In this quiet book written by Don Reid, a member of the singing group The Statler Brothers, two storylines taking place between the covers. The first and main plot takes place two days before Christmas 1958 in Mt. Jefferson. The preacher’s troubled daughter is caught shoplifting at the local five-and-dime, which sets off a chain of events connecting this close-knit community through matters of the heart.

Meanwhile, in the sub-plot, terminally-ill grandfather, Walter Selman is recalling his own ghosts of Christmas past. While working for his father as a young man, Walter is witness to a love triangle gone awry. As a beautiful woman dies before his eyes, Walter begins a Christmas tradition of his own, eventually passing it on to his descendants.

This lackluster tale is written more like a day-in-the-life essay rather than a fully fleshed story and contains no climax, nor a tightly wrapped ending. Still, there is something about Reid’s effortless style that gives his work a down-home feel. O Little Town is comfortable glimpse of Christmas in America during a simpler time, that of a bygone era.