The Christmas Farewell

Two teenagers are sent to a temporary home while they learn the lesson of loss and forgiveness, for themselves and others. It is a holiday story that will fill your heart with tears and joy!

One of America's greatest Christmas stories and also one of its very first -- from the period between the end of the Revolutionary War and the ratification of the Constitution -- was a creation of none other than George Washington. The story isn't just about Washington coming home for Christmas for the first time since the war began, but about the character of our most important Founding Father and about the precedent he set for democratic leadership. It is the story of a loving husband, a beloved military leader, and above all, a humble and great man. In late November 1783 when Washington finally received formal notice of the signing of a peace treaty with England he had little more than a month to accept the transfer of power from British troops in New York; to bid farewell to his troops; and to resign his commission to Congress if he hoped to make it to Mount Vernon for Christmas. He could have remained in charge of the army and become a virtual king to the Americans who loved him. Control of the newly forming government was his to take -- yet he chose to resign. It was that decision, coupled with his later decision to step down from the presidency after two terms, that rendered him "the greatest character of the age" (according to none other than King George III). Washington's homeward journey is one of the most moving and inspiring stories from his great and eventful life. When he bade farewell to his troops at Fraunces Tavern in New York City there were no dry eyes. When he reached Congress and gave a retirement speech, it cemented his greatness more fully than had his victory over the British. When he made it to Mount Vernon, finally, on Christmas Eve, it could not have been a happier homecoming. General Washington's Christmas Farewell is a deeply moving Christmas story as well as a great American story.

Jackie Shields was a hero to many. After graduating high school at age sixteen and college at twenty, he became a fighter pilot in the United States Navy. Jackie even flew with the famed Blue Angels, the navy's elite demonstration flight squadron. When Jackie returned home to Winchester, Massachusetts, for Christmas in 1956, he received a hero's welcome. But no one was more excited to see Jackie than his youngest brother, Billy. In The Farewell Christmas, William Shields shares the story of his last Christmas with his older brother Jackie. With his hero home for the holidays, ten-year-old Billy has a Christmas he will never forget. From the time Jackie surprises Billy on his evening paper route to their last good-bye, Jackie shows Billy what being a hero is all about. Billy's love for his older brother shines through in an inspiring way as he relives a time of sledding, snowball fights, and family feasts and reminds us all that the best gift is spending Christmas with family. A bittersweet story of faith, family, and innocence, The Farewell Christmas will take all readers back to their own childhood Christmases and inspire them to create memories with their families that will last a lifetime.

Publisher Description

From the manger of Jesus Christ to the 21st century, this encyclopedia explores more than 2,000 years of Christmas past and present through 966 entries packed with a wide variety of historical and pop-culture subjects. Entries detail customs and traditions from around the world as well as classic Christmas movies, TV series/specials and animated cartoons. Arranged alphabetically by entry name, the book includes the historical background of popular sacred and secular songs as well as accounts of beloved literary works with Christmas themes from such noted authors as Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Hans Christian Andersen, Pearl Buck, Henry Van Dyke and others. All things Christmas are available here in one comprehensive volume.

Saying Goodbye: The Christmas Gift Sometimes life doesn't go in the direction we've planned for ourselves. We believe we have everything all figured out then something happens to flip our world upside down. Molly had always believed her life was on track. She figured she would graduate from Medical School and then go on to have a fulfilling career. However, life sometimes has other plans for us. Saying Goodbye takes you on a journey of discovery as Molly learns a powerful lesson we all try to avoid. As Molly comes to terms with her painful past, she finds joy by finally learning how to say goodbye. An audiobook version of Saying Goodbye is included with the purchase of the ebook.

181 years delivering toys has Santa Claus ready to call it quits. He's burnt-out, saddled with hemorrhoids, and works Christmas Eve with a shotgun. Now facing a world on edge and a runaway reindeer, what's a not-so-jolly Saint Nick to do on what just might be his last Christmas? CUPID'S FAREWELL CHRISTMAS is a unique "kids book for adults" that evokes the nostalgia of Christmas mornings past. At once hilarious and timeless, it's a story of what it means to have real courage.

Mary Stoltzfus is thirty years old, splashed with freckles, and unmarried. In her Amish world, that qualifies her to be called an old maid. She is living her quiet schoolteacher life in the Lancaster County Amish community when she gets a surprising invitation in the mail one day. Would she come to Montana to teach? Of course not, she decides, fully at home in eastern Pennsylvania, where she can go out to eat in dozens of restaurants, do her laundry in a newfangled washer that’s powered by compressed air, and hire a driver if she wants to go farther than her horse and buggy can comfortably take her. What is there to do in Montana, she sniffs. But soon she becomes annoyed by the cracks in the floor of her one-room schoolhouse, the noise of the nearby road, and the two eighth-grade boys who try to make toilet paper cigarettes and nearly burn down the privy. Before long, Mary is on Amtrak, “just to take care of her curiosity,” she explains to her mother. She arrives at a desolate station and meets Arthur Bontrager, who had signed the invitation and has come to introduce her to Beaver Creek School, dirt roads, and the fancy shed where she would live. When she settles into this world of mountain ranges and pine-tree majesty, her old buried questions—about why no man had ever been her match—have come along to live with her. After she’s injured by wild dogs on her walk home from school, Mary faces new questions. Is she weak if she accepts a Bouvier des Flandres dog from Arthur’s friend? Who is the young woman in the photo at Arthur’s house? And why does she suddenly care? Does she really belong back in Lancaster? Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.