The crisp, cold air makes stepping into the Hired Hands House an inviting notion, so I join others warming themselves at the invitation of John and Susan Childs in their cramped, but cozy quarters.

The Buckleys have "gone to town," they say, so they will entertain the family's visitors until their return.

And entertain they do as John Childs sets off on a bit of a harangue about some new song that has put him at odds with the schoolmarm in the nearby one-room schoolhouse. His wife Susan, though, is an independent thinker and less bothered than her husband by the new song.

With typical Hoosier hospitality, the Childs invite each visitor to "stir the plum pudding and make a wish," a Christmas tradition.

"We always make plum pudding, and it's stirred every day for the twelve days leading up to Christmas," Susan Childs says.

It is all part of the magic of "Christmas on the Farm," the leisurely trip to Christmas past on the Hoosier prairie.

Framed against the backdrop of the living history outdoor museum that is Buckley Homestead County Park near Lowell, the popular "Christmas on the Farm" program invites visitors to peek into the lives of those living in and around the Buckley Homestead at the turn of the century.

John and Susan Childs have been in costume and interpreting life on the Buckley farm for nearly seven years, and, yes, are indeed husband and wife.

"It works well, because we are married. There's that give and take," Susan Childs said. Originally from Highland, the couple now live on a farm of their own near Plymouth, but wouldn't miss the regular roles they fill for the annual living history program.

"It's a lot of work, doing it in the first person," Susan Childs said, but it's also a labor of love.

"We've done a lot of research," she said, noting that her husband John portrays a curmudgeonly sort reflecting the worrisome times. "It's a changing time in history. World War I is on the cusp," she said.

Larry Ard of Hobart portrays St. Nicholas who, whether charming visitors in the Main House parlor or warming himself by the stove where homemade cookies are baking, looks different from the Santa Claus of today.

"I'm dressed differently, in a long robe," Ard said, adding with a twinkle in his eye, "St. Nick is 300 years older than Santa Claus and weighs about 300 pounds less." Ard said he finds portraying St. Nick a lot of fun.

"You get the kids to talk to you, and we always tell them the story of the Christmas pickle," he said, explaining the German custom in which a glass pickle is hidden in the branches of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. The first child to find it in the morning will receive an extra candy, he said.

Megan Faulkner, of Lake County Parks, said the "Christmas on the Farm" program is one of the most cherished.

Park Director Becky Crabb said the program has been part of family Christmases for more than 20 years.

"When it started, my Jessica was in third grade," she recalled, noting that back then her daughter was one of the children interpreting the period in the schoolhouse.

"Now, my grandkids are in the pageant. How cool is that?"