Here are the 9 winners of the 2018 'Christmas I Remember Best' writing contest

Each year, Deseret News readers submit original stories about their most memorable Christmases for the 'Christmas I Remember Best' writing contest.

Here are the nine winners from 2018:

1. How this 8-year-old is still making a difference more than 3 years after her death

Jessica Grayless shares her story of a heartbreaking loss and a meaningful gift of a Nativity set.

2. What this woman learned after the 'silent treatment' of Christmas 2000

Heidi Hachtman recalls "the dreary Christmas of 2000" and the lessons she learned from it.

3. The special present a family got their hard-working father for Christmas in 1955

Joe F. Martinez pays tribute to his father and remembers a special gift his dad received that he brings out every Christmas to remember him.

4. The scone ingredient that made this family's Christmas truly special

Scott Hinrichs describes a Christmas Day memory that encapsulates the true Christmas spirit.

5. How a special dinner helped this missionary on his first Christmas away from home

Steven R. Kimball recalls a special Christmas dinner in 1966 in Germany while serving as a missionary and spending his first Christmas away from home.

6. How this son built his mom the ultimate Christmas gift despite struggles with mental illness

Randall Davis shares some of the joys his son Josh provided family members during Christmases, providing relief from his struggles with mental illness.

7. How singing 'Silent Night' at a senior care center decades ago led to a Christmas miracle

Margaret Hyde Jenkins recalls a moment at a senior care center while performing as a high school senior when she connected with a resident and experienced her own "Christmas miracle."

8. This Utah man visited an Italian cemetery years ago. What he found there has affected all his Christmases since

Bob Lewis recalls a trip to Italy as a boy and how a cemetery visit has given him new insight every Christmas since 1944.

9. During a Christmas in 1967, this family was rescued in a Flagstaff train station. Here's how they paid it forward on the journey home

Karen Brotherson recounts Christmas advice from 1967 to pass along a good deed. Her son Eric wrote: "This is a story my mom has told us all her life. I'm glad she finally wrote it."