English teacher Sarah Deane and her boyfriend, Dr. Alex McKenzie, leave snowy Maine to join Sarah's feisty Aunt Julia for Christmas at the exclusive Rancho del Gato Blanco resort in Arizona. But they soon realize there's no place like home for the holidays when ranch guests become the prey of a prankster whose destructive acts are tallying up like a Yuletide carol:

Garden hose a-spraying...Lounge chair collapsing...Mud in the coffee...Golf carts a-stalling...Rubber snake in bathtub...Wagon wheel a-flying...

The pranks take a murderous turn Christmas morning when one of the guests turns up dead among the gifts in Santa's sack. Sarah and Alex are certain the killer lurks among them. Could it be quirky clerk Cookie Logan? Aging film star Maria Cornish? Her hot-tempered beau Blue Feather Romero? Head wrangler Peter Doubler? Or someone in the entourage of U.S. Senator Leo J. Hopgood? The police even have eccentric Aunt Julia on their list of suspects-but if Sarah and Alex don't find the killer fast, they could all end up on the list of victims.