50 Engaging Writing Prompts #15: What New Holiday Would I Create?
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Estimated Writing Time: 10–15 minutes
Ahhhh, holidays. Everyone has a favorite– usually one filled with wonderful memories that center around family, friends, food, music, activities, and holiday traditions. A smell or sight can bring those memories rushing back, especially as the holiday gets closer.
Holidays are more than days marked on a calendar. They are also the perfect time to learn about culture and ancestry, preserve important stories, honor cultural heritage, celebrate shared values, remember significant events, or encourage communities to work toward a better future. Traditions are often passed down from one generation to the next, helping people stay connected to their cultures and histories.
Today, imagine you can create a completely new holiday. What would it celebrate or remember? What traditions would people follow? How would the holiday bring people together, and what would you want future generations to understand about it?
Journal Prompt
Imagine that you can invent a new holiday.
Give your holiday a name and explain what it celebrates or honors. When does it occur? Why is the date or season important? What traditions will people follow, including possible food, activities, music, clothing, decorations, gift-giving, symbols, or acts of service?
Use specific details to help your readers imagine experiencing the holiday. Explain the purpose behind its traditions and why people will want to celebrate it year after year.
Reflection Questions
Use these questions if you need help developing your ideas. You do not need to answer every question.
What is your holiday's name?
What does it celebrate, honor, or remember?
Why is this idea important to you?
Who would participate?
When would the holiday occur?
What would people do in the morning, afternoon, and evening?
What feelings would you want people to experience?
How would children learn about the holiday?
Why Does This Matter?
Inventing a holiday requires more than just coming up with fun activities. You need a central idea and specific details to support it.
Consider how traditions communicate meaning. Explaining why a holiday exists and how each tradition supports its purpose helps you organize ideas and make things feel believable.
Use the five senses to bring your holiday to life. What delicious smells drift through the air? What colors and decorations fill the scene? What music can people hear? What foods can they taste? What objects or clothing can they touch?
Small, carefully chosen details can have a big effect, helping your readers imagine that they are experiencing the holiday with you.
Vocabulary Word
Commemorate
Verb
Definition: To honor or remember an important person, event, achievement, or idea.
Example: Our new holiday would commemorate the volunteers who helped rebuild the community after the flood.
Writing Challenge: Use the word commemorate somewhere in your response.
Writer’s Tip: Make Every Tradition Meaningful
A believable holiday needs a clear purpose. Begin by deciding what your holiday celebrates or remembers. Then create traditions that reinforce that central idea.
Basic Idea
My holiday celebrates kindness. People eat dinner together and exchange gifts.
Developed Idea
Kindness Day is celebrated on the first Saturday in March. During the week before the holiday, each person secretly completes three helpful acts. At the evening meal, families and friends place a paper link in a chain for every kindness they witnessed. The connected links represent how one helpful action can inspire another.
The developed version does more than list activities. It explains how each tradition connects to the holiday’s purpose.
Use Specific Details
Help readers experience the celebration by describing:
the scent and flavor of the food
the sound of the music or gathering
the colors and textures of the decorations
the activities people perform;
the emotions created by the celebration
the meaning behind an important symbol
Explain Your Choices
Do not simply tell readers that people light lanterns, wear blue, or share bread. Explain why they do it.
For example:
At sunset, each family lights a blue lantern to represent a hopeful idea they want to carry into the coming year.
Create Respectfully
You may be inspired by your own family or cultural traditions, but avoid copying sacred ceremonies or presenting another culture through stereotypes. If you include a tradition from a culture that is not your own, learn about its meaning and treat it respectfully.
You may also invent original symbols and traditions that belong entirely to your new holiday.
Holiday Writing Plan
Beginning: Introduce the Holiday
State the holiday’s name and explain what it celebrates, honors, or commemorates. Give readers a reason to care about its purpose.
The Date and Symbols
Explain when the holiday occurs and why that time was chosen. Introduce its colors, objects, clothing, decorations, or other symbols.
The Traditions
Describe what people do throughout the celebration. Include specific sensory details so readers can imagine participating.
The Meaning
Explain how the traditions connect to the holiday’s central purpose. Show what people might learn, remember, or feel.
The Future
Describe how the holiday could grow over time. Explain why future generations might continue celebrating it.
Inspirational Quote
“The continuity of all cultures depends on the living presence of at least three generations.”
— Margaret Mead
What do you think Margaret Mead meant by the “living presence” of three generations?? How can holidays connect younger people to those who came before them?
Bonus Writing Challenge
Imagine that your holiday has been celebrated for fifty years.
Write a short scene in which a young person participates in one of its traditions for the first time. Include:
an older person explaining the tradition
at least three sensory details
a symbol associated with the holiday
the young person’s initial reaction
a moment when the young person understands why the tradition matters.
End the scene with this sentence:
Now it was my turn to carry the tradition forward.
Keep Writing
A holiday begins with an idea, but traditions give that idea life. When people gather, remember, celebrate, and share stories, they create connections that can stretch across generations.
Build your idea thoughtfully. Give every tradition a purpose. Create a celebration worth remembering.
Keep writing. Keep growing. Keep building.
