Special thanks to L. M. McCleland – author and contributor of this story!
I awoke hearing Mom calling everyone to dinner. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings. I shook my head. Was that a dream? It was so real. I lurched out of my room to the top of the stairs and [...]

Special thanks to L. M. McCleland – author and contributor of this story!
Grandpa and I sat silently for a moment, while I drank it all in. “Wow, that all sounds like a fairy tale,” I said, a little awestruck.
“Well, I did say it was the best Christmas ever,” said Grandpa.
“What made it the best for [...]

Special thanks to L. M. McCleland – author and contributor of this story!
I sat on my bed feeling a little guilty. Not too much though, just a little. The wind yelled at me, but I tried to ignore it. I laid back and jammed with my tunes for a little while, and I’m sure I [...]

Special thanks to L. M. McCleland – author and contributor of this story!
“How much farther? Are we there yet?” whined the Squirt in between mouthfuls of candy. Susan was sitting next to him in the back seat of the van. I’d heard enough, so I cranked up the volume on my iPod and settled sideways [...]

Sometimes it is easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas. The busy traditions of the season and the appealing advertisements for material goods can leave the pure and simple truths far, far behind.
Jake was nine years old with tousled brown hair with blue eyes as bright as a heavenly angel. For as long as [...]

One day, in Russia, there was a heavy snowstorm. The snow was deep on the ground; and in the
forest the branches of the trees bent under its weight.
In this forest a little girl was struggling along. There was no path for her to follow, for the snow covered all
the paths. The little girl’s name was [...]

Every boy likes snow on Christmas Day, but there is such a thing as too much of it. Henry Ives, alone in the long railroad coach, stared out of the clouded windows at the whirling mass of snow with feelings of  dismay. It was the day before Christmas, almost Christmas Eve. Henry did not feel [...]

In Philadelphia the rich and the poor live cheek by jowl–or rather, back to back. Between the streets of the rich and parallel to them, run the alleys of the poor. The rich man’s garage jostles elbows with the poor man’s dwelling. In a big house fronting on one of the most fashionable streets lived [...]

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. [...]

This December, I vow to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I will have to cut back on nonessential obligations, extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending.  I do not want to find myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas.
My son, Nicholas, [...]