The Christmas Pony

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

By Edwardian standards, the McCully family is not rich but they
certainly know how to live that way. They have all the latest gadgets,
including a motorcar and a telephone. They employ a gardener, a cook,
and a maid. They live in the most beautiful house in town, a huge
20-room mansion built by a seafaring ancestor in the mid-19th century.
“But,” as Mrs. McCully was fond of saying, “of all the things that
this house was, it was a house that had been made for Christmas.”
Every December, the senior McCullys close off its two biggest rooms and
spend days preparing a Christmas surprise for their three children. This
year the children will receive a pony from Santa. Unfortunately, keeping
the pony hidden until Christmas morning will require the cooperation and
silence of virtually everyone in the town of Amherst, Nova Scotia,
including the town gossip and the local band of Micmac Indians.

“How do you hide a grown pony from three curious children for a whole
month?” is the theme of this droll and beautifully told tale. The
prose flawlessly captures the humorous interaction of a large household
in full Christmas conniption and, though often striking a nostalgic
chord, never becomes maudlin. The lovely pastel illustrations make this
book a feast for the eyes as well as the mind. Highly recommended.