Customer Reviews

Can This Be Christmas? (Hardcover)

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I read this cute little story in the dead of summer and it seemed to transport me back in time to Christmas. This was a beautiful story - I plan to keep mine and read it to my child one day.

"Can This Be Christmas" is a short, nevertheless touching story which will hopefully become a classic must-read for all. Twenty-four hours is such a short period of time unless your plans have suddenly been drastically changed and you have no control over them. The cast of characters learn quickly that the Christmas spirit is alive and well in each of them. That spirit does present itself once a "child" shows them the way. Even the most hard hearted will get a little teary-eyed with this quaint tale.

This isn't one of Debbie Macomber's usual books. This isn't a romance, but it is wonderful all the same. People stuck in a New England train depot, each with their own baggage, wind up helping to make the birthday of our Saviour better for each one. I thought it was a great story.

On Christmas Eve, a monstrous snowstorm has shut down air traffic to and from all the Maine airports. Individuals with holiday plans rush to the train that is still taking passengers to Boston.

On board the train are several unhappy people, who want to be at their holiday destination. Naval shipmate Len Dawber is heading to Texas to ask the woman he loves to marry him. Cathy Norris, whose husband just passed away, cannot cope with being alone during this season of joy. She is going to stay with her daughter. After a fight with his wife, Matthew McHugh is angry and bitter and, at least this year, feels the holiday is a bah humbug! New parents, Kelly and Nick Berry just adopted a baby, but wonder if they are going to fail as parents.

The train is forced to stop in a small New Hampshire town due to debris on tracks up ahead. This forces these and other strangers to spend Christmas Eve with one another either as fellow spirited travelers or individual Scrooges. CAN THIS BE CHRISTMAS is a fabulous Yuletide novella that will please readers of relationship tales. That master storyteller, Deb Stover, brilliantly describes the evolution from irate, insolent, and insulting individuals to a happy group sharing a special holiday. Anyone needing a lift should peruse this warm and charming tale.

Harriet Klausner

This book was cute and easy to read. It is the classic scenario but none the less very uplifting and wonderful!!! Keeping these books around remind us all of what is important and I am glad to add it to my collection!

A wonderful christmas story with all the trimmings. I enjoyed all of the characters (and there were many)and how they all went through a heart change. It showed how sometimes the littlest act of faith and kindness can have the hugest impacts in our lives. Debbie has a way of writing that draws you in so that you actually feel as though you are part of the story.

Can This Be Christmas is novella with a Christmas theme by Debbie Macomber. A disparate group of people are stuck in an out-of-the-way railway depot on Christmas Eve due to a snowstorm, all wanting to be at their destination: the recently widowed Cathy on her way to visit her daughter; the submariner Len, with an engagement ring in his pocket for his girl in Texas; the cranky businessman Matt, who's not sure of his marriage; the new parents, Nick and Kelly, with their just-adopted baby; Elise, the divorced mum of 5-year-old Kathy. Everyone is tense and unhappy: no-one had planned to spend Christmas like this. Then the stationmaster, Clayton Kemper, drops in with a sorry-looking Christmas tree. Soon enough, the group begin to decorate the tree and share their food and gifts. A sweet story from Debbie Macomber about the effect that people can have on each other's attitude by showing some goodwill.