The Christmas Journal — Katherine Valentine

No one loves Christmas more than Bob Parson, especially Christmas in Crutcher Pike, Kentucky. But this year, the holiday is especially poignant for Bob, a teacher at Madison High School. Bob is retiring after forty years. This will be his last Christmas.
Concerned for the encroaching commercialism that has all but snuffed out the true meaning of Christmas among his students, Bob decides to secretly override the school board's recent decision to ban all things Christmas. After cashing out his cherished fly-fishing rod savings account, Bob gives each student fifty dollars and the assignment to find someone with a need and to meet that need.
Alan is a new student, struggling to make friends, when a local pastor introduces him to the director, Ray of a homeless shelter in the neighboring town. Ray is caught up in a struggle of his own. The downtown restoration project wants to shut down the shelter to make room for high end shops and the man running the project is his estranged son, David.
20 years ago, Ray had been asked to leave as pastor of the Abiding Faith Church, when he refused to divulge how church funds had gone missing in order to save a friend. The decision cost him both his career and his son. Unbeknown to Ray, it has also has cost him a grandson, Alan.
When Alan rally's support to move the school's canceled Christmas concert to the shelter as a fundraiser for his civics project, three generations will experience the true meaning of Christmas.