• A Dog Named Christmas

  • By: Greg Kincaid
  • Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
  • Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,766 ratings)

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A Dog Named Christmas  By  cover art

A Dog Named Christmas

By: Greg Kincaid
Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
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Publisher's summary

Todd, the youngest of four children, has a developmental disability that keeps him at home on the farm with his mother and father. One special holiday season, Todd hears an ad on the radio from a shelter looking for temporary homes for their dogs during the holiday week. When Todd's parents at last give in to his pleas for this charitable cause, the family is faced with an entire shelter full of dogs needing homes.

Using his special charms and gifts of persuasion, Todd encourages his whole community to help in the "adopt a dog for Christmas program" and, more importantly, teaches his family the true meaning of goodwill.

©2008 Greg Kincaid (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

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What's just as satisfying—or maybe even better—than curling up under a blanket with a big bowl of popcorn and a mug of hot cocoa to watch one of your favorite holiday films? Listening to the audiobook that it's based on! Many of the most iconic movies we watch every year during the holidays were inspired by books, some well-known and some eclipsed by the fame of their adaptations. These listens are worth revisiting time and time again.

What listeners say about A Dog Named Christmas

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Story
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  • 1 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

If you love dogs, Christmas and Wisdom...

I really enjoyed this. A very simple story. It will get you in the Christmas mood if nothing else will. I am sending this as and early christmas gift to my family who are all dogs nuts and christmas crazy...I will be listening again...too.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Best Audible Book Yet! DON'T MISS IT

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely. I've recommended it to everyone I know. What a wonderful uplifting story. I was afraid from the description that it would be heart wrenching, but instead it was heart-mending. A great Christmas story (I read it during the Christmas Season) this story is timeless, and I would recommend it any time.

What did you like best about this story?

That the characters were real, identifiable people who inspire the listener's loyalty. I liked everyone in the story, but especially the son who stole my heart completely. I learned from them and that doesn't happen in books often enough.

Which character – as performed by Mark Bramhall – was your favorite?

Answered above.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Christmas came home.

Any additional comments?

Listen to it and thank me later.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

What Christmas and family are all about...

I loved this book so much I went out and bought copies of it for my family! The story was heartwarming, funny and sad in places; well worth the three and half hours of listening time required.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Perfect christmas book

I have to admit to having a weakness for Christmas stories that aren’t too sappy or preachy I also have a weakness for dog stories so this book filled the bill to perfection. I am also the mother of a mentally disabled son so Todd really touched my heart. This is a short and delightful book, it’s about so much more than the dog named Christmas it’s about healing and community and how one person’s good deed can change people’s thinking.

I really enjoyed George’s transformation throughout the book and how he and his wife Mary Ann as parents of a child with a disability have a hard time giving up the reigns as that child gets older in chronological age but not always in mental age which makes it even harder to let your child grow up. I see there is a second book and have downloaded it before I was halfway done with this one because I didn’t want this story to end. There is one part *No Spoilers* that I thought was going down a clichéd path and had me yelling at my speakers but luckily it did not go down that road!

Mark Bramhall narration was perfect, he is fast becoming a go-to narrator his voice is subtle yet the way he reads a book it feels like sitting across the kitchen table in rapt attention listening to a master storyteller. I will pick audio over paper everytime if I see he is narrating!

If you are a fan of Christmas reads, dog books or Mark Bramhall I highly recommend this delightful story!

4 stars

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Funny, sad, predictable and over all great!

This book was funny most of all. A little predictable at times but that is what made it so good. It is a story filled with warmth and made me think about naming one of my future pets Christmas just because of this story. I liked that is was not sappy but hit all the feel good things one likes in a short listen. I will listen to this again.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The best Christmas read so far.

Any additional comments?

This is just a perfect, classic, wonderful, wonderful Christmas story. Its one of those that help us to keep hope and faith alive. I'm also a sucker for animal stories.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Okay, I Fell For It...

Would you listen to A Dog Named Christmas again? Why?

Sigh. This had a contrived plot with cut-out characters and an obvious ending. But it all added up to something that moved me, and yes, I'm almost embarrassed to say, next Christmas I'll be listening to it again. It kind of creeps up on you. I can only throw my hands up in the air and grin helplessly. I am glad, however, that I bought it as a Daily Deal. I wouldn't recommend using a credit it for it or for any of Kincaid's other heart warmers as they're so dastardly contrived.

Who was your favorite character and why?

They're all characters you've read before, but they work well together, and you wind up feeling something when you sure as hell didn't mean to. This is a difficult book for me to review, as, really: we've all read this story before.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Mark Bramhall gives a decent performance, but he lacked a certain energy that the story certainly could've used. The main character is an aging, tired and resigned man, with ghosts in his past, and this definitely comes across. But it kind of left me feeling a little old, a little tired, a little resigned...

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

And here's the odd part: I felt a tear or two sting my eyes as I got to the end. Why? All I can figure out is that Kincaid wrote a predictable end, but there's a small twist to it. Something I didn't expect and that made me feel as though the main character suddenly needed redemption and found it.

Any additional comments?

I know! I know! This review is all over the place, but so's the book. It's a nice little story, worth the time listening to, but it's not worth the entire credit. Listen to it, wipe a tear or two away, but wait until it's a Daily Deal

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

warms the heart!

A sensational story with a top quality narator - I'd recommend this to everyone with a heart that needs a touching story.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

How a narrator's choices can ruin a story

It is entirely possible that the story as a whole is a good one. I did not get past the first 20 minutes of the narration. I had to stop the moment used the stereotypical "retarded voice" for Todd, who is developmentally challenged. That is the same horrible voice that schoolyard bullies used to torment special education students when I was young. It is a lazy choice done in poor taste.

No one can convince me that the narrator couldn't have approached this in a more sophisticated manner, especially since the author states that after watching or talking with Todd briefly, you would realize there was something "usual" about him. The emphasis seems to be on how the young man thinks differently--no need for bells and whistles screaming his differences! Something more subtle was called for here. The narrator has a good voice overall. He could have done so much better.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Let Christmas Melt Your Heart

A farmer's sad experiences with dogs that goes all the way back to his childhood and follows him to the war in Vietnam, and has haunted him for more than 40 years . . . well, it is evidence that a child still lives inside us all. This story, so different than all the other Christmas stories that I've listened to and loved, is all about the relationship between a man and his "slow" son. Maybe his boy is mentally retarded or autistic, it really doesn't matter. He is his son, and he wants him to learn to live in a "grown up" world. As he goes about trying to teach him responsibility and how to keep his word, he is surprised to discover that we are never too old to learn or to heal.

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3 people found this helpful