Based on a story told to Snyder by his grandmother just before she died, this old-fashioned Yuletide tale was self-published last year, selling over 24,000 copies. Now Warner is hoping to make it a heartwarming perennial favorite (i.e., bestseller) … la Richard Paul Evans's The Christmas Box. Set in 1918, in the western Pennsylvania town of Meyersville, it concerns Christmas preparations and some supernatural goings-on among the Beal clan. Joseph is the firm but kindhearted father who works as a railway engineer, and Elda is the firm but kindhearted mother who bakes and knits. Of their six children, nine-year-old Anna is featured most prominently. Her cherished gold ring, a birthday gift from her parents, appears, along with Jesus, in recurring dreams that haunt both her and Joseph. Anna gives her ring to the daughter of a poverty-stricken family passing through town, and Joseph finds a replacement that had belonged to a little girl who died when she was Anna's age. All these transactions are, of course, attended by true-meaning-of-Christmas commentary regarding the importance of selflessness, faith and charity. Snyder's prose is like fruitcake: bland and familiar, but laced with vaguely unpleasant bits. For Anna, Christmas is "a very special holiday in her heart," and Joseph is given to talking to himself, in prayer and otherwise: "How foolish to have waited so long to make up your mind, you stubborn fool." But few descriptions are as inadvertently apt as this: "The locomotive sat on the snowy tracks, steam spouting from every orifice. It made noises like the labored breathing of a large animal that had been shot and was struggling to stay alive." Lovers of literature will empathize completely; others will read this story aloud to their children. National advertising.

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"Destined to become a classic...will be read by anyone who wants to get closer to the essence of Christmas." -- Washington Times