With an eye towards the Christmas shopping season, lawyers for Family Christian Stores and its creditors approved a plan that could put the nation's largest chain of Christian book and gift stores under new ownership by mid-August, MLive.com reported on Friday. Family Christian's creditors will decide by Aug. 7 whether to approve a transfer to new owners who have pledged to continue operations, according to a plan approved on Friday by Bankruptcy Judge John Gregg. Brad Baldwin, a lawyer for Family Christian, said that they need to emerge from chapter 11 protection by mid-August so the company can prepare their Christmas catalogs and order holiday inventory for the chain's 266 stores in 36 states.
