The Christmas Time Travelers by L. M. Haynes is a very original and fascinating Christmas story - one which is definitely a unique twist on the First Christmas for kids growing up, especially if they are dog lovers!
In this tale, an inventor builds a time machine in which he decides to do a test on Christmas Eve. So, once he readies the machine and sets the automatic return timer for eight hours, he gets distracted by Christmas Carolers at his front door. Before he realizes it, his three dogs have run into the time machine and the gadget's door closed behind them - then, poof...the machine disappears. Realizing what has happened, the professor is saddened to have lost his three loved dogs, and his time machine.
The next part of the book tells the story from the time-traveling dog's perspective, as they come across the Nativity scene of Jesus Christ being born. The dogs witness, first hand, the miracle of that evening. After a few hours, the trio of K-9s find a comfortable spot in the barn, and nestle down in some hay and drift off to sleep. Lily, one of the dogs, gets a little restless and decides to explore the barn while the others sleep.
Lily brushes up against the blue blanket used to wrap the baby Jesus in his crib, and a piece of the blanket gets caught in Lily's collar. The professor realizes the timer was set for eight hours, and as that time is approaching, he sits in a chair to await the return of his time machine. Sure enough, at the right moment, the time machine reappears and the dogs are within; healthy, happy, and glad to return to their home. Only this time, there is a piece of the blue blanket still attached to Lily's collar as physical evidence of the dogs' journey to the First Christmas, and back.
The illustrations by the author bring together the story with a visual theme making it an ideal bedtime story to be read to youngsters, especially during the holidays. Having the physical evidence of the blanket reinforces the faith of the professor, yet as the moral of the story says each of us needs to find our own evidence of our faith.
