The Christmas Shoes

The song tells the story of a little boy with clothes that "were worn and old" buying shoes one Christmas Eve for his sick mother so she'll look good if she "meets Jesus tonight." Founding member Eddie Carswell told us, "it was inspired by this lady who'd actually been in that situation - not exactly the way the story goes, but a very similar story."

The song's storyline was inspired by a Christmas story that St. Louis-based radio personality DC Chymes found on the Internet. A NewSong fan, Chymes asked Eddie Carswell to write a song based on the narrative. Eddie and his then songwriting partner Leonard Ahlstrom liked the idea and worked at it on and off for a couple of years without completing the song. "We would read this story, and we knew something was there," Eddie recalled in the band's online biography, "so we kept stabbing at it, kept coming back to it."

When the band was recording Sheltering Tree, Eddie pitched the unfinished song, but the producer passed on the cut. With the album complete, NewSong had a meeting with people from their Benson Records label. The suggestion was made about adding a last minute Christmas song, so Eddie played a rough version of "The Christmas Shoes". Their enthusiastic response convinced the two writers to finish the song and the record label to add it. Within a mere week, the second verse and bridge were complete, and "The Christmas Shoes" was on the album as a bonus track.