Cowboy Night Before Christmas

By James Rice

Now reissued in full-color! Santa Claus was doing all right Christmas Eve until he hit the Southwestern Panhandle country. As soon as he did, a blue norther sweeping across the prairies sent his reindeer fleeing for the comparative warmth of the North Pole. Santa--Stetsoned, booted, and bundled to his nose--stomped through the blizzard until he came to a small sod shanty and corral. A dim flicker of firelight came through the whistling cracks in the door. And so opens this Christmas book from the pen of James Rice, now available in full color for the first time. A seasonal treasure for both children and adults, Cowboy Night Before Christmas traces the unlikely teamwork of Santa, two freezing cowboys, and a bunch of longhorn cattle "a mite short on brains" as they struggle to ensure that Christmas does indeed come on schedule. A new twist on the classic Christmas poem, this book plays off of its Southwestern setting and the drawling dialect characteristic of this part of the country. With richly humorous illustrations by Rice--an artist well known for his delightful drawings--Cowboy Night Before Christmas is a welcome addition to any collection of Christmas tales and legends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781439678909

James Rice

James Rice (1843-1882) was an English novelist. Born in Northampton and educated at Cambridge University, he became a lawyer at Lincoln’s Inn in 1871. There, he befriended Walter Besant, with whom he would collaborate on over a dozen popular novels and short story collections, included The Golden Butterfly (1876). Their prolific working relationship ended in tragedy in 1882 with Rice’s untimely death I Redhill, Surrey.

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