by Joe Wheeler
PUBLISHED BY DOUBLEDAY
a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036
DOUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are trademarks of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of the editor/compiler.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Christmas in my heart. Selections
Christmas in my heart: a timeless treasury of heartwarming stories / [compiled and edited by] Joe Wheeler.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Selections of the short stories included in the edition published by Review and Herald Pub.
Associates, c1992–c1995.
1. Christmas stories, American. I. Wheeler, Joe L., 1936—. II. Title.
PS648.C45C4472 1996
813’.010833—dc20
96-25672
eISBN: 978-0-307-82262-8
Copyright © 1996 by Joe Wheeler
All Rights Reserved
v3.1
Acknowledgments
Introduction: “Once Upon A Christmas” by Joseph Leininger Wheeler. Copyright © 1996 by Joseph Leininger Wheeler. Printed by permission of the author.
“The Last Straw” by Paula Palangi McDonald. Copyright © 1979 by Paula Palangi McDonald. Published in Family Circle/Women’s Day, December 1979. Published as a separate book by David C. Cook, 1992. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Jubilee Agreement” by Terry Beck. Copyright © 1990 by Terry Beck. Published in Virtue Magazine, November–December 1992. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Trouble at the Inn” by Dina Donohue. Reprinted by permission from Guideposts Magazine, copyright © 1966 by Guideposts, Carmel, NY 10512.
“The Gold and Ivory Tablecloth” by Howard C. Schade. Reprinted by permission from The Reader’s Digest, December 1954. Copyright © 1954 by The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
“A Father for Christmas,” author and original source unknown.
“A Gift from the Heart” by Norman Vincent Peale. Reprinted by permission from The Reader’s Digest, January 1968. Copyright © 1968 by The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
“Christmas in the New World” by Rosina Kiehlbauch. Reprinted by permission of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, who published it in their Journal, Winter 1980.
“The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry (William Sidney Porter). Published in O. Henry’s collection The Four Million, Doubleday and Company, New York, 1906.
“Charlie’s Blanket” by Wendy Miller. Copyright © 1995 by Wendy Miller. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Star Across the Tracks” by Bess Streeter Aldrich. Published in Aldrich’s Journey into Christmas, Appleton Century Crafts, Inc., New York, 1949. Copyright 1949, 1963 by Meredith Publishing Company. Used by permission of Dutton Signet, a division of Penguin Books, USA, Inc.
“The Candle in the Forest” by Temple Bailey. Published in Bailey’s collection The Holly Edge and Other Christmas Stories, Penn Publishing Company, Philadelphia, 1925.
“A Full House” by Madeleine L’Engle. Copyright © 1980 by Crosswicks Ltd. Reprinted by permission of Lescher and Lescher Ltd.
“My Christmas Miracle” by Taylor Caldwell. Copyright © 1961 by Taylor Caldwell. Published in Family Circle, December 24, 1961. Reprinted by permission of the William Morris Agency on behalf of the author.
“A Day of Pleasant Bread” by David Grayson (Ray Stannard Baker). Published in Adventures in Friendship, Doubleday, Page & Co., 1910.
“Stranger, Come Home” by Pearl S. Buck. Copyright © 1967 by Creativity, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.
“The Bells of Christmas Eve” by Joseph Leininger Wheeler. Copyright © 1989 by Joseph Leininger Wheeler. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Once Upon A Christmas
Joe Wheeler
The Last Straw
Paula Palangi McDonald
The Jubilee Agreement
Terry Beck
Trouble at the Inn
Dina Donohue
The Gold and Ivory Tablecloth
Howard C. Schade
A Father for Christmas
Author Unknown
A Gift from the Heart
Norman Vincent Peale
Christmas in the New World
Rosina Kiehlbauch
The Gift of the Magi
O. Henry
Charlie’s Blanket
Wendy Miller
Star Across the Tracks
Bess Streeter Aldrich
The Candle in the Forest
Temple Bailey
A Full House
Madeleine L’Engle
My Christmas Miracle
Taylor Caldwell
A Day of Pleasant Bread
David Grayson
Stranger, Come Home
Pearl S. Buck
The Bells of Christmas Eve
Joe Wheeler
Once Upon
A Christmas
INTRODUCTION
“Once upon a time” … any self-respecting fairy tale begins there. Born as they are in the folk-consciousness of a people, fairy tales deal not with externals but with the basics, with the wellsprings of our thoughts and actions. The same is true of the Christmas story in its countless variations. The good ones—the ones that refuse to die—are almost primitive in their simplicity and lack of subterfuge. And they are unabashedly sentimental.
Of all the times in the year when sentiment prevails, none exceeds Christmas. Undoubtedly, the time of year helps. The nights are getting longer, the air is cold and crisp, snow flocks city and county streets with ermine, the pace of life slows just a little, and the low temperatures make us more aware of the presence or absence of human warmth, in whatever form it may manifest itself. It’s hard to imagine us singing Christmas carols in the sweltering heat of July, for instance. Somehow nature, tradition, and coincidental good timing joined forces to bring us this most special of all days at just the right time of year.
Christmas is family time … thus at no time in the year are the survivors of death or separation more likely to be racked by waves of loneliness. And let’s face it, sadly, many of us are very “Lonely.” We are a culture of isolated individuals pretending to be happily self-sufficient, but we are getting lonelier. We try to block out just how lonely we are with all sorts of artificial barricades: television, radio, chatter, movies, videos, activity, liquor, drugs, sports; and most of the year we succeed fairly well. Except at Christmas. For some reason the normal defenses simply don’t work at Christmas. When you can’t go home at Christmas you realize just how dead-end and lacking in substance or meaning life is, as evidenced in the increased holiday-season suicide rate.
One of the greatest tragedies of our time is the shattering of the family unit; without it, no nation has flourished long on this planet. Television and the mass media have replaced the family and God as the centers of our society. When Christ-less programming of the child’s ethical framework takes the place of God and value-centered home and church programming, the result is a lost generation.
But all is not lost. And one of the solutions to our dilemma is to rediscover the enduring “Once Upon A Christmas” values, recognizing that a society—or a family—divorced from God can do nothing but self-destruct.
Again, we come back to sentiment. One can no more truly experience Christmas in all its dimensions without emotion than one can fall in love on a
purely rational plane. Part of the loveliness of Christmas lies in this melodious interplay of love, caring, laughter, tears, forgiveness, empathy, and healing among the strings of our souls. The awesome power of great Christmas stories is that they make us laugh or cry, uplift our spirit, radically change our behavior patterns so that we may begin life anew.
One of the earliest and fondest memories of my childhood has to do with these stories that touch the heart. Often I wing my way backward through time by recalling the real tree, the real caring, the real people, the real relationships with others and God that these “Once Upon A Christmas” stories revealed.
And when I see these scenes flashed on my memory’s video screen again, almost invariably, there she is: Mother. An elocutionist of the old school, Mother knew the great stories almost by heart. Those great ones that never grew old, no matter how many times we had heard them before. We knew them practically by heart ourselves: We knew when the funny parts were nearing … and we knew by Mother’s slowing pace that she was going to cry. It was stories such as these that painted individual Christmas canvases with such vivid colors. So timeless and precious are these stories that no sacrifice is too much, no cost too great, to pay in order to go “home for Christmas” and hear those cathartic stories once again. They give meaning to love, family, home, and God—they bring the real Christmas into focus.
HOW THIS COLLECTION CAME TO BE
It all started so innocently, so casually, one cold winter evening on Maryland’s Severn River. Inside, the fire was blazing in the weathered brick fireplace, and I had collapsed in an easy chair after a hard week. One of my students and I were talking. We spoke of many things—I can’t remember what—but I do remember her question: “Dr. Wheeler, have you ever thought of writing a Christmas story?” Not accustomed to this role reversal, I, the teacher, reluctantly took on the role of student. I got up out of my easy chair and searched for paper and my black Pilot pen (my muse—it only unlocks my ideas), then sat down and started dreaming up a story. From time to time during that weekend, I shoved a page under her nose and asked for input. Thus was born my first Christmas story, “The Snow of Christmas.”
About two years later, my first collection of Christmas stories (published by Review & Herald) hit the market, and I lost control of my life. I became prisoner of this long pent-up need for a different kind of Christmas story. For each of the last three Christmas seasons, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family has chosen a Christmas in My Heart story to anchor his Christmas message of the year, hence the stories have been read by untold millions as a result.
Out of all this, Dr. Mark Fretz, senior religion editor for Doubleday noticed the stories. So deeply moved was he by what he read that together we have raced this manuscript to press in time for the 1996 Christmas season.
Providentially, I have been collecting stories all my life. In recent years, however, all across the United States and Canada, readers have decided to keep my feet to the fire by inundating me with wave after wave of stories, stories that are so old they are crumbling into fragments. Not a moment too soon did I begin this ministry of bringing them back!
Unquestionably, the golden age of Christmas stories occurred during the first third of this century; actually, it began in the 1890s and receded during the forties. Clearly, this was a period of spiritual renewal in America … and, not surprisingly, it parallels the Social Gospel Period. This was born with Charles Sheldon’s In His Steps in 1898 and flowered with Harold Bell Wright’s Trilogy: That Printer of Udel’s, The Calling of Dan Matthews, and God and the Groceryman. These authors held a deep conviction that the essence of Christianity is not sterile doctrine, but the application of Biblical principles into a caring relationship with all those with whom we come in contact on a daily basis.
Now again, at century’s end, Christmas and families and caring are becoming special. During the holidays you see families making more of an attempt to get together. Paradoxically, in an age when one out of every two marriages ends in divorce, you see an almost feverish attempt to corral the few shreds of family that remain.
Which brings us to orphans. Interestingly enough, a surprisingly large number of the memorable Christmas stories deal with orphans. Today, orphans in the traditional sense are vastly outnumbered by “orphans” who are deprived of adult love and protection by divorce. Let’s face it: The results are almost indistinguishable. In fact, it oft appears that divorce may be more traumatic—no matter what the age—than physical death. I am reminded of one of the most moving open letters I have ever read, a letter that was addressed to the editor of a large metropolitan newspaper. The writer was a middle-aged woman whose senior-citizen parents had recently divorced, the father having found someone younger and more attractive. The writer observed that the resulting loss of a family center came home to roost every Christmas because there was no longer any home to go to. Mom was alone—embittered and impoverished—in a small apartment; Dad and his new live-in represented a totally alien world, a world that the daughter and family felt was antithetical to their values. So utterly lost did she feel, in a moral sense, that she found herself, even at middle age, floundering in a sea of doubt, unable to find bedrock anywhere.
There is a crucial difference between Christmas stories that merely entertain and those that touch the heart. I have seen a number of anthologies of Christmas stories for sale, and bought them—on the strength of the title or reviews, all of which trumpeted the news that they were “great” Christmas stories—only to discover that the bulk (if not all) of them, although technically well written, although featuring some of the most famous names of our age, lacked that one ingredient I consider absolutely essential: touching the heart itself. Without this intangible variable, I personally refuse to grant an accolade such as “great” to any story, no matter how much of a highflier the author is, and no matter how well written the story may be from a literary point of view.
The other side of the coin is that from a purely technical point of view, a number of the stories I have included in this treasury are flawed, nevertheless I included them because of their emotive and convicting power.
MY DREAM
It is my sincere hope that this collection of stories (culled from thousands) will represent more than shelf fodder to you, that the characters in these stories will become old friends—to be taken down and shared with your family and friends every Christmas season. I included only those stories that I have shared with others enough to be certain of their power.
Most important of all, however, there was one factor motivating me finally, after all these years, to take the time to select the pure gold of the collection for publication. That was the conviction that there is such a great need today for Christ-centered Christmas stories that will remind us, every time we read one, that this is really what Christmas—and life itself—is all about. Without it, Christmas is but a hollow drum beaten by commercial opportunists, or to paraphrase Shakespeare, “a tale, told by an idiot, full of sophistry and futility, signifying nothing.”
I have taken occasional editorial liberties: updating words or terms that have become archaic or have acquired negative connotations.
Welcome to the timeless world of Christmas.
CODA
Each reader of this collection can make a difference. If enough readers respond positively to the collection and communicate their reactions to me, we will consider putting together additional collections of stories—there are so many splendid ones I had to leave out! (And, if you know the earliest origin or true authorship of a story we have not been able to track to its source, please relay that to us so we can correct it before another printing.) Furthermore, I am positive that some of the greatest stories haven’t even been found yet; thus I hope that each of you will search for them and take the time to send me copies of the best ones for possible inclusion in the next collection (be sure to include author, publisher, and date, if possible). You may contact me at the following address:
Joe L.
Wheeler, Ph.D.
c/o Doubleday Religion Department
1540 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
The
Last Straw
PAULA PALANGI MCDONALD
The McDonalds have discovered the joy of Christmas, but they don’t see the true meaning until they reach the last straw.
“The Last Straw” is a true story that you can incorporate into your Christmas. It’s easy. Even children as young as three can understand giving in secret and participate enthusiastically. “The Last Straw” offers a way to bring back the true spirit and meaning of Christmas.
It changed forever the way our family prepared our hearts for Christmas. It can change yours, too. All you really need is a handful of straw.
—Paula Palangi McDonald
It was another long winter afternoon with everyone stuck in the house. And the four little McDonalds were at it again—bickering, teasing, fighting over their toys.
At times like these, Mother was almost ready to believe that her children didn’t love each other, even though she knew that wasn’t really true. All brothers and sisters fight, of course, but lately her little bunch had been particularly horrible to one another, especially Eric and Kelly, who were just a year apart. They seemed determined to spend the whole long winter making each other miserable. Pick, pick, pick. Squabble, squabble, squabble.
“Gimme that. It’s mine!”
“Is not, fatso! I had it first!”
Mother sighed as she listened to the latest argument coming from the living room. With Christmas only a month away, the McDonald house seemed sadly lacking in Christmas spirit. This was supposed to be the season of sharing and love, of warm feelings and happy hearts. But where were those warm feelings and happy hearts? A home needed more than just pretty packages or twinkling lights on a tree to fill it with the Christmas spirit. But how could any mother convince her children that being kind to each other was the most important way to get ready for Christmas?