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.