The House of Seven Santas

Jeff Westover Christmas Features, Christmas Stories December 1, 2017December 1, 2017 0 Comment

Editor’s Note: On December 1st, 2017 seven Christmas podcasters came together to share the 1912 short story The House of Seven Santas. MyMerryChristmas.com participated by providing the concluding segment of the story as can be heard via the player below. https://mymerrychristmas.com/mlp/mlpepisode22.mp3 To start at the beginning, please visit the Christmas Past Podcast hosted by Brian Earl to hear Part 1 of the story. Then jump to the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast with Sir Tim Babb, to hear Part 2. Part #3 belongs to the merry movie crew at Tis the Podcast — Anthony, Julia and Tom. Joseph Wade ofRead more

Jacob Marley and Me

Jeff Westover Christmas Memories, Christmas News, Christmas Stories August 1, 2017July 31, 2017true Christmas story 0 Comment

(Editors Note: This guest blogger wishes to remain anonymous. Over a period of three weeks of July 2017 I met with her by phone as she told me her story and explained how she wanted it told. It has been through many revisions. This is a true story, difficult in parts to read. But at the same time it is one of the most profound Christmas stories I have ever had related to me.) “Marley was dead to begin with…” So wrote Charles Dickens to begin telling his story, A Christmas Carol. I identify a lot with Marley. And comeRead more

My Private Christmas

Jeff Westover Christmas Features, Christmas Memories, Christmas Stories, Christmas Traditions January 2, 2017January 2, 2017Christmas devotion 2 Comments

The presents are all unwrapped. Santa’s stockings are emptied. Signs of yet another great Christmas celebration are everywhere. And my husband and children are asleep. The lights on the tree still shine and this is my time for my private Christmas. It is private because most don’t understand it. I didn’t understand it at first. Like everyone else I grew up with the traditions of Christmas. The mistletoe, the concerts, the decorations, the bustle of gifting and fixing foods and enjoying gatherings. Those things are still a part of it. But Christmas isn’t Christmas for me until my private Christmas.Read more

Lessons from a Christmas with No Money

Special to My Merry Christmas Christmas Community, Christmas Stories, Frugal Christmas December 3, 2016December 3, 2016Christmas giving, frugal Christmas, others, service 0 Comment

The best Christmas we ever had was the Christmas when we had nothing. A series of events during a difficult year led to that best Christmas. In early April I was diagnosed with breast cancer. A rush of doctor visits, a surgery, and months of recovery led to an extended period of time away from my work. As Thanksgiving approached I was still too weak and sick to return to work. My husband was unexpectedly laid off from his job in July when the company he worked for was sold and operations were moved out of the country. We hadRead more

Mr. Dog’s Christmas at Hollow Tree Inn

Jeff Westover Christmas Stories November 22, 2016November 21, 2016Mr. Dog's Christmas 2 Comments

As a boy one of my secret adventures was to scour the bookshelves at my grandmother’s house for books I could not find anywhere else. Grandma and I were a match made in heaven – I was a bookworm and she was a school teacher. I read not only from her vast collection of Reader’s Digest and Saturday Evening Post but I also greatly enjoyed her collection of children’s books that dated back to her own childhood. Among her collection was a book that contained stories of “Mr. Dog” and other characters set in Hollow Tree. So when a passionateRead more

Reading Dickens

Jeff Westover Christmas Features, Christmas Opinion, Christmas Past, Christmas Stories December 2, 2015December 1, 2015A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 2 Comments

Everyone knows the story of A Christmas Carol backwards and forwards. Pick a version by decade and you’re bound to find one you love. Everyone can claim to have seen a big or a small screen version of it. But have you ever read it? I confess it never passed in front of my eyes until I was an adult. It was during one of my first Christmas seasons alone — a bleak time when I felt more than sorry for myself for being alone at Christmas. I picked up the book in a store and thought I could wallowRead more

The Halifax Christmas Disaster of 1917

Jeff Westover Christmas History, Christmas Past, Christmas Stories October 11, 2014Christmas disaster 0 Comment

By B. Francis Morlan Editor’s Note: Every December the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia sends a Christmas tree to the City of Boston, Massachusetts. This story explains how that came about. December of 1917 was a time when the world was in transition. The horrors of World War I were known and the prospects of a merry Christmas were subdued in communities across the world as men and women left the safety of home to engage in the world’s first truly modern war. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, the cares of the world felt a bit distant. A busy seaport, itRead more

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