Novelist Paul Auster reads a story written by Sylvia Seymour Akin about a special Christmas.
(Source: NPR All Things Considered)
There's a time in life for Hoagy Carmichael. There's a time in life for Claude Debussy. There's a time in life for Jerry Lee Lewis. There's a time in life for Destiny's Child. All these things have their moment. ~Elvis Costello
17 Dec 2014 8 Comments
in General Posts Tags: christmas morning 1949
Novelist Paul Auster reads a story written by Sylvia Seymour Akin about a special Christmas.
(Source: NPR All Things Considered)
Dec 12, 2017 @ 18:44:00
One of my most favorite stories, even with my flat cold tonight this story makes me feel so warm inside Thank you
Nov 05, 2018 @ 18:08:17
There is something so super heroic about the driver . . . his superpowers eclipse even Clark Kent’s. Such a wonderful story. I listen to this every time I stop savouring life.
Dec 25, 2020 @ 16:05:05
Thanks for your comments and for reading.
Nov 17, 2018 @ 10:38:26
I heard this on NPR years ago, try to listen to it every year. Went to share it this year, and found the NPR archives did not have the audio anymore! But with a bit of searching I found your site – thank you! I will share this with friends again this year – it is the best story ever.
Nov 18, 2018 @ 05:30:13
Your comment is a reminder to me of why I keep this blog. Glad you found the story and thanks for letting me know.
~Ed
Dec 24, 2018 @ 10:04:33
I am the author of this story. After my father died in 1970, my mother began to tell what would come to be known in our family as The Christmas Story. My mother died Christmas week of 1994. With her passing, I was afraid the story would be lost, so I wrote it down. A few years later, at my daughter’s urging, I submitted it to NPR’s National Story Project where, on Christmas Eve 1999, it was read over the air. It was later included in I Thought My Father Was God, edited by Paul Auster, and It was also included on NPR’s CD Holiday Favorites
.
Recently, I discovered your link to my story. Thank you for posting here so others will know what kind of man my father was.
Sylvia Seymour Akin
Nov 28, 2019 @ 09:46:56
Sylvia, this is my favorite Christmas story of all time. I had a “Driveway moment” when I first heard it on NPR, and I think about it every Christmastime. It shows that your father knew the “Christmas Spirit” as well as anyone possibly could. Thank you so much for sharing it.
Dec 25, 2018 @ 21:20:44
Sylvia, thank you so much for getting in touch. Obviously this story resonated with me, but when I share it every December others let me know that it touched them, too. It’s truly a reminder of the type of generosity of spirit the holiday season ought to engender.
I’m glad the story hasn’t been lost and gratified to have been of service in that regard.
~Ed