New Story: Home for Christmas & Some Musings

Three and a half years ago, just about when I finished writing the first entry in the "Mixed-Up" series, "A Mixed-Up Valentine's Day" I started keeping notes for other stories I wanted to write. Some were sequels, some were standalones, and some were for particular holidays. I've had a Christmas story on the backburner for a long time, but I never quite felt comfortable releasing it until now, because I finally worked out the story. I'm sure you don't want a long prologue, so I'll share with you the links to other places you can read the story, and then I'll throw my commentary after it. Enjoy!

Home for Christmas at TGStorytime

Home for Christmas at Fictionmania

Home for Christmas at ScribbleHub

Home for Christmas at DeviantArt

Now onto hearing me prattle on about the story. This story has gone through a profound metamorphosis over the years I've written it. Initially, this is what I had for the story during its first month of existence:

Merry Christmas, Darling: A young man's car breaks down in a snowstorm on Christmas Eve. He's lucky enough to be taken in by a family he encounters, but finds himself adopting a new role during his stay.

Harry Marston/Bailey Georgetti

Mrs. Polly Georgetti

Mr. William Georgetti

Clara Georgetti

Zach Georgetti

Harry is driving cross-country for a new job over Christmas. He has a disdain for the holiday because of his lack of family. He grew up an orphan and doesn't have many close friends. While passing through Chesterson Hills, because of a road closure on account of the snow buildup on the highway, his car breaks down near the home of the Georgettis. While trying to get his car to start, Mr. Georgetti notices Harry and invites him inside, where he meets the family of four. Harry wonders why they took pity on him and they explain that they try to do good

deeds during Christmas in memory of their daughter Bailey, who had passed two years earlier in a car accident, not too far from the house while driving back during winter break when she was in college. Harry explains his own hard-luck story and explains why he dislikes Christmas. When time comes to open presents, Polly offers one of Bailey's unopened gifts. Harry initially refuses, but Polly insists, revealing a sweater, which Harry reluctantly wears, despite it being pink. He tells them he'll stay on the couch, but they offer up Bailey's room, untouched since her death.

The whole time, Harry's body has been transforming. His hair getting longer, which he reluctantly allows Clara to style while they watch movies and drink cocoa. His feet shrinking, so they have no problem fitting into a pair of Bailey's fuzzy slippers. The bulk of the changes happen overnight, and Harry never wakes up, instead Bailey wakes up, and few would miss Harry.

Christmastime is a family-oriented season for most people. Sitting around the tree, unwrapping presents

 

Now, obviously this is only the same story in very broad strokes. In the time I've been writing TG fiction, there's been a shift in my tastes and style. While I still enjoy reading them on occasion, I've stopped enjoying writing stories that are overly cruel and forced. I've also realized I don't enjoy writing identity death that much, I can do it if I want to, but I don't often want to. Which also manifests in the types of stories I write. It's why "A Bewitching Halloween" has Max make the choice, because it felt wrong to change someone without consent. It's why Harry gets to make the choice and why I show his desire for family so strongly. Not that reluctant forced feminization doesn't have a place, but not in my feel-good Christmas story, you know?

Something else you might notice is that the story's title is different. Initially, I used "Merry Christmas Darling" as the title, from the Carpenters song, but then I used that same title for a caption that I felt it fit better with, and then realized that "I'll Be Home for Christmas" thematically fit better with the story and I included the lyrics in the story as a motif. As much as I love "Merry Christmas Darling", it didn't make sense anymore. But I still kept the Carpenters within the story, since I used "I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me" which is the version sung by Karen Carpenter, as opposed to the original lyrics which are "You can plan on me".

  

Another interesting element is that two commenters now have mentioned a "horror" element to the story, which god knows I tried like hell to avoid. I gave Harry a choice, I made the change motivated by love, I had the family treat him well before the transformation started. But it was still inspired by stories that had a "horror" element to them, I'd say the chief inspiration for this would be "Melissa's Diary" and "Change of Heart" both by Jennifer White and both definitely leaning more into the "horror" element, whether intentionally or not. There's a bit of it in a lot of TG fiction, the idea of being transformed into someone else whether by magic or science, and even unwilling/good people are sucked into it. Again, not a bad thing, just not what I was going for with this one.

 

I'd also like to give special thanks once again to Akira Marx and myother123 who both acted as beta-readers for the story, because I wanted to make sure that the story was absolutely perfect before I released it, and I think it is. Hope you enjoyed reading and hope you didn't mind listening to me ramble. Merry Christmas, everyone!