In honor of Christmas, which is really all about who’s naughty and who’s nice, The Wire is publishing an excerpt of a ye olde tale set in Portsmouth, “Story of a Bad Boy,” by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. To juice it up, we’re seeking tales of your misspent youth to be published in our Christmas Eve edition on Wednesday, Dec. 24.

Send one or two stories, short and snappy (50-300 words, say). We’re talking about tales of setting fire to public property, urging your kid sister to stick a fork in the electrical socket, bicycle “jousting” with the pointy ends of ski poles ... not that we’ve done anything like that.

Keep it real, put us there, make us laugh and cry... Let’s have fun!

Send submissions to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it no later than Thursday, Dec. 18, and we’ll consider it for inclusion. Don’t forget to include your full name and the town you live in.