If Christmas Hurts This Year, I’m Here
To my friend who would rather not do Christmas this year, I want you to know I see you. I may not know what it is like to walk in your shoes. I…
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christmas
Dear Busy Family as You Scurry Around This Christmas: Don’t Forget Grandma
Each year the Christmas season is full of relentless planning and preparation. The weeks leading up to Christmas Eve are fests ad nauseam: shopping…
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Angels Rang My Doorbell on Christmas Eve—and it Changed Everything
I remember a Christmas—I had to have been about 11—when my single mother took me aside one day and said, “Ash (she probably really called me by…
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Our Kids Know the Truth About Santa, and Christmas is Still Magical
We told our kids the truth about Santa this year. They are seven and nearly three. Put down your torch and pitchfork, Karen. It turns out telling…
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Dear Santa, Please Fill All of Our Stockings This Year
Dear Santa, I’m writing to you this year on behalf of my sweet 4-year-old daughter, Zoe. She wants you to know that she would like a doctor’s…
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When All You Want For Christmas is a Baby
When I picture a mother’s love or a child’s joy, I am flooded with memories of cozy Christmas mornings that my parents planned out month…
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Christmas is Still Hard Without My Dad
This is my third Christmas without my dad. One less stocking to hang, one less present to purchase, one less person to kiss under the mistletoe.…
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Maybe it’s the Mistletoe or All the Twinkling Lights: Statistics Prove December is For Baby-Making
I’m a September baby, and though I was born on the 5th, I was due on the 25th. It took me until I was a young adult to realize why my brothers…
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A Former Retail Worker’s Holiday Shopping Plea: Be Kind to the People Helping You This Week
Through my early twenties, I worked in customer service as a gas station clerk and a waitress, and let me just say one thing. The customer is NOT…
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To the Mom With Holiday Anxiety
I love the holidays. Really, I do. But if I could get past my anxiety surrounding almost every little thing that makes up the holidays, I know I…
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