It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas: An Anthology of Christmas Tales

By Julieann Wallace

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas: An Anthology of Christmas Tales

Turn the pages to unwrap this grand gift of short stories and poetry celebrating the spirit of Christmas. From  Santa  in  his  underwear  to  Christmas  rules, from  a  missing  star  to  Christmas b

• Language: English
• Publisher: Share Your Story
• Release date: Dec 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9780648227038

Book preview

Contents

Wish You’d Been Here by Carol Ann Martin

The Christmas Rule by Dannielle Viera

Where the Mistletoe Grows by Dannika Patterson

Bertie the Bulldog’s Christmas Wish by Elise Leslie-Allen

The Gift of Christmas by Jacqui Hewlett

Christmas in Australia by Jeanie Axton

The Christmas Parade by Jeanie Axton

The Christmas Scorcher by Jennifer Horn

The OCD Elf by Jo Seysener

The Christmas Bakery by Joanna Hill

Laney’s Gingerbread House by Joanne Creed

Santa’s in His Underwear by John Duke

Christmas Tree Challenge by Julieann Wallace

Starry, Starry, Lemon Blanket by June Perkins

Beetle’s Christmas Wish by Karen Hendriks

No Other Gift by Kim Horwood

In the Morning by Laura Hockley

The Musical Christmas Tree by M J Gibbs

The Christmas Fairy Wish by M J Gibbs

Christmas Bellyaches by Maria Parenti-Baldey

Kirra Can’t Bear Christmas by Michelle Worthington

The Visit by Pat Simmons

Christmas in the Bush by Paula Stevenson

Christmas More Than Presents by Paula White

Christmas Is A Coming by Paula White

Treasures by Sarah Mangelsdorf

Santa Mouse by Sharna Carter

Charlotte’s Winter Wonderland by Sharna Carter

The Missing Star by Trish Donald

Sheepy-Bear by Wenda Shurety

OUR AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS have donated their talent to help raise funds for the Share Your Story Business for Good Partner, B1G1.

To ensure that a trainee teacher has every chance of punctuality, attendance and success, proceeds from the sale of the Share Your Story Anthology - It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas will be put towards purchasing a bicycle for the trainee teachers to ride to the Teachers’ Training College.

The Teachers’ Training College in Tanzania was constructed to qualify excellent public teachers for public schools. Your contribution by purchasing this book will benefit these teachers-to-be by increasing their effectiveness to learn and developing them into outstanding teachers who can make a positive impact on the lives they teach in the future.

Thank you and Merry Christmas.

Wish You’d Been Here

by Carol Ann Martin

SO, THIS IS CHRISTMAS, JOE. How do you like it so far? Wish you’d been here last year. That was some Christmas for sure!

On Christmas Eve last year, Holly and I were going to be in a play. It’s the same play that’s put on at church every year. We do the Christmas story, with the stable and the baby, the shepherds and angels, and everything. It’s really cool, Joe, and you’ll be going to see it tonight.

Last year, Holly was an angel and I was a lamb. She had to wear a white nightie, ginormous wings made from tickly feathers and a tinsel circle round her head. I just wore Grandma’s woolly black rug.

We got ourselves dressed at home because that was easier. It took a lot of safety pins, staples and bits of sticky tape to hold our costumes together. Holly was painting a lamb face on me when Mum called out. ‘Come on, quick, everybody! It’s time to go!’

Dad grabbed his phone and called Grandma. ‘We’re off! We’ll meet you there.’

Next thing, we’re scrambling into the car, with me all squished up to Holly and her wings taking up nearly all the room in the back. We roared along okay for a while, and then, gerloop, just like that, we were swallowed up by a thick fog.

‘Keep going!’ cried Mum.

‘Going where?’ asked Dad. ‘We’re lost, and I can’t see a thing.’

We slowed right down, and it really was like crawling through a bowl of pea soup. My woolly rug was starting to itch and one of Holly’s feathers was tickling my nose.

‘I wish we didn’t have to do this,’ I said. But nobody seemed to care what I wished.

‘Hurry, hurry,’ Mum kept urging. But the fog had wrapped itself tight around us and there was no way we were going to hurry anywhere. Things were getting really spooky.

Then Holly shouted, ‘Look! Up in front! I can see lights.’

We all peered hard ahead and sure enough, there they were. They were yellow and fuzzy and faint, but definitely lights.

Then, just as faintly, we heard voices. ‘All is calm,’ they sang, ‘all is bright.’

‘They could be angels,’ said Holly, forgetting that she was supposed to be one herself. ‘They’ll be out tonight, for sure.’

Well, all wasn’t calm inside our car and all wasn’t bright outside.

Dad wound down his window. ‘Is there anybody there?’ he called. ‘We’re trying to get to St Margaret’s.’

Fog swirled in at the window, but a big, whiskery face appeared, too. ‘Sure,’ boomed a cheerful voice. ‘Just follow our lanterns. We’re going to the same place as you.’

We followed the carollers’ blurry golden lanterns as they shimmered their way through the fog, slowly, slowly, until we began to see other cars and other lights. Then, the dark shape of a building loomed, with dozens of windows glowing brightly into the gloom.

‘St Margaret’s! Yay, we made it!’ yelled Dad.

‘But only just,’ gasped Mum.

Grandma was waiting for us inside. Mum and Dad were whisked away, and we were left in a big hall with people all around. Everything was warm and shining. A twinkling Christmas tree reached almost to the ceiling and the carollers were gathered around it, ready to sing.

‘Happy Christmas, Holly. Happy Christmas, Jack.’ Grandma hugged us tight.

‘An angel and a lamb,’ someone laughed. ‘Just what we need tonight.’

Then we all sang Joy to the World and Jingle Bells, and had cocoa and warm mince pies.

I wish you’d been here last year, Joe. It was such a special night. But I guess you were here, little brother. That was the night that you were born.

Illustration by Jennifer Horn