Some Christmases are magical. Some are disasters. Most are both.

The Light We Keep at Christmas is a collection of fifteen stories about the holidays we actually have, not the ones we planned. A nativity play that descends into biblical chaos. A father who nearly loses two fingers trying to save Christmas. Two brothers whispering in the dark on Christmas Eve, holding onto belief as hard as they can. A grandmother baking cookies while she tells the story of the man who came home from war on Christmas night. A daughter who finds a box in her mother's apartment that rewrites everything she thought she knew.

Warm, funny, and quietly devastating, these stories move from the wonder of childhood Christmases through the beautiful absurdity of adulthood and into the grief and grace of the ones that change us forever. They are drawn from memory, observation, and the deep human truth that the holidays have a way of magnifying whatever is already there.

Inspired by the spirit of David Sedaris's Holidays on Ice, The Light We Keep at Christmas is a book for anyone who has ever laughed at a Christmas that went wrong, cried at one that went right, or carried someone they loved through the lights one last time.

Some of these stories will make you laugh out loud. Some will make you ache quietly. All of them will feel like yours.