The Christmas Store

Twelve warm, festive, and magical stories portray the bustle and fervor of the Christmas shopping season in a major department store. By the author of The Courtship of Peggy McCoy. 20,000 first printing.

In attempting to evoke a sweet old-fashioned feel, Sipherd ( The Courtship of Peggy McCoy ) has overshot his mark with this cloying collection. The 12 stories are set in and around a big-city department store during the Christmas season. The store locale supplies the sights and sounds; the characters (maintenance men, mannequins, customers, salespeople); and the various enchanted props like the "Eau de Noel," a mysterious perfume that provides the catalyst for romantic love, or a magical date book that renews a depressed man's spirit of giving in "Lost and Found." Sipherd's magical store helps tormented, lonely city dwellers find the Christmas spirit in "The Crystal Silver China Club," in which casual co-workers form a club and host a Christmas party, and in "The Star Checker," in which an elderly widower at last finds happiness. Charm proves elusive here, succumbing to banality.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The author of The Courtship of Peggy McCoy (St. Martin's, 1990) brings us another delightful story: a perfect seasonal gift book with a timeless message. Narrator Thomas Cavanaugh, for many years an employee of a large department store, recounts selected memories of the establishment, its staff, and visitors at Christmas-time. Among those reminiscences are stories of a couple who fall in love, a special birth, developing friendships, and an adventure of two children lost in Toys. The writing is a joy at any time of the year. Recommended, especially for collections with high seasonal-title circulations.
- Betsy Larson, Brennemann Lib., Chicago
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mr. Cavanaugh, once employed in a large department store, now appears there only during the Christmas rush, when he pens these stories of romance, friendship, and miracles. Each short story revolves around a different department of the store, from the front windows to the loading dock. This collection, sentimental, even maudlin, at times, winds up with a surprising, bittersweet fate for its fictional author. Denise Perry Donavin