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Christmas in My Heart, A Second Treasury: More Heartwarming Tales of Holiday Joy
According to the New York Times Book Review, there are a few secrets to a good Christmas story:
It should have a meaning.
It should include a dying child.
It should make readers cry.
Any promise is possible.
It should be short enough to read in one sitting.
Most important, it should tell a story.
If these are what make a Christmas story good, Christmas in My Heart, A Second Treasury will bring you nonstop Christmas joy. From cover to cover, all fourteen of these stories represent the best in holiday memories. And in reading them, you are creating memories for years to come.
Amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, decorating, concerts, and parties, it is sometimes easy to forget what makes this time of year so special. Nothing brings the real reason for Christmas into focus better than reading beloved stories that touch our hearts. And no one brings us those stories better than Joe Wheeler, whose Christmas in My Heart won the favor of loyal readers from coast to coast.
In Christmas in My Heart, A Second Treasury, Wheeler works his magic once again, bringing the joy of Christmas alive for even those Scrooges among us. Its traditional and contemporary stories set this apart as a collector's item in the making--one destined to stand the test of time. Whether we are laughing with Miss Enderby in "Jolly Miss Enderby," crying with Dr. Loomis in "The Tiny Foot," or feeling the warm glow of happiness in "Christmas Is for Families," all of these wonderful stories bring us true peace.
Whether you buy it because Joe Wheeler is so well known, or because the individual stories in this edition touch your heart, Christmas in My Heart, A Second Treasury is the best gift you can give anyone this Christmas, even yourself.
It should have a meaning.
It should include a dying child.
It should make readers cry.
Any promise is possible.
It should be short enough to read in one sitting.
Most important, it should tell a story.
If these are what make a Christmas story good, Christmas in My Heart, A Second Treasury will bring you nonstop Christmas joy. From cover to cover, all fourteen of these stories represent the best in holiday memories. And in reading them, you are creating memories for years to come.
Amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, decorating, concerts, and parties, it is sometimes easy to forget what makes this time of year so special. Nothing brings the real reason for Christmas into focus better than reading beloved stories that touch our hearts. And no one brings us those stories better than Joe Wheeler, whose Christmas in My Heart won the favor of loyal readers from coast to coast.
In Christmas in My Heart, A Second Treasury, Wheeler works his magic once again, bringing the joy of Christmas alive for even those Scrooges among us. Its traditional and contemporary stories set this apart as a collector's item in the making--one destined to stand the test of time. Whether we are laughing with Miss Enderby in "Jolly Miss Enderby," crying with Dr. Loomis in "The Tiny Foot," or feeling the warm glow of happiness in "Christmas Is for Families," all of these wonderful stories bring us true peace.
Whether you buy it because Joe Wheeler is so well known, or because the individual stories in this edition touch your heart, Christmas in My Heart, A Second Treasury is the best gift you can give anyone this Christmas, even yourself.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 1997
7 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Joe L. Wheeler
118 books37 followersJoe Wheeler has been labeled many things: as Father Christmas because of his editing/compiling America’s longest-running Christmas of story series — Christmas in My Heart (now in its 18th season); as one of America’s leading story anthologists (56 story collections by twelve publishing houses); as the world’s foremost authority on life and times of the frontier writer Zane Grey (he is co-founder and executive director of the international Zane Grey’s West Society); as a biographer, having written full-length biographies of Abraham Lincoln and St. Nicholas and shorter biographies of Louisa May Alcott, Abbie Farwell Brown, Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Gene Stratton Porter, Grace Richmond, Henryk Sienkiewicz, and Lew Wallace; and as a Renaissance Man because of his encyclopedic interest in everything (popular culture as well as the academic); and his master’s degree in the teaching of History, his master’s degree in English (thesis on Utopian and Dystopian literature), and his Vanderbilt doctorate in English (History of Ideas emphasis).
Because of all these variables, and stirring in his 71 books (and counting), this blog series promises to be unlike any other — and that’s why he titles the series, “UNCHARTED WATERS.”
Because of all these variables, and stirring in his 71 books (and counting), this blog series promises to be unlike any other — and that’s why he titles the series, “UNCHARTED WATERS.”
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 26, 2019
I enjoyed this anthology of Christmas stories even better than the first volume in this series. It's a gift from a friend, I read the first volume last Christmas, and this Christmas, I've read this one.
They are, of course, sentimental short stories, but some are well done, and I wasn't already familiar with any of them, as I had with the first volume.
Some of these I would read again, which means I would rate this between a 4 and a 5.
I loved "Jolly Miss Enderby," showing that even cheerful people who bring others joy can suffer loneliness. I've known a few Miss Enderbys, I think. And I would love to invite them over for Christmas, but we are usually with family, here or there, and it is not my place to invite, or to add another person to the table, as it's not my table, so to speak. It is an idea to remember for my own older years, though, when my table is more my own.
I also loved "Roses in December." I had that happen to me this year on a much smaller scale. Someone else gave a gift and intentionally said it was from me. It wasn't, or not exactly, and I was astonished when the recipient wrote me a glowing thank you. I should, in all honesty, have probably thought to remember their struggles this Christmas and given a gift, but I hadn't. I know who the real giver was, too, because she confessed to me, in case I should receive any thanks - but had confessed after I'd already received the thanks. It was a grown woman, not a teen prankster.
Anyway, I faced the dilemma of whether or not to keep the secret and accept the thanks that were not truly due me. In the end, I made some vague statement that neither enlightened the recipient of the true giver nor refused the reflected kindness back to me. Sham though the scheme was. I don't really want the recipient to think I'm a better person than I am, but I also don't want to hurt her feelings into thinking I didn't think as much of her as she thought I had. I don't know what else to do about it, and so there the matter rests.
"Roses in December" also reminds me of some artwork I've seen in a museum, of a woman cutting roses in a frost. It had mesmerized me.
I liked "Red Mittens," and I have done that as well - given a gift to a cranky neighbor. But, it was probably more due to a dare, or sorts, than any innate kindness.
I liked how the troublemakers were tamed with kindness in "A Christmas Ballad for the Captain."
"The Tiny Foot" spoke eloquently against destroying unborn life for the sake of deformity, as the dr was tempted to do, showing that even those less than perfect people can be happy and follow dreams.
That scenario is also perhaps closer to my heart than it should be. We had one baby die of a genetic disorder and the drs wanted to test the next baby prenatally, with an eye to abortion in the event of a similar genetic disorder. But we refused the testing, as we would not have aborted no matter the results.
On the back of the book, the NY Times listed what elements mades a good Christmas story. I thought it was funny, particularly the requirement that "It should involve a dying child." And not all these stories involve dying children, although a couple did. Other common elements are financial difficulties, suddenly adopted children and sudden romances.
Perhaps the rest of the list would describe those Hallmark Christmas stories:
* It should have meaning.
* It should include a dying child.
* It should make readers cry.
* Any promise is possible.
* It should be short enough to read in one sitting.
* Most important, it should tell a story.
They are, of course, sentimental short stories, but some are well done, and I wasn't already familiar with any of them, as I had with the first volume.
Some of these I would read again, which means I would rate this between a 4 and a 5.
I loved "Jolly Miss Enderby," showing that even cheerful people who bring others joy can suffer loneliness. I've known a few Miss Enderbys, I think. And I would love to invite them over for Christmas, but we are usually with family, here or there, and it is not my place to invite, or to add another person to the table, as it's not my table, so to speak. It is an idea to remember for my own older years, though, when my table is more my own.
I also loved "Roses in December." I had that happen to me this year on a much smaller scale. Someone else gave a gift and intentionally said it was from me. It wasn't, or not exactly, and I was astonished when the recipient wrote me a glowing thank you. I should, in all honesty, have probably thought to remember their struggles this Christmas and given a gift, but I hadn't. I know who the real giver was, too, because she confessed to me, in case I should receive any thanks - but had confessed after I'd already received the thanks. It was a grown woman, not a teen prankster.
Anyway, I faced the dilemma of whether or not to keep the secret and accept the thanks that were not truly due me. In the end, I made some vague statement that neither enlightened the recipient of the true giver nor refused the reflected kindness back to me. Sham though the scheme was. I don't really want the recipient to think I'm a better person than I am, but I also don't want to hurt her feelings into thinking I didn't think as much of her as she thought I had. I don't know what else to do about it, and so there the matter rests.
"Roses in December" also reminds me of some artwork I've seen in a museum, of a woman cutting roses in a frost. It had mesmerized me.
I liked "Red Mittens," and I have done that as well - given a gift to a cranky neighbor. But, it was probably more due to a dare, or sorts, than any innate kindness.
I liked how the troublemakers were tamed with kindness in "A Christmas Ballad for the Captain."
"The Tiny Foot" spoke eloquently against destroying unborn life for the sake of deformity, as the dr was tempted to do, showing that even those less than perfect people can be happy and follow dreams.
That scenario is also perhaps closer to my heart than it should be. We had one baby die of a genetic disorder and the drs wanted to test the next baby prenatally, with an eye to abortion in the event of a similar genetic disorder. But we refused the testing, as we would not have aborted no matter the results.
On the back of the book, the NY Times listed what elements mades a good Christmas story. I thought it was funny, particularly the requirement that "It should involve a dying child." And not all these stories involve dying children, although a couple did. Other common elements are financial difficulties, suddenly adopted children and sudden romances.
Perhaps the rest of the list would describe those Hallmark Christmas stories:
* It should have meaning.
* It should include a dying child.
* It should make readers cry.
* Any promise is possible.
* It should be short enough to read in one sitting.
* Most important, it should tell a story.
March 6, 2021
I received this book via two friends: one of whom gave it to the other after reading it and the second one passing it on to me after she'd read it. I liked the stories more as the book went on, but it did take me a while to read it as I had left it in a room where I didn't go sit to read for a while. My favorite would probably be "Jolly Miss Enderby".
I did receive the first volume of this series in the same way, but somehow ended up reading the second one first.
I did receive the first volume of this series in the same way, but somehow ended up reading the second one first.
November 14, 2021
A very enjoyable read. A collection of Christmas stories, rather than tales, where the reader can enjoy human nature at its best.
Christmas is at it's core and this makes the collection enjoyable. But by the end it's the side of human behaviour that leaves you pleased to know that there are people out there who can remind us what's really important.
Christmas is at it's core and this makes the collection enjoyable. But by the end it's the side of human behaviour that leaves you pleased to know that there are people out there who can remind us what's really important.
November 8, 2017
I enjoyed this book.
September 15, 2021
simplistic stories..
December 25, 2021
Great short stories with Christmas themes.
December 3, 2022
Great stories,
December 15, 2022
Very good. Wonderful old-fashioned stories!
November 17, 2024
I love when I find a Christmas book that has good original stories that aren't in any other books I have read. The different authors are from many time eras which adds to my like of them.
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January 14, 2009813 Whe
January 7, 2011
Short & sweet book with different Christmas themed stories in it. They were just that - short & sweet. Easy read during the holidays to keep the Christmas spirit alive.
January 26, 2016
One you could read yearly.
December 17, 2016
Another great book to read before Christmas! This little book is full of those timeless stories that remind of us of what Christmas is really about!
April 8, 2019
Wheeler's book contained sweet Christmas stories in anecdotal style that reinforced the true meaning of the holiday.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews