Plough Publishing sent me a copy of this book to read for review (thank you). It has been published, so you can grab a copy now. This would make a wonderful Christmas gift.
I found three stories that particularly touched me and I want to share them with you:
The Miraculous Staircase by Arthur Gordon is a good story about how a staircase was built to the choir loft when it was impossible with the configuration of the church. What makes it more meaningful to me is that I live in New Mexico and the church it's written about is in Santa Fe. That gravity defying staircase is really there. And the wood used for it doesn't grow in New Mexico...
The Riders of St. Nicholas by Jack Schaefer has some cowboys that are left at the ranch to take care of things while the other boys go to town. They plan on lazing around all weekend but after they found out the fence was down and weather was getting bad, they decided they better repair it so they don't lose some stock. What they find is a man almost frozen and when they take him home, they end up finding some more presents and they donate the meal left for them. They might be rough and tough cowboys, but they had hearts of gold.
The Vexation of Barney Hatch by B J Chute is really cute. Barney plays Santa long enough to get enough money for his bottle of liquor. But one kid is really persistent and even waits for him after his shift. He wants his harmonica promised last Christmas and never delivered. Barney tries to brush him off but the kid won't go away. He finally agrees to go look at the harmonica. Poor Barney...
There are a lot of older stories in here and several I hadn't read before. This is a treasury of Christmas stories that you will want to mine again and again. Great stories never get stale.
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