Christmas for Tad — Helen Topping Miller

Christmas, 1863, in the White House at Washington. Things looked a little better for the Union, but there was still a long way to go to peace. And the man responsible for guiding the nation through the increasing complexities of civil war was the President, Abraham Lincoln.

Even in the face of tremendous pressures and demands upon his time, Mr. Lincoln wanted to have the best Christmas possible for his spirited son, Tad. Nor was he likely to forget the boys of Company K, his personal bodyguards, far from home at the season of family festivity. Mrs. Lincoln was difficult and scolding, and "Peace on Earth, good will to men" seemed far away, but Abraham Lincoln found a way to keep alive the spirit of Christmas, and in the doing, refreshed his own weary spirit.