Then Came Christmas

by Randy Lee Eickhoff

On Thanksgiving Day, 1953 Samantha "Sam" McCaslin was content with life on her family's ranch in South Dakota. It was her birthday, and her life was just beginning. She had turned twelve and was certain that the year ahead would be special.

But her world soon shatters. Sam stumbles across the body of an Indian friend who was a hired hand helping her father on the ranch. With her mother sick, Sam is determined to bring the magic of Christmas back to the family of her murdered friend. Realizing suddenly that the world outside is not the perfect place that her parents had created on the ranch, Sam makes a harrowing Christmas Eve ride to spread the joy of Christmas, even if there are those out to destroy it.

Anti-Indian racism and the ignorance of the world outside her own front door are brought to full light as Sam finds herself being stalked by her friend's killer. Blending suspense with deep and poignant emotion, a young girl undergoes an epiphany that changes her life forever in a Christmas story that will remain a classic for many seasons to come.

Genres: Christmas

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 4, 2002

Reviews

[Angelika · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of a coming-of-age novel than a christmas story as 12 year-old Samantha "Sam" helps out at the family ranch in west South Dakota, while dealing with growing up with no explanations, rigid gender expectations, racism and violence. As an only child, she rides the fences of their huge ranch in the winter, gets a .22 for her birthday, yet should act ladylike in church. And after getting shot at at in a blizzard by a violent rapist, barely surviving hypothermia, makes her "rethink things a bit" and she puts on a dress? Published in 2002 that seems a bit odd reasoning. I liked the detailed descriptiveness of the writing, though. Most of the references put the time frame in 1954, but how to fit in the 1992 pink ashtray from Niagara Falls?

[Glenette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it!

[Cathy Beckett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for the Christmas challenge.