It's Christmas Eve in sleepy little Gambier, Ohio, and a massive snowstorm is giving the rural town more than just a white Christmas. Roads are closed, everything is shut down, and the monster outside is angry, rattling the windows and howling in the chimney.
Harry Ryan, a sophomore at the college, decided to stay at school over winter break to finish his term paper, but it's not going well, and now he regrets his decision, which has left him stranded far from his family. You see, as well as being Christmas, December 25th is also Harry's birthday.
As he looks out his window at the stark and beautiful campus, at the icicles on the bushes along Middle Path, and the snow pasted on the windward sides of trees, and the layers of vanilla icing covering the world's chocolate cake, it reminds him of a Christmas a long time ago.
Buffalo Nickel Christmas is the story of a special Christmas Eve for three young brothers and two young sisters on a trip to the city to see the department store's version of Christmas Town. They came for the toys. They stayed for the adventure.