Local author has Christmas tale or two
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

CHUCK ROGERS/The Acorn BOOK FOR THE AGES-Author Carol Jean Coombs of Agoura Hills has just published an accumulation of what she believes to be the best Christmas stories ever written. The book is titled "Under a Christmas Star: Stories for Christmas Eve." Reading them was a favorite family tradition.

There are more short stories and books written about Christmas than imaginable; tales of peace, love and kindness that warm the heart and comfort the soul.

Now, some of the top Christmas stories ever told have been compiled by an Agoura Hills woman and put into a new book titled "Under a Christmas Star: Stories for Christmas Eve."

Author Carol Jean Coombs chose for the book what she says are 25 of the best Christmas stories ever published. The articles came from books, magazines and newspapers. Some of them are ages old, like the original Robert May poem, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

"Getting permission from the copyright holders was time-consuming and because some of the stories are 20 to 40 years old, a real challenge," said Coombs, 63.

"I despaired of ever finding the owner of the original ‘Rudolph’ story, when a friend and neighbor happened to have the information that gave me a successful lead."

Obtaining "Rudolph" was a key to putting the book together.

Coombs’ 134-page book costs $11.95 and is now on sale at bookstores.

For the past 40 years, Coombs has saved just about every popular Christmas story she can find. She has drawers and shelves full of them in her Agoura Hills home.

"I realized that if I didn’t organize and publish my collection it would eventually be lost, so I went through and got the best ones." Coombs said. "That’s the story of this book. I’ve picked up keepers from here and there."

Some of the stories Coombs chose for her book are the ones she read to her seven children when they were young. Coombs’ grown daughter Kate, a children’s writer who just completed her first book called "The Secret Keeper," recommended to her mom which stories she liked best.

Reading Christmas stories has been a family tradition for years, said Coombs, who works as a medical research associate at UCLA.

"My parents read to us. My dad would go to bed at night and lay there and read and I have a lot of good memories of that. Then I read to my kids a lot," Coombs said. "A couple of years ago, I asked my grown daughters what their favorite childhood memories were. One replied, ‘The stories you told on Christmas Eve.’"

Some of the stories in the book are classics, like Pearl Buck’s "Christmas Day in the Morning," Taylor Caldwell’s "My Christmas Miracle" and Natalie Babbitt’s "The Good King." Author Thomas Burns wrote a story Coombs particularly enjoyed, "The Second Greatest Christmas Story Ever Told."

Said Coombs, "A lot of Christmas stories are dark or ones that I don’t understand, but these are all very straightforward, easy to understand. A lot of them are true. And then there are some real classic ones, too, like a shortened version of "The Other Wise Man."

Some publishers asked Coombs to pay copyright fees. Representatives for the late author Leo Buscaglia asked that in exchange for permission to use his story, "The Two Festivals of Light," Coombs give a donation to charity.

Other stories in the book aren’t as well known, but delightful nonetheless. Coombs said a British soldier in World War II named Walter Stevenson wrote a poignant story about spending Christmas, 1943 with a family in Italy.

Because of her expertise, Coombs is often asked to tell Christmas stories at various holiday functions. Many of the stories she’s committed to memory.

Coombs will be signing her new book Nov. 18 at the Book Brigade in Thousand Oaks.