Mistletoe Season

MISTLETOE SEASON
by Jeremy Jensen

Every kiss is a vow.
Every vow has a price.

When a woman arrives in the snow-covered town of Bramblewick just before Christmas, she expects warmth, tradition, and a quiet escape from her past. What she finds instead is a town wrapped in ritual-where mistletoe hangs everywhere, memories feel curated, and love is encouraged a little too carefully.

She meets a man who appears only during the season-gentle, attentive, impossibly familiar. Their connection is immediate and undeniable. But beneath the glow of lanterns and carols, something is wrong.

People forget.
Rules go unspoken.
And every December, women vanish.

As Christmas Eve approaches, she uncovers the truth: the town survives winter through an ancient ritual, one sealed not by force-but by love freely given. Each cycle demands a willing bride. Each vow keeps the cold at bay.

And this year, she has been chosen.

But love, she learns, can be more dangerous than fear.

As the town gathers beneath a crown of mistletoe and the bells begin to ring, she must decide what love truly means-and whether tradition deserves obedience when it survives on erasure.

Mistletoe Season is a haunting blend of folk horror and dark romance-a story about desire, consent, and the quiet violence of tradition. Atmospheric, emotional, and unsettling, it asks a chilling question:

What if love isn't what saves you-
but what the ritual is waiting for?

• Christmas horror with depth and atmosphere

• Dark romance with moral stakes

• Folk horror and ritual-based myths

• Snowbound small-town secrets

• Emotionally devastating, elegant storytelling