A TREASURY OF OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS STORIES

Hard to believe, but here it is: Christmas in My Heart, book9. They keep coming because so many readers like you find it inconceivable to enter another Christmas season without a new Christmas in My Heart transfusion.

Oh, ‘tis true that the now "old" collections are still treasured, are reread again and again, becoming in a very special way Christmas velveteen rabbits, all the dearer for their dog-eared coves and creased pages. Yet at the same time that the first eight collections are returned to, there is an innate need to expand the core collection, to greet with delight new writers with fresh approaches and, even more significant, to listen once again to writers now believed to us–each additional story by such a writer but deepens the bond, that voice that can never be stilled as long as we refuse to let it die.

That is the magic of Christmas in My Heart!

Stories in this book include: A Rose in Winter, The Bells Didn't Ring, Bulger's Friends, The Forgotten Friend, Like a Candle in the Window, plus 10 more.

What is Christmas? Christmas is a state of mind, a time of year when the heart is magically softened and the soul reaches out to others. A time when the cold of the season is offset by the warmth of the joy within.

For it is not receiving but giving that gives meaning to our Christmases. Giving without anticipation of reward or even recognition. Giving because the fullness of joy within us runs over the rim and splashes happiness on all who are in our vicinity. So this Christmas, let us open up the floodgates of our hearts and flood this sad earth with Christian joy.–Joe Wheeler.

Joe Wheeler’s writing career started in the fall of 1992 with a collection of heart-tugging stories called Christmas in My Heart, a series that he has become well-known for. Joe Wheeler has been called everything from "Keeper of the Story" to "Father Christmas."  He has been a frequent guest on Dr. James Dobson’s radio show "Focus on the Family", and today is considered to be one of America’s leading story anthologizers, editing collections for nine publishers: Doubleday/Random House, WaterBrook/Random House, Guideposts, Focus on the Family, Tyndale House, Harvest House, Review and Herald Publishing Association, RiverOak Publishing, and Pacific Press Publishing Association.

When asked how he got started, Wheeler tells interviewers that it all dates back to being home-schooled by a remarkable woman, Barbara Leininger Wheeler, his mother (both a teacher and a missionary) in Latin America.  His mother, an elocutionist of the old school, memorized thousands of pages of stories, readings, and poetry, and frequently recited in public.  But her specialty was the old-time, sentimental, Judeo-Christian short stories.  And his mother poured herself – and her stories – into her son, inoculating him with a terminal case of the ‘storyitis virus.’ 

Wheeler has a bachelor’s degree in both history and English from Pacific Union College, a master’s degree in history, a master’s degree in English from California State University, and a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University.  Today, Wheeler is senior fellow for cultural studies at the Center for the New West in Denver, Colorado, and professor emeritus of Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Wheeler and his wife, Connie, make their home in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where they receive 200 inches of snow a year.