Adapted from a story told by Charles Russell in Trails Plowed Under.
Everybody knows Charles M. Russell was one of America’s greatest cowboy artists but few know he was also a pretty good storyteller. I first read this story some forty years ago and it remains one of my favorite Christmas tales. I changed a few things but it is based on Charley’s original story.
Santa Claus sometimes m

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus