Rachel Barkley
Age: 11
Uhrichsville, OH

Mary sighed. All she had ever wanted for Christmas previous years had been a horse. But now she had pushed wanting a horse to the back of her mind. Mary’s mother was horribly sick. She’d been sick for a very long time.
Every night, Mary prayed that her mother would get better. […]

Second place: Alex Keck, 17, of Hanoverton, Ohio

It was early December of 1933, the height of the Great Depression in the tiny Pennsylvania coal mining town of Dunbar. The rows of company houses coated with black coal dust cast a bleak silhouette against the cold gray sky. Ida was 9-years-old and she along her 8-year-old […]

Athena Pantelides, 10 yrs.
Louisville, Ohio

Snowla the cat was watching the snow fall outside of her house. Snowla’s owner spoiled her. You see Snowla’s house was a huge mansion, and Snowla’s owner had a big golden retriever.
The dog’s name is Carla. Carla didn’t want to scare away cats but just the sight of the […]

Christmas stories of love, wishes, lessons learned and animals filled our mailbox and inboxes in the past few weeks and we couldn’t have been happier here at the Farm and Dairy!
The stories gave us the jolt we needed to get into the holiday spirit. The judges had a tough time picking the winners but […]

Eileen Gress, 16, of Shreve, Ohio

It was Christmas Eve, and Marie sat in her rocking chair. She was thinking about Christmas and how her husband, Mark, wouldn’t be there to celebrate with her and her daughter. I know that they needed more troops in Iraq, but why over the holiday season? How can we celebrate […]

By Marie Walker
Leetonia, Ohio
Honorable mention
Tears flowed from my eyes while I hung the little red and white stuffed elf. It was Carol’s favorite Christmas ornament.
My 18-year-old daughter had joined the military service. It would be the first Christmas without her.
Carol’s letters arrived from the boot camp and I understood that decorations were not allowed in […]

By Sharon Sweda
Huron, Ohio
Honorable Mention
“Doggone it!”
Janet hears Henry’s familiar bellow. She knows, without looking or hearing the stomp of his boots, that in an instant, he and his flannel jacket will race out the door of their 1940’s bungalow. She also knows where he is going.
It is five days before Christmas in the Kraemer […]

By Jennifer Bryan
Paris, Ohio
Honorable Mention
The frosty morning air stung my nose as I stepped out the door of our farmhouse. My parents’ boot prints in the fresh snow marked their earlier trek to the barn. I could hear the drone of the milk pump and the calves bawling for their breakfast.
Cows don’t know when […]

By M. Merlin Acker
Wooster, Ohio
Honorable Mention
Farmer Jim awoke early one bright spring morning, traveling to the steep eastern slope on his farm overlooking a small village. One by one he placed small pine trees in the soil. As the saplings embraced the sunlight and inhaled a few breaths of the crisp air, two trees began […]

By Chet Cornman
Freeport, Pa.
Third place
The floorboard creaked and Amy froze. Someone was out there all right. Carefully, oh so carefully, she extended her neck and peeked around the corner.
A man, a large man, was sitting with his back to her, rooting under the tree. She held her breath, but was sure he’d hear her […]