FAVORITE CHRISTMAS TALES WOMAN CAPTURES SEASON'S SPIRIT IN COLLECTED STORIES.Byline: David Greenberg The creator of this article, or someone who has substantially contributed to it, may have a conflict of interest regarding its subject matter. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Staff Writer AGOURA HILLS - After collecting dozens of Christmas stories over the last four decades, Carol Jean Coombs Coombs can refer to:
the act of culling. Called also cast. her 25 favorites out of the filing cabinet in her laundry room A laundry room (also called a utility room) is a room where clothes are washed. In a modern home, a laundry room would be equipped with an automatic washing machine and clothes dryer,and often a large basin, called a laundry tub, for hand-washing delicate articles of clothing such . The result is a newly published paperback book, ``Under a Christmas Star'' (Bonneville Books, $11.95), containing mostly real-life stories with a common denominator common denominator n. 1. Mathematics A quantity into which all the denominators of a set of fractions may be divided without a remainder. 2. A commonly shared theme or trait. of showing the goodness in the human spirit. ``I asked my kids, What are some of your best childhood memories?'' said Coombs, a 63-year-old medical researcher at University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. . ``One daughter said, 'The stories you told us on Christmas Eve.' ``(The book) preserves the stories I've collected over two-thirds of my life. It makes it possible for me to share them freely. These stories are treasures to me.'' The book includes ``Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is a popular Christmas story about Santa Claus' ninth and lead reindeer who possesses an unusually red colored nose that gives off its own light that is powerful enough to illuminate the team's path through inclement weather. ,'' the 1939 poem by Robert May, along with an introduction by Coombs that finally sets the record straight on the genesis of the holiday classic. May's daughter, Barbara, now a copy editor for PC Magazine in San Francisco, said articles have portrayed her for decades as a pitiful youngster whose father wrote the poem in an effort to cheer her up as her mother lay dying. Although her mother was gravely ill, Barbara May revealed in Coombs' 146-page book that her father - then a catalog writer for Montgomery Ward in Chicago - actually penned the poem as a part of a 30-page, illustrated giveaway in the toy department. ``I'm definitely grateful that Carol would be such a professional and make sure she had the facts,'' Barbara May said. ``She didn't just take the path of least resistence and run with the (old) story.'' Once the 25 stories were selected, Coombs said it took her more than a year to track down the owners of the copyrights and obtain permission to republish the works. The stories are grouped by theme: gifts given by children; helping strangers; Christmas miracles; war stories; traditional holiday stories; and religious-oriented pieces. Although Coombs wrote the introduction for each section, she said she prefers reading, editing and telling stories over writing them. ``I have never written anything other than letters,'' said Coombs, who has also volunteered as a Sunday school teacher for four decades. ``I was just never interested, for the same reason I was never interested in the oboe oboe (ō`bō, ō`boi) [Ital., from Fr. hautbois] or hautboy (ō`boi, hō`–), woodwind instrument of conical bore, its mouthpiece having a double reed. . ``Storytelling has great entertainment value. And you can teach through stories. When you hear a lesson or a talk, what you remember are the stories. They have an emotional impact.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Agoura Hills resident Carol Jean Coombs holds her compilation of Christmas stories, ``Under a Christmas Star,'' at a Thousand Oaks book signing. Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News |
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