You've gotten through the special day. You seen your family and passed out all your gifts. All the food is put away. So what comes next?

🎄Read a Christmas story! Curl up next to a fire (or if you don't have one, pull up a fire with colorful 🌈 flames on YouTube). Grab a cup of coffee or even better, of cocoa, and disappear into the pages.

As a 1st grader, I fell in love with Christmas stories through Ideals, November 1972 Vol. 29, No. 6 (shown above). A gift, it was the only issue of Ideals we ever had. My sister Shari and I read it, cover-to-cover, every year. Besides stories, it contained devotionals, poetry and even recipes. But of course, we were obsessed with the stories.

A small hardback copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was my 1st Christmas book. I'm not even sure when or where I got it, but even back to my college years, it was stored in a small box with all the Christmas ornaments I had made and those friends had given to me.

Through the years, I picked up more Christmas books. I'm not obsessed with owning every one I find; the books have to have a certain feel, story-wise, which I probably can't even explain.

I don't know if I'll ever write a book-length Christmas story like these, but until then, I'll continue to pen short and long essays.

Because the world needs more Christmas stories.

________

Photo of Archie Will. Used without permission. But I doubt he's going to complain about it. 🐈‍⬛ The bookshelf was made by my grandfather, Kenneth V. Batkins, who passed away when he was only a year older than I am.