The Year Santa Claus Proved He Doesn’t Visit Naughty Children. Or Does He?
Last week I told you I was a sucker for Christmas Stories when I shared my first story from 1998 with you, Wise Men Still Seek Him.
When I was a kid, nobody made Christmas as special as my Grandma Harshaw. It was truly magical when my brother and sisters and all of my cousins would get together out in the old country farmhouse and open presents and eat a huge turkey dinner. Much later, when I read my first Christmas story to my family in my own house in 1997, my grandma who loved Christmas was touched to tears. Some of my best Christmas memories included my Grandma Harshaw.
After she passed away in 2010 at age ninety-one, I wrote my second Christmas story—the one you’re about to read now—as a tribute to that special lady and gifted it to my dad and grandfather. Different versions of this story were told almost every Christmas in my family, usually prefaced by “Did you ever hear about the year Santa Claus didn’t come?” It’s a simple story of sin and redemption, as played out in the mind of my dad when he was just five years old back on the family farm in 1948.
When I wrote this story I hired an artist to illustrate it just for fun. I lucked into finding a stellar illustrator named Chad Lewis, who now illustrates every Monopolize Your Marketplace blog posting. When I showed the final copy with all the illustrations to my then-ninety-two-year old grandfather, he went on and on about how the pictures looked just like my grandma used to look when she was young. It was a big hit.
And now I’d like to share this with you. It’s a family story, but one I’m sure just about everyone can relate to. I hope you enjoy it—both story and pictures. If so, feel free to share it with your family.
God Bless you, and Merry Christmas!
Download Country Christmas 1948
© 2014 – 2016, Rich Harshaw. All rights reserved.