Christmas is a Season! 2008 (Paperback)

~ Linda Busby Parker (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mobile Press Register, Sunday, December 07, 2008

Reviewed by JIM ROBERTSON Special to the Press-Register

"Christmas is a Season! 2008," an anthology of short stories and essays collected from 28 writers in 11 states. Christmas 2008 may be a time of challenges for many of us, but these accounts of Christmases past offer hope, joy and reconciliation even in the midst of great difficulties, as in one writer's eyewitness account as a 15-year-old of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor just weeks before Christmas, or the flight of a potential suicide on Christmas Day.

The stories are multifaceted, some reflective, others challenging and still others with a whiff of whimsy. Some of the authors relate fond memories of traditions that younger generations may not know, and others detail the mischief that children can bring in their excitement over St. Nick's impending arrival.

Although many of the stories stir ideas of Currier & Ives vignettes, "Christmas is a Season! 2008" delves more often into the soul of the season. Dee Jordan's essay "The Grinch Who Didn't Steal Christmas" reflects on a recently divorced woman's first Christmas without her daughter and her inventive, unusual decision to take a round-trip flight to New York to fill the day. Kathleen Whitman Plucker's recounting of a delayed Christmas takes a different tack, moving the celebration to a different day entirely. An act of kindness to a stranger stranded in her car on a cold, snowy Michigan Christmas Eve is the focus of Joan Donaldson's essay, reminding those fortunate enough to have family near that many others face the season without such comfort, and that an act of generosity may find special, unspoken appreciation.

Some of the offerings jolt the reader, as occurs in Joyce Scarbrough's short story "Hope Chest," in which a young girl and her widower father confront Christmas without her mother. Tracy Hurley's "Matryoshka Dolls" opens with less than a warm-fuzzy feeling as a recalcitrant teen and her latest set of foster parents struggle to understand one another, but the journey of the story shows that Christmas offers a chance to take risks of the heart.

One of the most intriguing stories is Mobilian Cece Redmond's piece on traveling to Queensland, Australia, to celebrate a 95-degree Christmas down under with her Aussie in-laws kangaroos pulling Santa's sleigh is just the start of her adventure, which includes a crocodile. A "crikey!" Christmas, indeed! Mahala Church's memories of a 1950s Christmas at her grandparents' home in north Alabama, humorously and lovingly rendered in "Wonders Never Cease," span a different divide more than half a century to a world that many younger folks will find just as foreign.

Fiction or essay, contemporary or historical, cozy or compelling, the tapestry of the book finds its strength in all the ways that "the Christmas story" can be told. This collection challenges the reader to rethink what the season promises and what it can deliver, if only we'll allow it.

Jim Robertson is an attorney and a writer who lives in Mobile. --Mobile Press Register, Sunday, December 07, 2008

Product Description

From an eyewitness account of the December, 1941, bombing of Pearl Harbor, to a child s account of an actual sighting of Santa Claus streaking across the night sky, to a desperate commercial flight on Christmas Day a flight to avoid suicide to the appearance of an angel, a flesh-and-blood angel, Christmas is a Season! 2008 has it all.

In editing Christmas is a Season! 2008, I learned from the writers that the holidays are emotionally charged, and everyone has a Christmas story. Some seasons arrive with merriment, peace, joy, and good tidings toward all mankind. Other years, Christmas Day barrels down with the weight of family and individual loss, empty pocketbooks, depleted checking accounts, anxiety, depression, and a wish to retreat. The short stories and personal essays in Christmas is a Season! 2008 explore every square mile of the Christmas terrain in beautifully crafted prose. Enjoy! --Linda Busby Parker, Editor

Product Details

• Paperback: 275 pages
• Publisher: Excalibur Press; 2008 edition (November 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982062907
• ISBN-13: 978-0982062906
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #657,058 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Christmas Is a Season 2008, December 21, 2008

By	Delores J. Jordan "mobiledeelight" (Mobile, Alabama) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Want to get lost in a divergent group of Christmas stories that take you all the way from experiencing Christmas in a black out right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, an all day flight to NYC and back home to deal with the loneliness of a first Christmas after a divorce to the heat and different traditions of a Christmas "Down Under" in Australia? This book of Christmas stories talks about treasures from Christmas Past to changes of a middle class Christmas to the wonder of a blue-eyed doll when experiencing Christmas as a poor family. No one can think Christmas without thinking of Grandmother, how about a house full of grandmothers and young boy that captures your heart? Even an alcoholic father couldn't ruin Christmas for a spirited girl when her teacher gives her a library card. These stories are different, representing the good, the bad, and the ugly but in the end, the true spirit of Christmas. Twenty-nine authors from eleven states will satisfy and delight you with their Christmas tales.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Christmas Anthology - great book to read by a roaring fire, November 28, 2008

By	Mary B. Rogers (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Just finished this wonderful new Christmas anthology edited by Linda Busby Parker. This beautiful Christmas collection includes twenty eight heartwarming short stories and essays by writers in eleven different states. I plan to recommend it to my bookclub circle. We'll read one story every night til Christmas, with a few to spare, and then try to choose our favorite on Christmas Day. Every reader should find so many stories that ring true to their own personal warm memories of Christmases past or those they've heard in stories from long ago from their grandparents. I particularly enjoyed "Christmas Peddler" by Kentucky writer Mary Popham which reminds me of a cherished event passed down through word of mouth from my parents and grandparents. If you're looking for the perfect new Christmas book to enjoy with your family and friends, or to give as a thoughtful Christmas present, this is it. I highly recommend it and look forward to reading it all over again with my bookclub friends.