Christmas in My Heart, Book 18

A treasury of old-fashioned Christmas stories.In this 18th volume of Christmas in My Heart, Joe Wheeler calls us to “restore the simplicity and sanity to a Christmas season that has lost its spiritual moorings.” It is a message for our times.This Christmas, we can return to a simpler holiday model: families getting together, making Christmas gifts by hand, giving gifts to those who can’t give in return (anonymously if possible), visiting the sick and lonely, and above all, letting Christ reign at the heart of all we do and say. The outstanding stories in this book will provide ample inspiration! “If a child has never had to sacrifice for the good of others, that child will most likely grow up to be spiritually stunted. . . . the fondest memories generally have to do with tough times.”—Joe L. 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.