Ten years ago, when we were preparing the first Christmas in My Heart for press, not even in our wildest dreams did we imagine that there would ever be a tenth collection–or even a second! However, it seems that Someone behind the scenes had far greater dreams for this series than either I or the publisher had. In retrospect it is abundantly clear that had it been left up to me, Christmas in My heart would have both begun and ended with that first collection.

But here it is–already one of the longest-running Christmas story series in American history. Where it will go from here we don’t really know. As long as readers like you not only love the older collections (books 1-9) but continue to anticipate the newest one, and as long as we feel that each new collection is the "best one yet," we’ll keep coming out with new annual collections.

This book completes our first decade. Our next will begin the second!

Stories in this book include: The Sheaf of Grain, Secrets of the Heart, No Room at the Inn, and Star of Wonder, plus 12 more.

As we begin the third millennium since the birth of our Lord in a Bethlehem stable, it is fitting that we again discuss this season we label "Christmas." It is the one time of the year when our cup of sentimentality runs over. We may be pragmatic, utilitarian, and hard-nosed the rest of the year, but at Christmastime we soften. The birth of a baby brings new hope to the world. At Christmastime we realize the truth of Emily Dickinson’s cryptic epigram:
That Love is all there is,
Is all we know of Love.

That’s what Christmas is all about–that the Trinity gave "all there is" on our behalf. So this Christmas let us, too, give "all there is" to those less fortunate–not in mere things only, but in the greater sacrifice of ourselves.–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.