I was a single mother raising 4 children. Money was scarce. I had been working 2 sometimes 3 jobs just to pay the bills. Nothing extra. Christmas was soon approaching. As I lay awake night after night trying to figure out how my children were going to have Christmas, the tears would start flowing.

It would take a miracle to help me provide Christmas for them. That miracle happened around December 19th. My father sent $100.00 for the kids for Christmas.

Now came the decision of a lifetime. Do I go and spend $25.00 on each child and get a few little gifts? I had overheard my children discussing on how they wanted the new Nintendo. Hmmm, that could be another choice.

It was selling for exactly $99.99 back then. One present or a few little presents? I headed for the store and bought the Nintendo. Next dilemma, only one gift and 4 children, how will they all have something to open? Read More »

On December 19, 1995, my son Wyatt was born in respiratory distress. Because he was delivered by c-section, I had to remain in the hospital in our home town while Wyatt went first by ambulance, then by helicopter to the hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I had never known such sadness as wondering if my tiny boy was doing well or fading. I felt angry and then heartbroken that I couldn’t be with him, holding him while he fought so hard to survive.

My pastor and members of my church came to visit me many times. When I finally got word that Wyatt might be released from the hospital on Christmas Day, possibly Christmas Eve, I shared the news with my pastor. Read More »

I come from a blended family; my birth mother passed away when I was a baby. When I was two, my father remarried. His second wife already had a little girl who was seven years old at the time.

Because we each had two families, my sister and I would each spend Christmas Eve with the “other” family. I would go to my Grandmother’s and my sister would go to her Dad’s. We would all come together as one family to go to the midnight service at our church.

We would then have our family Christmas on Christmas morning. As I grew, my relationship with my birth mother’s family became more strained and I began to look forward more and more to attending the church service. Read More »

This Christmas I witnessed the blessing of a Christmas Miracle. The mystery around this miracle still remains. It was an answer to a prayer and who knows what guides the power of prayer.

My sister had five small children. Her husband spent his meager earnings at the local pub in a small southern Alberta hamlet where they lived.

My sister scrimped every year come Christmas time often making her children their Christmas present with scrap wood, old paint and whatever else she could put her hands on.

She yearned to be able to buy them nice gifts from the stores in the city but there was never enough money. One Christmas Eve, my sister and her family traveled to the nearest big city, which was over thirty miles away, for Midnight Mass. Read More »

I am getting to that age where I am hard to buy for. I’m 48 and have two wonderful thoughtful children. Last Christmas I received a beautiful pair of flannel P.J.’s from my daughter and a new wallet that she picked out for me while she was shopping with her friends in N.Y. Read More »

I am a 21 year old female but still celebrate a very traditional Christmas, presents, santa, and heir of mystery galore. This is mainly because I have a sister that is 10 years younger than I am, and she tends to keep the magic alive for our family. Read More »

I am a 43 year old woman with two children. I’m divorced and I’m sorry to say that most of my Christmas are a little like Mr Bean’s. He has no one who wants to give him gifts, but must buy them for himself and then act surprised to get them.

Last Christmas was quite unique in many ways. I had learned that my mother was diagnosed with cancer and that is was possibly terminal. I had decided to change careers and had left a job of ten years behind me.
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Christmas is my favorite holiday. I begin to decorate my home the day after Thanksgiving and shop all year for the perfect gift for family and friends. I am a forty-five year old woman who has been married for twenty-five years.

Through the years my husband has always tried to get me just the right Christmas present. For the first few years I always received something for the home, and longed for a personal gift. Then one year he got the hint from my sister and actually bought me a lovely outfit. I was thrilled.
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I remember when I was 11 years old, on Christmas we saved a dog and her name was Cheyenne.

Cheyenne was a husky and she was very beautiful. I remember how sweet it was when we would come home and she howl and greet us at the door. We had her for two years before this happened.

I believe it was Christmas eve and you know how people are running around a lot that day. Well she got out, and she was a runner. My father, uncle and me were chasing her down the street, sure enough she ran right into the food city. Read More »

My grandmother and father never really got along. She never felt he was good enough for my mother and had all she could do to pretend to like him for my mother and us kids.

When she was in her 70′s, she got cancer. She was scared and she no longer was able to stay at home by herself. My mother being an only child was distraught.

Suddenly one day in early December, my father announced without warning that grandma would be moving in as soon as she was well enough to be out of the hospital. My mother teared up and said a simple, “thank you.” Read More »