 11 months to go until the next batch!