The Christmas Cottage

by Mignon F. Ballard

Christmas has always been a special time for Meredith Enright. Born on Christmas Eve, she celebrates the holiday with joy, filling her home with seasonal music and the fragrance of fir and pine. But this year, her jam cake is still warm from the oven when Meredith receives the shocking news of her husband's sudden illness while on a business trip to Atlanta. Alone and frightened in the ICU waiting room of an unfamiliar hospital, Meredith is befriended by a kind volunteer who accompanies her to the facility's chapel where they wait together through the long night. During her vigil, Meredith remembers a Christmas from her childhood when her mother was seriously injured in an automobile accident. In her despair, she relives the memory of that long-ago Christmas when she was sent to spend the holidays with her childless Aunt Martha. Aunt Martha worked for a large department store in Knoxville, but lived in a remote area outside the city. Because she was gone during the day, she asked bland Mrs. Boggs to stay with Meredith. Worried about her mother and missing her family, eight-year-old Meredith has only a stuffed bear and her brother's much-loved clown doll for company until she meets Lucinda and the loving family who live in the Christmas Cottage deep in the woods behind Aunt Martha's house. The memory of that Christmas brings to Meredith a renewal of hope and joy as she faces the outcome of her husband's illness.

Genres: Christmas, Mystery, Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 2007

About the author

Mignon Franklin Ballard grew up in a small town in Georgia, and now lives in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

Reviews

[Taylor]

That delivered an unexpected level of sweetness. Very charming little book.

[Susan Beam-Gilleland]

a lovely uplifting book.

[Beth Cutwright]

Do angels walk among us? The synopsis pretty well tells the story without clarifying who the kind volunteer in gray is. The story is sweet and well told. It is about the fear of losing someone you are forever connected to and about the people or 'angels' who help you through those times.

This story had me invested in it and the outcome immediately and I really enjoyed reading of Meredith's earlier trauma with her mother's accident and then later her concerns about losing her husband. It was definitely a heart-wrenching story with a lovely ending.

[Elizabeth]

A wowmen, feeling lonely and a bit sorry for herself at Christmas travels to Atlanta because her husband is very ill. This evokes memories of the time when her mother was ill in a similar fashion many years ago. Both experiences had some magical moments.

[Karen Bayer]

Sweet Christmas story

Just the right kind of story for Christmas time. The descriptions evoke a child's view of the world so clearly that you will feel both the cold and the warmth. It was like being back in childhood when winter was fun.

[Pat]

Short, and sweet, just a nice read.

[Heidi]

This short story is a sweet story that gives you the warm feeling of Christmas. It will become a book I will reread along with the classics like The Night Before Christmas and A Christmas Carol.