Christmas: a time of family, tradition, togetherness—until your family shatters. With no grandparents to spoil her daughters, one single mom faces the holiday alone. Her daughters worry that Santa, like Daddy, won’t show up. She worries, too: What if she can’t give them—or herself—the magic of Christmas?

But maybe, just maybe, she’ll find that magic on Christmas morning, under the tree, like all the other gifts of the season.

“Stille Nacht,” by New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch, is free on this website for one week only. The story’s also available as an ebook through various online retailers here, and in ebook and print in the collection Silent Night, available here.

Stille Nacht

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The free story will be available for one week only. If you missed this one, click on the links above. There’s another free story lurking somewhere around the site. Track the story down, read, and enjoy!