Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas Magic Read online

  You can reach Mark at www.markvictorhansen.com.

  Amy Newmark is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Chicken Soup for the Soul, after a thirty-year career as a writer, speaker, financial analyst, and business executive in the worlds of finance and telecommunications. Amy is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, where she majored in Portuguese, minored in French, and traveled extensively. She and her husband have four grown children.

  After a long career writing books on telecommunications, voluminous financial reports, business plans, and corporate press releases, Chicken Soup for the Soul is a breath of fresh air for Amy. She has fallen in love with Chicken Soup for the Soul and its life-changing books, and really enjoys putting these books together for Chicken Soup’s inspiring readers. She has co-authored more than two dozen Chicken Soup for the Soul books and has edited another two dozen.

  You can reach Amy through the [email protected].

  Thank You

  We owe huge thanks to all of our contributors. We know that you poured your hearts and souls into the thousands of stories and poems that you shared with us, and ultimately with each other. We appreciate your willingness to open up your lives to other Chicken Soup for the Soul readers. And we loved hearing about how you and your families celebrate Christmas.

  We could only publish a small percentage of the stories that were submitted, but we read every single one and even the ones that do not appear in the book had an influence on us and on the final manuscript.

  We owe special thanks to our assistant publisher, D’ette Corona, who read the 6,000 stories that were submitted for this book. Our webmaster and editor, Barbara LoMonaco, then stepped in and the two of them narrowed several hundred finalists down to about 120 stories, of which 101 ultimately were chosen and edited for the final manuscript. It was a huge undertaking, and they did a great job. This book could not have been made without their expertise, their input, and their innate knowledge of what makes a great Chicken Soup for the Soul story. We also want to thank Chicken Soup for the Soul editor Kristiana Glavin for her assistance with the final manuscript and proofreading, and Madeline Clapps for proofreading assistance.

  We owe a very special thanks to our creative director and book producer, Brian Taylor at Pneuma Books, for his brilliant vision for our covers and interiors. Finally, none of this would be possible without the business and creative leadership of our CEO, Bill Rouhana, and our president, Bob Jacobs.

  Improving Your Life Every Day

  Real people sharing real stories—for seventeen years. Now, Chicken Soup for the Soul has gone beyond the bookstore to become a world leader in life improvement. Through books, movies, DVDs, online resources and other partnerships, we bring hope, courage, inspiration and love to hundreds of millions of people around the world. Chicken Soup for the Soul’s writers and readers belong to a one-of-a-kind global community, sharing advice, support, guidance, comfort, and knowledge.

  Chicken Soup for the Soul stories have been translated into more than forty languages and can be found in more than one hundred countries. Every day, millions of people experience a Chicken Soup for the Soul story in a book, magazine, newspaper or online. As we share our life experiences through these stories, we offer hope, comfort and inspiration to one another. The stories travel from person to person, and from country to country, helping to improve lives everywhere.