Grandon

Grandon is a fictional town, the setting for the Christmas book series by American Christian romance author Donna VanLiere.

The town is portrayed as being in a northern climate, due to portrayals of winter being cold. No state is given but, based on some limited information, it is presumed to be one of the New England states.

Notable Residents

• Robert Layton--portrayed as a local attorney. His story is portrayed in The Christmas Shoes, where his professional success nearly cost him his marriage. He makes cameo appearances in other books.
• Nathan Andrews--originally portrayed as a young boy, who's mother dies on Christmas Eve (from The Christmas Shoes). He later becomes a pediatric cardiologist.
• Gloria Bailey (later Watson)--a local resident (originally from the state of Georgia) who originally runs a community charity out of her garage and home. Locally known as "Miss Glory", she is widowed with five children (one having died in infancy). She is introduced in The Christmas Promise, and ultimately her charity is given a permanent home and renamed "Glory's Place". She later marries Marshall Wilson, owner of the town's department store.
  • Matthew (a/k/a "Chaz McConnell")--Gloria's youngest living child. After losing his infant sister shortly after birth, and dealing with his father's terminal illness, he runs away from home two weeks before his father's passing, blaming God for the tragedies. He becomes an alcoholic drifter and ultimately ends up in Grandon as a security guard at Wilson's Department Store. Miraculously (not knowing Gloria moved) he discovers and reconnects with Gloria, and ultimately attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and marries a single mother.
• Miriam Lloyd-Davies--Gloria's neighbor. A twice-married, prim and proper British expatriate, originally she resents living next to Gloria's menagerie of stuff and people. But when she has to move in (after her house suffers major damage from a flooded toilet), the two become close friends, though they are known for bickering.
• Lauren Gabriel (later Mabrey)--a young woman from nearby Whitall (portrayed as an hour away). She is introduced in The Christmas Town. Abandoned by her parents and raised in the foster care system, one night she aimlessly drives around, ending up in Grandon by "accident" (literally, she witnesses a hit-and-run accident). She befriends Gloria and the rest of the Glory's Place volunteers, and ultimately moves to Grandon, having found the "family" she never had growing up. She marries Travis Mabrey (who works for the town's Parks and Recreation Department) and in The Christmas Table, the two have a daughter, which they name "Gloria Miriam" after the bickering best friends of Glory's Place.
• Amy Denison (formerly, and later, Rodriguez)--a volunteer at Glory's Place. Previously married to Gabe Rodriguez (Travis' cousin), the marriage ended due to Gabe's alcoholism and verbal abusiveness. Their story is introduced in The Christmas Star. Gabe later regains sobriety through AA and is studying to be a teacher. The two reconnect through the efforts of Maddie (Madeline Grace), a young girl abandoned at birth who has a mild form of cerebral palsy and is in the foster care system. Ultimately Gabe and Amy remarry (in an impromptu wedding shortly after Lauren and Travis get married) and announce they want to adopt Maddie into their family.