A Cup of Comfort For Christmas: Stories that celebrate the warmth, joy, and wonder of the holiday

by Colleen Sell

The stories in this inspiring collection are joyous reminders of what the holidays are all about . . .Written by people just like you, these uplifting stories celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. You and your family will be thoroughly entertained by the celebrations, merriment, and revelations that fill these pages. You will immediately feel the holiday spirit as you share in the moving experiences featured in this volume, such as: Five poor children pool their money from months of raking leaves, shoveling snow, and babysitting to buy their hardworking father an unexpected gift; War-weary U.S. soldiers in Cambodia share holiday memories and goodie-boxes from home; In sixty years of marriage, a husband never gets his wife the perfect gift . . . but she'll never tell, because he's the perfect husband; A mall Santa who knows American Sign Language brings joy to a deaf six-year-old. There's no time like the holidays for the heartwarming stories found in A Cup of Comfort for Christmas!

Genres: Christmas, Inspirational, Nonfiction, Holiday

339 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Colleen Sell is a freelance writer and editor with expertise in book and magazine development and a passion for storytelling. Her professional experience also includes content development & management and marketing communications development & management.

Since 1999, Colleen has provided writing, editing, ghostwriting, proofreading, editorial development, content management, publishing consulting, and book-proposal development services to authors, entrepreneurs, publishers, businesses, and nonprofit organizations.

Colleen has co-authored eight nonfiction books, including 10-Minute Zen and The Everything Kids’ Gross Cookbook, and ghostwritten more than a dozen books, including the best-selling One Simple Idea: Turn Your Dreams into a Licensing Goldmine and One Simple Idea for Startups & Entrepreneurs. She was editor and anthologist of the bestselling Cup of Comfort™ book series for 10 years, during which she compiled and edited 38 anthologies of essays as well as an annotated cookbook. The Cup of Comfort series, which was retired in 2011, has sold more than 2 million copies to date.

A proficient developmental editor, line editor, and copyeditor, Colleen has edited more than 150 published books, both fiction and nonfiction, in a wide range of categories.

Colleen is currently Editor-in-Chief of GRAND: The Digital Magazine for Grandparents (a part-time freelance position), and was previously Editor-in-Chief of two award-winning consumer magazines and an associate editor of a national business journal. In addition, her articles and essays have appeared in dozens of consumer and trade periodicals.

Reviews

[Sharon Ouderkirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Cup of Comfort series is like the Chicken Soup books - short, mostly true life stories that are meant to amuse and uplift. The main difference that I note between the two is that Cup of Comfort doesn't have 'people dying of disease, but still able to be inspired' stories. In Comfort, some of the stories are about hard times and overcoming difficulties, but mothers and dogs don't die as much as in Chicken Soup. For that difference, we can be truly grateful.
I liked the beginning of the book the best: the stories seemed merry and bright. My personal favourite was about the devoted husband who was wonderful in every way, except that he was Christmas present challenged - he always got the same dull present for his understanding wife. One year, he was beside himself with excitement because he thought he got the perfect gift. He was so excited he reached over to help her tear off the wrapping paper - to reveal a lovely housecoat. "As soon as I saw it, I said that's for my Mary" he reported excitedly. And indeed he was right - it was the same housecoat she had been wearing for the past 5 years. The wife wins awards for her understanding tolerance - she gave the old one to Goodwill and started wearing the new one. Now that's love.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I try to read at least one holiday book each year. Every year, in the middle of the book, I get overwhelmed by the epiphanies and happy memories. Even the sad memories seem to too much, too fake, too manufactured. I had the same reaction around page 200 of this collection of stories. I noted at the end that most of the submissions were created by journalists, teachers, or professional writers. I don't know how many of these stories were written earnestly and genuinely from the heart. I liked Toy Soldiers and The Christmas Well best.

I intend to share this book with someone who might enjoy it and might be a little less jaded then I am.

[Richie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so boring! Almost all of the stories are about people who feel empty and incomplete without Christmas trees, presents, santa claus as if they are missing out on life without partying and presents and material things. Many people in the world are poor and starving and these people only think about what they can get on Christmas. Really? Seriously? They seem to have forgetten that the true reason for Christmas is celebrating the birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

I totally do not recommend this book!

[Christy]

Love me some cute little Christmas stories!!

[Gail DiVico · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a compilation of stories surrounding the holiday season. They each have a message related to love and kindness during the season and the importance of carrying it throughout the year. The stories relate to families, friends and even strangers and all of them leave you with a warm and fuzzy, feel-good feeling. I spent the past week reading several each evening. Good reading for all ages.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel a bit bad about rating this a 2, since for those who enjoy this type of thing will likely love it. This wasn't my cup of tea (haha). I was hoping for more of an advent devotional and instead got a bunch of supposedly true Christmas-related viginettes that are apparently heartwarming and inspiring for those who like this stuff. I did like that it reinforced the true meaning of Christmas.

[NK · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is comprised of short stories relating to Christmas memories. Most of the stories were heartwarming and inspiring. Some of the stories were a little sappy, but did not affect my overall view of the book.

[Colleen Mertens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story collection has something to appeal to everyone focusing on all that Christmas offers, the good, the bad, the strange and the wonderful. I like a lot of these tales and they lifted my spirits as I read them.

[Adele Guerin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of short stories about Christmas from regular people. All of the stories are 3-5 pages long, so they read quickly, and they all discuss an aspect of Christmas that is important to the author, so it is a wide range of topics related to Christmas.

[Una Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartwarming, sentimental and lovely holiday season reading.

[Paul White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this a few years ago. Love reading short stories about how Christmas has left lasting impressions.

[Danielle Palmer]

DNF. Out of the handful of stories that I read, they all could’ve used a good editing. They were all too long winded for what they were, and many were too sad for my liking.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

These are more modern tales. Some were good and some were not.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many good, heartwarming stories, but definitely a few tear-jerkers as well. I would love to see this revamped as a daily advent devotional.

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Found this at the used book sale at my local library. Should have looked at the publishing date. The stories didn’t resonate too much with me due to how old they were.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of Christmas short stories.

[Val B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is sort of like a holiday version of Chicken Soup for the Soul, a collection of true short tales about incidents that brought the holiday spirit home to each author.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading for book club. We needed something light for the busy season! It's a collection of stories which made me cry...easy reading but not memorable.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's like the soup books, it is filled with Christmas chapter stories that can be read together or one at a time. I love these books for stories to read aloud during the holidays.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the stories were sweet and easy to read to bring in the Christmas spirit when I was feeling uninspired at Christmas time.

[Karen]

Just kidding! Made you look...

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst of these short stories only ends happily because mom didn't have a child with special needs "or a dog." Obviously these things are the same.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely dose of the Christmas spirit for any time of the year.

[Cyndi · Rating 4 out of 5]

*sigh* what a heartwarming book. Perfect read for the holidays. Nice short chapters, easy to fit in.

[Deb Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this at a book fair in Virginia. I actually purchased a few copies as gifts. It's a great collection of moving stories about the holiday.

[Yasmin Wahid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

[Moon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very heartfelt stories. Good stories for the holidays.

[Amanda Kirsch allis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my absolute favorite go to holiday book. It is a bunch of short stories all of which are amazing!

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another enjoyable anthology.

[Candis · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book for inspirational reading no matter what time of the year it is, truly.