Gov. Mike Huckabee told me his current best-seller, "A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories that Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit," is his favorite of the seven books he has authored. Writing the book gave me a chance to write about stories that are intensely personable but also very pleasurable as I talk about things that matter so very much, not just to me but to all of us," Huckabee said.
This year, President Obama has decided not to display the traditional Christmas crèche at the White House. After reading "A Simple Christmas," there can be no doubt that should Gov. Huckabee ever become President Huckabee, that policy would be immediately reversed."A Simple Christmas" takes Huckabee back through a heartfelt remembrance of Christmas past, from the days of his early childhood to his celebration of Christmas as governor of Arkansas.
While not a book of politics, "A Simple Christmas" invites the reader to see Huckabee as he saw himself growing up, told through 12 Christmas stories that span his life from childhood to early adulthood. A story that stands out involves Huckabee at 11 years old telling his parents that if they wouldn't buy him an electric guitar for Christmas, he didn't want anything.
Of course, at that early age, Huckabee had no idea how his blue-collar family would find the extra $99 to buy his coveted guitar.
"I wanted a simple Christmas that year. I didn't ask for a lot of things – just one that meant more to me than anything else I had ever asked for," he wrote.
"But what was simple to me was anything but simple to my parents, who had to make a really major sacrifice to give it to me. The best Christmas gifts we get are the ones that represent a sacrifice on the part of the giver."
Here, Huckabee draws a lesson back to the true meaning of Christmas, underscoring, as he does throughout the book, how the true meaning of Christmas involves a deep appreciation of the birth of Christ.
"That's because nothing so reflects what Christmas is all about as does sacrifice," he continues. "God, who owed us nothing, gave us everything. He gave up more than His comfort and His crown – He gave His life, and it all started right there in a simple manger in Bethlehem."
The guitar is a recurring theme in the 12 stories, as it is in Huckabee's life."The guitar has been instrumental in shaping my life by allowing me to get out of my basic shyness," Huckabee told WND.
Huckabee's guitar became a signature piece during his 2008 presidential campaign, every bit as much as the guitar has become a centerpiece of his popular weekend show on Fox News.
Among the formative events that shaped Huckabee's character is the story he relates of coping with his wife's cancer, in the first years of their marriage, when he was a broke and struggling theology student.
After a successful operation and a near-miraculous recovery, the Huckabees celebrated Christmas that year just thankful Janet had survived.
"We had made it to Christmas, and life and hope were all that we wanted," he wrote. "The lights were just as bright and the Christmas food was just as good, but it was the first Christmas ever that no gift at all could have equaled the one we cherished most.
I'm all warm and fuzzy now. Putting Jesus Christ! back in Christmas, wow. And just when I was losing faith in the RedTeam leadership, too.
Huckabee makes you want to sing, doesn't he? Me, too. Age, Amici, let's all sing something. How about an old favorite? I like I'll be Home for Christmas, made popular by Bing Crosby in 1943. Here are the lyrics:
Happy Holidays, Happy Hannukah, and Happy Kwaanza to all lovers of liberté, égalité, fraternité, diversité et communisté. There has already been at least one small present delivered this year. Let us hope for many more.I'll be home for Christmas,
You can count on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree.
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love-light gleams.
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams.Carol of the Bells
Hark! How the bells
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say,
"Throw cares away."
Christmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the boldDing, dong, ding, dong
That is their song
With joyful ring
All caroling
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From ev'rywhere
Filling the airOh how they pound,
Raising the sound,
O'er hill and dale,
Telling their tale,
Gaily they ring
While people sing
Songs of good cheer
Christmas is here
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas
Merry, merry, merry, merry ChristmasOn, on they send
On without end
Their joyful tone
To ev'ry home
(repeat from the beginning)
Ding, dong, ding, dong.
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