It’s that time of year, where many are putting up trees and fairy lights, planning gifts and recipes and getting the house ready to receive friends and family over the festive period.

Although Christmas is the big day, it’s often the build-up that’s the most fun, especially for the Lush community who have an uncanny ability to inject a little naughtiness into any situation.

We want stories about the advent period, that build up before the big day... the countdown.

Perhaps you and your partner have invested in a couple of naughty elves, and leave each other a daily x-rated ‘elf on a shelf’ scenario that you must act out at some point that day.

It could be that someone decides to make the office Secret Santa draw a little outrageous this year, by getting a colleague a very ‘NSFW’ gift.

Or maybe putting up the Christmas decorations is made extra spicy with some eggnog, sex toys and a distinct lack of clothing.

We’re leaving the theme fairly open, but whatever you decide, it must be set in the run up to Christmas. As we only have 24 days of advent*, this competition will only run to Dec 24th, and to mimic the short timescale, we’re imposing a word limit of 1,500 words. Your story can be in the flash category (roughly 600 – 1,000 words for a complete story) but please, no micros or poetry.

*Yes, I’m starting this on the 2nd. I’m a day late. Sue me, lol.