A True Story by Jaye Lewis – used with permission We prowled through the second hand bookstore, the day after Christmas, just my husband, Louie, our daughters, Jenny and Helen, and me. This was a precious time for us, because we would be splitting up as a family, again, in …
Read More »A Texas Angel
Date: Week before Christmas, 2004 Place: Central Texas All I really wanted for Christmas was to do something to support our troops. I prayed on this goal daily until I thought I had received an answer, about how to help the troops. I started searching and found a great list of troops requesting …
Read More »Ask Any Soldier
Wounded Vets take train to the Army-Navy Game
A TRUE Story... and one of the best Christmas stories you'll ever hear.
It's an amazing story of a wealthy Philadelphia couple which organized a train composed of privately-owned railroad cars to carry wounded vets from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital to the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia.
-- By Ronnie Polaneczky
For The Philadelphia Daily News, published December 22, 2005
Cards You Will Never See At Hallmark
"I've always wanted to have someone to hold, someone to love.
After having met you, I've changed my mind."
"I must admit, you brought religion into my life. I never believed in Hell till I met you."
"Looking back over the years that we've been together, I can't help but wonder: What the heck was I thinking?"
"As the days go by, I think of how lucky I am that you're not here to ruin it for me."
"If I get only one thing for Christmas, I hope it's your sister."
Listening at Christmas, and Always
-- By Roger Darlington
A few years after I left my secondary school in Manchester, I was invited to help out with the school's Christmas Fair and I decided to have a go at being Father Christmas. I had recently grown my first full beard and thought that I would enter into the role by rubbing flour into my growth. Though I say it myself, I looked rather splendid and certainly I attracted lots of custom.
Read More »The Marine and the Girl Next Door
-- by Tony (The Marine) Santiago
Christmas Eve 1921
"It is always more blessed to give than to receive."
Read More »The Yellow Shirt
-- Author Unknown
The baggy yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large pockets trimmed in black thread and snaps up the front. It was faded from years of wear, but still in decent shape. I found it in 1963 when I was home from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom intended to give away.
"You're not taking that old thing, are you?" Mom said when she saw me packing the yellow shirt. "I wore that when I was pregnant with your brother in 1954!"
The Best Teacher Ever
Author Unknown
There is a story from many years ago of a primary school teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thompson. And as she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same.
But that was impossible because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.
Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. And, Teddy could be unpleasant.