We've been asking you to submit your favorite Christmas memories and heartwarming James Avery Christmas stories to spread the warmth and joy of the holidays with James Avery Artisan Jewelry and KVKI and you've delivered!

We day this week, we shared one of the James Avery Christmas Stories submitted through our website and our app. The person who submitted the story won a $25 James Avery gift card. But now, it's the moment of truth! You get to vote for your favorite story from this week and the winner will get an additional $250 James Avery gift card!

Check out the stories below... We dare you to make it through all five without feeling the spirit and love of the holidays!

  • 1

    Heather Leatherman

    My daddy was self-employed all of his life. He did appliance sales and service. I was an only child, and being a girl, I was a huge daddy’s girl! We were far from wealthy, but my daddy did everything in his power to get my momma and I what we wanted for Christmas every year. He was a very kind and giving man, and Christmas was his favorite time of year. My favorite memory is that every year we would travel to my grandparent’s house, and he would hide an extra gift for us in the car. He continued this through the years even doing it for my husband when I got married. It just made him so happy to surprise us with something extra! My daddy has since passed away at the young age of 52 in May of 2015. I plan to put his giving heart in action by continuing his tradition with my own daughter now!

  • 2

    Sheri Presley

    t was just 8 days after my daughter Allison turned 10 that my mother .. her grandmother passed away from brain cancer. Every Christmas she would buy Allison a new set of pajamas, the newest kids movie, pop corn and hot chocolate to enjoy Christmas Eve. I have tried to carry on the same tradition, but it just isn't the same. We are still so heart broken over the loss of our strength and rock. Allison received a James Avery bracelet with a cupcake and angel charm, after mom's passing. During our move this past year it was lost. Allison and her Manaw would make cake pops and other sweet baked treats together.. and even had a small business called "Piece of Cake" I would LOVE to be able to replace this bracelet and the charms. This gift would help heal her (our) broken heart of the missing gift. Allison is now 13 and doesn't ask for much.

  • 3

    Courtney Thomas

    While my story isn't one of generational traditions, it IS one of pure childhood joy for this 80s kid.
    I, like every other elementary aged girl, wrote my letter to Santa EARLY in the late fall of 1983. Why so early? Because it was the year of the Cabbage Patch Kid craze. I wanted one more than I wanted any other gadget or gift. (And so did my little sister!) So, my heartfelt letter to Santa asked for a Cabbage Patch Kid, but not just ANY Cabbage Patch Kid. I specified, because, you know, I was asking Santa. I wanted a blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy. (My sister wanted the same, but a girl.)
    Every evening during month of December, as my parents watched the news, I saw grown women pushing and shoving and even fighting over CPKs. Was I worried? Nah. After all, I hadn't asked my PARENTS to buy me this doll, I had asked SANTA.
    On Christmas Eve, my little sister crept into bed with me. We discussed, for the hundredth time, what we hoped to find under the tree the next morning. As we whispered and giggled, we heard the neighbor's dogs begin to bark. Surely, we reasoned, it meant Santa was in our neighborhood! We did our best to be still and quiet. It must've worked because the next thing I remember is us waking up on Christmas morning. We burst into our little living room and there they were!!! Cabbage Patch Kids! One for each of us! Mine was a boy, hers was a girl. They were blonde and blue-eyed! Literally, it was one of the best Christmases, of my 45 years of Christmases, EVER!
    Years later, my mom told us the story of how she fretted and worried and wanted us to have what we wanted. We lived in a tiny town (Hemphill, Texas) and the nearest town that MIGHT get CPKs was Beaumont, Texas, over two hours away. My Mama had my great-aunt, in Mobile, Alabama, find and ship not just two dolls, but THE dolls, just in time for Santa's delivery. We still have Rory and Lorinda, and we still talk about that Christmas, every Christmas.

  • 4

    Miranda McMillon

    My parents have never been simple or plain when it comes to holidays or gift giving. For example, starting off with a HUGE box, the kind only kids dream of, only to find 12 other boxes inside and finally reaching the last box just to open it and find a dainty pocket knife. Well, one year my brother and I opened all of our presents with ease, no games or hassles to get to our precious gifts, which was a first for us. As we were starting to clean up mom “found” one last box under the tree (like a 7 and 15 year old would miss a present). My brother went ahead opening it and pulled out a note which had a clue on it for a scavenger hunt. My brother and I lit up trying to find the next few clues, one was on the train that circled our tree, another in a stocking. The last clue led us back to the Christmas tree where we found a key hanging on a red, sparkling ornament. What would a 7 and 15 year old need with a key? Well, it was the key to our very own Yamaha bear tracker four wheeler, that I still have 20 years later. That four wheeler was a center point to many childhood memories but none can top the exciting, Christmas morning scavenger hunt to find it!

  • 5

    Cassandra Barnes

    I have so many great memories of spending Christmas at my Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house with my entire family (all 30+ of us)!

    But one of my favorite memories is the time my brother smashed my birthday cake with his fist (not so much my favorite at the time but now, yes)! My birthday is on Christmas Day and one year for my 12th birthday, my Mom had a co-worker make a gingerbread house for me as my birthday cake, it was BEAUTIFUL, so beautiful it didn't even need candles! So everyone gathered around me and sang Happy Birthday, and because there were no candles to blow out, there was an awkward pause after the song where everyone just kind of stood there looking at me. I softly said "I don't know what to do now" (LOL), my brother replied "I do", then he quickly punched his fist through the roof of my beautiful gingerbread house!

    He grabs a piece of the roof and takes off running. I'm crying, the cousins (as well as aunts and uncles) are laughing, Mom's yelling... and I'm sure there was a dog barking somewhere. Ahh family memories :) I wouldn't trade them for anything! Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!

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