By Abbey Benninghoff
Bessemer, Pa.
Age 17
Honorable mention
Up at dawn, doing chores at six years of age may sound crazy, but for Grace, she thrived on that repetition. Now with the new baby in the family, her father needed the help in the barn.
The first white blanket of snow had fallen, unexpectedly, and it was […]

By Anna Perkins
Westfield Township, Ohio
Age 16
Winner
Family. A Christmas tree. Singing carols on a neighbor’s doorstep. Watching her children’s delight at receiving the special gifts she had made for them. Bob’s present for her. His love.
Shirley blinked away tears as these thoughts crossed her mind, the thoughts of what Christmas used to mean to her. […]

By Jaclyn Krymowski
Hinckley, Ohio
Age 12
Honorable Mention
Sarah watched the winter snow fall fast, thick and heavy. This would be the loneliest Christmas ever. For it was Christmas Eve and all of Hickory Town was expecting a railroad to cut through it, bringing food, people and supplies. But it had passed them right up.
Sarah hoped that […]

By Destini Smith
Vickery, Ohio
Age 12
Winner
De was in school. It was the end of the day, right before the bell rang, when her teacher, Mrs. Dunn, said, “Don’t forget about the school Christmas play practice tomorrow.”
So when De and Taylor (De’s best friend) were walking home, De asked, “ What is so special about Christmas? […]

By Carlee Dunham
Castalia, Ohio
Age 11
Honorable Mention
Once upon a Christmas Eve, a young boy named Charlie did not believe in Santa Claus. He simply told his parents he did not want to have a Christmas this year.
His younger sister, Faith, was getting milk and cookies for Santa. She was just so excited.
When Faith kept […]

By Brandon Hozian
Kirtland, Ohio
Age 11
Winner
There once was an evergreen tree that got planted in a forest. It wanted to grow to be a great big tree that would decorate a fabulous mansion for Christmas and children can find their gifts under.
When this tree got cut down to be sold, the evergreen tree was not […]

By Tori Miller
Vickery, Ohio
Age 8
Honorable Mention
“Mom, I’m going to bed,” said Sierra, yawning.
But before she went to bed, she looked at her calendar.
“Yay! Tomorrow is Christmas! I have to tell Simon,” she said.
Simon was standing there in his pajamas.
“Simon, it’s Christmas tomorrow,” shouted Sierra.
“What is so important about Christmas?” said […]

By Danielle Schumaker
Loudonville, Ohio
Age 9
Winner
The North Pole postman is as busy as can be as millions of children across the world send their Christmas wish lists to Santa.
Santa reads each and every letter and then he and his elves get to work.
Teddy asked Santa for a wooden sled. Tim asked for a wagon: […]

By Asa Eddy
Chesterland, Ohio
Age 5
Honorable Mention
Once upon a time there was a pumpkin and a little girl. The girl’s name was Georgia and she picked the ripe, ripe, orange pumpkin. After it was picked she noticed 1,000 more.
So she cooked pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin ice cream and even pumpkin […]

By David Krymowski
Hinckley, Ohio
Age 7
Winner
Once there was a robot farm. One of the workers on the farm was a robot named Rusty. Rusty had the job of herding the cattle through the pasture.
It was an unusual rainy Christmas Eve day. The rain poured down so much it rusted Rusty. He could not move and […]