The Christmas Stories

Christmas is our most beloved holiday. No other holiday is so richly decorated, seasoned by joy, and trumpeted with music. It is so big it must be celebrated in a variety of traditions. The Christmas Stories is a collection of twenty pieces that explore these traditions, sometimes with humor. The stories were written and read aloud by the author, one each year, at an annual advent worship service at St Stephen Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, to not only entertain but to inspire readers and listeners to find their own Christmas stories to share. The stories in The Christmas Stories are a mix of fact and fiction but, regardless, address certain truths about Christmas we never question. For example, we know that every year we go home for Christmas, even if it's just a journey of the heart, and that children agonize having to wait one slow day at a time for Christmas to arrive, while adults embrace the wait and even give it a name, advent. And that even secularists celebrate the holiday as the highest altar of peace, love, and joy. The Christmas Stories is meant not only to entertain but to inspire readers to find their own stories to share about this most beloved season.