12 NEW CHRISTMAS STORIES

Broxson edits a collection of Yuletide tales to put readers in the mood for the holiday season.

In Lee Allen Hill’s “Jesús and Donkey,” a boy tries to buy a turkey for his mother for their first Christmas since his father’s death; then, he and his dog encounter a mountain lion. In “The Magic of Santa’s Christmas Box” by Diane Kenel-Truelove, a girl who steadfastly believes in Santa Claus discovers a mysterious box waiting for her—and just for her—on the family porch. And in Ann Mullen-Martin’s “A Christmas Gift,” a widowed former foster parent gets an unexpected request. In the Old West, mountain man Kit learns a new spin on the Christmas tree tradition from his Arapahoe wife—or so the narrator of Terry Broxson’s “The Christmas Tree,” a talking, eggnog-drinking cat named Holly, would have her audience believe. In this anthology of short stories and personal essays, readers are treated to accounts of kindness between relatives, friends, and strangers that bring a bit of light to what is, for some, the darkest time of the year. Several pieces describe Christmas scenes from decades past—one nonfiction piece by Jay Squires (“Bring Back the Carolers”) ends in an appeal for Americans to carol more, as they did during the writer’s childhood: But each effectively strikes upon timeless holiday values of togetherness, generosity, goodwill, and cheer. Broxson contributes two humorous entries, but the anthology is dominated by the work of Hill, Kenel-Truelove, and Martin-Mullen, who provide three tales apiece. Whether recounting fact or fiction, the stories are of the sentimental variety, with little, if any, conflict. They’re generally more concerned with capturing the elusive feelings that people have around Christmas: “My heart filled with the magic of their voices, all mixed in my memory with rising steam from a held note vanishing an instant later,” writes Squires. “Little things like that carried so many meanings—meanings I’m struggling to pin down so they don’t slither away.” This is a collection of such little things, and it’s perfect for fireside reading on a snowy night.

A pleasantly nostalgic book of Christmas stories and reminiscences.