I've enjoyed Mike Mason's writing for a long time. This is a collection of his Christmas stories, and there is something for everyone here. Mason has an unusual combination of writing styles - sometimes it's down-home and folksy, almost Norman Rockwell. Then he hits you with some fundamental insight that you didn't see coming. Some of these stories are deeply touching, others more lighthearted. My personal favorite was "In the Stillness of the Night" which draws such believable characters in a short time. You finish that story about awkwardness and love and beauty and you feel like you've read a novel - that's how deep it goes. I recommend this book.

Wonderful collection of stories of wonder and redemption. Some riotously humorous; others solemn. Several that only start reflection that continues well beyond Christmas.

The Giver is beautiful – a story unaltered from life, as he mentions at the beginning of the collection. Heart-tuggers! Some of my favs are The Christmas Letter, Crack, The Ghost of Christmas, and Yabba-Ka-Doodles! (the last is also included in Champagne for the Soul). Christmas Rocks was peculiarly delightful. Seven Candles was multifold splendid – a blessed thanks story-wrapped in exuberantly wild, transforming simplicity.
In Bound for Glory, the transforming elements of truth and love distil… and then subliminate. At first I was confounded. The soldiers… The angels… But we have the ultimate comfort. Though no one serves so unhesitatingly as angels, no evil thwarts God’s purpose, so no one escapes his service.
I liked how Honorable Pidgeon hints at what one hopes are the beginnings of transformation, and how he drew everything together so we can fully feel the crash of delight at the end. In these stories, often hard realities are eclipsed by the humanity that only blossoms through love. Mason has a lovely way of painting his characters as he unfolds a story.

Author Mike Mason continues to thrill, amuse, and astound with this collection that stems from a long career of writing and listening. In fact, it seems as though his ability to listen to the subtleties of life, the profundity of joy, and the gentle whispers of a person's character are what enable him to weave an intricate tapestry of diverse storytelling. While some stories contained therein are whimsical and full of mirth, others challenge us to accept the realities of what we believe and play a bittersweet melody across our heartstrings. Be sure to grab a copy for yourself and read a few stories by the fire before the festivities begin their tumultuous debut or after the presents have been opened and Christmas dinner consumed, when the climax of the season has passed and you need a thoughtful denouement.

I am hooked.... In the year 2001 i got hooked with The Gospel According to Job..... among the best four books i have ever read...yes i can say that after having read Augustine, Aquinas, Chesterton, Lewis, Dickens, Tolkien, victor Hugo... Etc, etc....I read Mike's book( The Gospel Accor.....) several times a year....So now I can tell you get 21 Candels..... You will start giving it to anyone you can.....this is a 1000 start book and Christmas will be different this year for you!!!

Mike Mason (Canadian author of The Mystery of Marriage, Champagne for the Soul and the Blue Umbrella fantasy series for kids) has a personal tradition of writing a Christmas story every year. This book is 21 of those stories, collected into a "wonder-full" volume of tales, as different from each other as each Christmas we live is one-of-a-kind. Some stories are short, others long, some playful, others serious, some fairy-tale-like, others as real as photographs. What binds them all together, though is the way each reflects some facet of the deepest meaning of the season.

From the earliest dated, 1981's "Christmas Rocks"--in which the narrator and his friend, weary of the commercialism of a Winnipeg mall, drive to Gimli to choose a unique water-lucent rock for each person on their list--to 2014's "In the stillness of the Night"--set in Hope BC with a local tourist attraction, the Othello Tunnels, playing a major role--these tales are recognizably Canadian, yet have a universal, parable quality to them that sets them beyond time and place.

The two that touch me most deeply are "Born with Wings"--about a sick baby expected to live just hours, born on Christmas day. Any parent who has lost a baby to miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death will relate to this poignant, tastefully told tale and its Christmas message.

The other favorite is the 1984 tale that closes the collection, "Bound for Glory." Its tame yet mysterious beginning:

"A light rain was falling as I set off across the platform. ... It was Christmas Eve, close to midnight, and the station was unusually busy, though not with the bustle of a daylight rush hour but with the trance-like commotion of darkness..." Kindle Location 2939.

soon reveals a carload of citizens fleeing for the border, among them a couple with a newborn baby. Enter soldiers with guns, making threats and culling group by group from the coach. Of course there is a surprise at the destination.

Stories in this book have been read at the Vancouver Pacific Theatre's annual Christmas Presence programs. Now that they are available to all of us, they're sure to enhance the Christmases of many more individuals and groups.