Christmas Short Stories Anthology

Whether the festive season fills you with cheer or fills you with fear, there is a good chance you will find a tale or two that you can relate to in this book.

Born on Christmas Day, Gander the Elf wants to work in Santa's Workshop. But, he breaks toys, spills paint everywhere, and makes a mess of the glue among other things. Isn't there any job that he can do without being so clumsy?

A fun Christmas short story! Listen to this new short from Michael Lynes, the award-winning author of "There Is a Reaper" and "The Fat Man Gets Out of Bed".

The classic Christmas love story, as poignant now as when O. Henry (pen name of William Sydney Porter) wrote it in 1905. A poor young couple sacrifices their own "treasures" for their partner. A must-listen for any time of year.

After 12-year-old Mar's father unfortunately dies in a car crash during the Christmas holiday, she not only has to recuperate, but also live with her mentally ill mother without the calming presence of her beloved dad. Fast forward three years...Because Mar had blocked out her dad's death, she's never really admitted to herself that he's gone forever, let alone acknowledged or visited his gravesite. She suddenly decides to take a 14-hour journey on a Greyhound bus to finally visit her dad's grave and to face the truth that he's really gone.

Ten-year-old Effie lives the life most children dream of - with every day filled with delicious treats and wonderful toys. One night she experiences a dream that will forever change the meaning of Christmas for her. In it, she meets a group of under privileged children and she is inspired to create a Christmas they will never forget.

Tradition is just another ritual, and rituals are written to be remembered. Be careful which rituals you practice, my friend, for they call out to things well hidden...to horrors best left unknown.

One year after the Shattering and the great collapse, survivors in Columbus, Ohio, are barely holding things together. Then, on December 24, when all seemed lost, a new hero appears, and he is determined to protect all the children of the Earth.

No one wants to celebrate Christmas this year. Not Ella McKendrick, who, on the cusp of success as a potter, is tasked with her husband's company party on too-short notice. She gives up her first pottery sale to pitch in, but the joy of the season is diminished. Not Gertie Wycliffe, Ella's mom, a new widow who is doing everything she can to avoid her first Christmas alone. No one understands the grief and terror she feels - maybe because the craziness of a 74-year-old woman signing up for skydiving lessons is all she lets them see....

This yuletide celebration includes: The Nativity, "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" by Clement Moore, "The Birds' Christmas Carol" by Kate Wiggin, "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry, "Christmas Everywhere" by Phillips Brooks, and excerpts from: A Christmas Carol and The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, The Peterkin Papers by Lucretia P. Hale, The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, Bracebridge Hall by Washington Irving, and The Wonder Clock by Howard Pyle.

Sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. A Christmas Carol has never been out of print and has been adapted to film, opera, and other media.

The classic and heart warming tale which captures the zeitgeist of the mid-Victorian revival of the Christmas holiday. Dickens follows Ebenezer Scrooge, a curmudgeonly old man of business about whom a warm word is never said nor given back. One chilly Christmas eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his old business partner who bears a dire warning, and a final chance to change his miserly ways.

At Christmas time department stores overflow with color and festivity, their halls bedecked with the trimmings of the season. In these 7 charming, memorable, and even magical Christmas tales retiree Tom Cavanaugh wanders the aisles of just such a store. Tom has made a tradition out of observing the marvels the Christmas spirit brings to each department and the people in them, from a jolly old maintenance man to testy last-minute shoppers to an exhausted salesclerk.

When Torah Blake retreats to a backcountry mountain hut on Christmas Eve, she doesn't expect to reunite with her old boyfriend, Cale Jamison. Cale, a world-traveling photographer for a snowboarding magazine, appears in the midst of a wicked snowstorm, taking Torah's breath away. Old feelings rekindle and Torah finds herself in a whirlwind of risky emotions. Will Torah decide to give love another chance? Or will Cale leave her on Christmas, breaking her heart again?

From the internationally best-selling author of The Alchemist comes The Pine Tree at St. Martin, a never-before-published Christmas parable for the ages. Fans of Paulo Coelho will immediately recognize the master storyteller's incomparable voice, and will treasure this story's simplicity and poignancy for many Christmas seasons to come.

What do you do when you see children whose lives are so bad it breaks your heart? One woman took a risk. What she saw was none of her business. But to love...was her business. From the author of a Top-100 Free eBook for Kindle, "Killing of Train-Man Brown" and "The Christmas Mirror: Santa's Last Letter to a Wonderful Child" (number-one in two categories in both the US and UK).

Private investigator Jade O'Reilly thought her worst Christmas dilemma involved finding the perfect gift for her significant other. That was before she agreed to help Agnes Sturgis, the crankiest old biddy in all of Sweetwater, NC. Every day, for the 12 days leading up to Christmas, Agnes wakes up to a yard filled with Christmas decorations. But in Agnes's opinion, "they're not decorations; they're property damage!"

Tempers run high, and patience stretches thin as personalities clash over the current year's Christmas pageant. A new director, a conflicted pastor, and a star who can't remember her lines all conspire to make a successful production more difficult, until an unexpected participant offers a solution that showcases for all those involved the true meaning of Christmas.

After Joel splashes mud from his utility truck on a pretty woman who works at the mall, he wonders how he can ever make it up to her. Holli Segal can't wait for her first big break to design the Christmas display window for Schroder Toys. But when a circuit breaker blows, she's sunk. Will Joel be able to light up Holli's Christmas in more ways than one

Very much in the style of L. Frank Baum ( The Wizard of Oz), this story shows that Harry Potter was not the first remarkably popular world hit in junior literature. A Kidnapped Santa Claus, a fun fantasy, is actually a continuation of the first novel Baum wrote in this vein, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. In it, he charts his hero's life from a foundling in the forest to becoming all children's favorite uncle. This story, though, has the advantage of brevity.