A Christmas Tale: And Other Stories

Christmas is a time for miracles, and in each of the stories in "A Christmas Tale and Other Stories," wondrous things happen.-- A blizzard, a wreck, and two Samaritans show an estranged mother the way back to her children and to faith.-- Beggars outside an upscale L.A. church and a young girl teach the congregation the true meaning of Christmas.-- A girl encounters an angelic messenger after wishing on an heirloom ornament and learns her mother’s secret, a secret that has shaped both their lives.-- Ever-burning Christmas lights annoy Mrs. Emory’s neighbor, until the woman learns that Mrs. Emory’s son has been MIA for forty years. On Christmas Eve, both learn of the son’s death—and the eternality of the spirit.-- An unemployed laborer finds a fat wallet and a gray kitten during a snow storm. The money will make a memorable Christmas and a better life for his two children, but can he live with his conscience?-- A reticent legal secretary who attends the firm’s annual Christmas party discovers, with the help of a magical corsage, how her life has impacted people in the past and the present, but also learns that the future is hers to shape.-- A Scrooge-like CPA is pressed into service as an emergency foster parent just before Christmas. His two small charges prove that money is secondary to kindness and love.-- An out-of-work drifter robbed and abandoned by a trucker is rescued by a passing Samaritan. When a disabled child disappears, he and the townsfolk search through a blizzard to find the boy. A mysterious voice leads him to the boy; his faith is restored.-- An old man confined to a nursing home is visited by guides who, through revisiting his past, show him that a hardened heart can be softened by empathy and unconditional love.-- An upwardly mobile executive reconnects with her long-lost sister and children when she volunteers at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving. When her sister contracts a potentially fatal infection, she realizes that family and love mean more than possessions.-- A widow takes her frustration and fear out on her three children, who must find a way to bring Mom back to them.