A Boy Called Christmas

"Irresistibly readable. Destined to become a Christmas and anytime-before-or-after-Christmas classic!" --Chris Grabenstein, New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library "Like stockings hung by the fire, this spellbinding opus may well become a yuletide tradition." — Kirkus , Starred review"Award-winning British author Matt Haig ( To Be a Cat ) writes with warmth, wit and irreverence." — Shelf Awareness , Starred review"Matt Haig has an empathy for the human condition, the light and the dark of it, and he uses the full palette to build his excellent stories.”—Neil Gaiman, Newbery-winning author of The Graveyard Book "The definitive (and funny) history of Ho, ho, ho! My children loved it." —Yann Martel, bestselling author of Life of Pi "Humorous and heartfelt, A Boy Called Christmas will grow your heart three sizes and make you believe in magic." --Liesl Shurtliff, New York Times bestselling author of Rump "The most evergreen, immortal Christmas story to be published for decades. Future generations will receive the same comfort and joy from A Boy Called Christmas that they derive from mince pies, snowmen and creamy liqueurs." --Stephen Fry"Matt Haig puts the Happy back into Christmas." --Jeanette Winterson"A new festive classic. Funny, sad and brilliant. It turns out we only knew half the story." --Simon Mayo, BBC "An instant Christmas classic... Nikolas is a terrific character, clearly the offspring of Gerda from The Snow Queen and Roald Dahl's Charlie Bucket." xa0-- The Guardian "Like enjoying the warmth of a good fire on a cold day . . . perfect for Christmas is every way." -- The Independent Matt Haig is an internationally bestselling author whose novels for children and adults have been translated into twenty-six languages. His children’s books have won the Nestléxa0Smarties Book Prize, the Alex Award, and the Blue Peter Book Award, and been nominated several times for the Carnegie Medal and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. He lives in Brighton, England, with his wife and two children. Visit him at matthaig.com and follow @matthaig1 on Twitter. Chris Mould began studying art at the age of sixteen and has gone on to become an acclaimed illustrator of children’s books. He lives with his wife and two children in Yorkshire. Visit him at chrismould.blogspot.com and follow @chrismouldink on Twitter. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. You are about to read the true story of Father Christmas. Yes. Father Christmas. You may wonder how I know the true story of Father Christmas, and I will tell you that you shouldn’t really question such things. Not right at the start of a book. It’s rude, for one thing. All you need to understand is that I do know the story of Father Christmas, or else why would I be writing it? Maybe you don’t call him Father Christmas. Maybe you call him something else. Santa or Saint Nick or Santa Claus or Sinterklaas or Kris Kringle or Pelznickel or Papa Noel or Strange Man with a Big Belly Who Talks to Reindeer and Gives Me Presents. Or maybe you have a name you’ve come up with yourself, just for fun. If you were an elf, though, you would always call him Father Christmas. It was the pixies who started calling him Santa Claus, and spread the word, just to confuse things, in their mischievous way. But whatever you happen to call him, you know about him, and that’s the main thing. Can you believe there was a time when no one in the world knew about him? A time when he was just an ordinary boy called Nikolas, living in the middle of nowhere, or the middle of Finland, doing nothing with magic except believing in it? A boy who knew very little about the world except the taste of mushroom soup, the feel of a cold north wind, and the stories he was told.u200aAnd who only had a doll made out of a turnip to play with. But life was going to change for Nikolas, in ways he could never have imagined. Things were going to happen to him. Good things. Bad things. But if you are one of those people who believe that some things are impossible, you should put this book down right away. It is most certainly not for you. Because this book is full of impossible things. Are you still reading the book? Good. (Elves would be proud.) Then let us begin .u2008.u2008. Read more