Familyman's Christmas Treasury {TOS Review}

When my children and I were walking through Walmart last week, I was surprised to see that they were already putting out their Christmas displays! As I passed by several aisles full of Christmas ornaments, stockings, and tree toppers, immediately followed by several aisles of Halloween candy, costumes, and decorations, I almost laughed out loud. It seems we rush Christmas more and more each year, starting the "holiday season" before fall is even in full swing {in Louisiana, anyway}. Since the Christmas spirit seems to be spreading already, I have a Christmas review for you!

My children and I were given the opportunity to review an early Christmas product - The Familyman's Christmas Treasury - Audio Collection. This is a collection of six audio books, narrated by Jim Hodges and put out by the Familyman. Here are the story titles in this collection:

• Captain Chaos and The Manger Blaster
• Cootie McKay's Nativity
• The Stranger
• The Bishop's Dream
• Harold Grubbs and the Christmas Vest
• Gladys Remembers Christmas

We also received "The Secret of Snow Village" and "It's Called Christmas". We received these stories in a digital format. It was so easy to download the stories onto my computer and pull them up for my children to listen to. We also received one CD of a story, "The Bishop's Dream", which we listened to in the car while I carted children to gymnastics and piano lessons last week.

The first story we listened to was "It's Called Christmas". This story was about a boy in the future named Nook. In this future world, all religion and everything religious has been erased. Nook knows nothing of Christmas until he an older man at the mall mentions it to him. Nook says, "Happy Holidays" and the man replies, "It's called Christmas". Naturally, since Nook has never heard of that word "Christmas" before, he embarks on a mission to find out what it means. Christmas, and all things religious or offensive, has been banned and erased from history, so it's not exactly easy for Nook to find out the meaning of Christmas. It's a truly interesting story that my boys loved listening to! Silas, my 6 year old, laughed and giggled at the silly parts of the story.

"The Bishop's Dream" was the story we listened to while we were driving around hauling kids to various activities and running errands. I enjoyed this story immensely, as it was about Saint Nicolas. In this story, Saint Nicolas goes around to the children, telling the Gospel story and bringing happiness and encouragement to the families.

"Cootie McKay's Nativity" was a story about a boy named Cootie {yes, Cootie} who saves Christmas for his town! He doesn't know much about the nativity story, but has some interesting and deep questions. Some of these questions, my kids have asked me themselves!  It's a funny story that will keep your kid's attention.

"Gladys Remembers Christmas" was about a young girl named Gladys whose mother died when she was 6 years old. She never felt loved, hated Christmas and hated her name. Some time later, her dad asked her to go to her old house to find a green box in the attic for him. Gladys finds the box, and with a surprise "visit" from her mother, and her life is changed.

These stories are wonderfully written and beautifully narrated. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them, and I plan to have my kids listen to them more throughout the Christmas season. It's wonderful to have these stories - stories with more depth and meaning than the ordinary Christmas books and stories available these days.

Check out the Familyman's Christmas stories in digital format or physical CD's.