The Girl Who Saved Christmas

By: Matt Haig

Narrated by: Carey Mulligan

From the best-selling author of A Boy Called Christmas comes a hilarious and heartwarming holiday tale for fans of Roald Dahl and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol that imagines the story of the first child to ever receive a Christmas present.

Amelia Wishart was the first child ever to receive a Christmas present. It was her Christmas spirit that gave Santa the extra boost of magic he needed to make his first trip around the world. But now Amelia is in trouble.

When her mother falls ill, she is sent to the workhouse to toil under cruel Mr. Creeper. For a whole year, Amelia scrubs the floors and eats watery gruel without a whiff of kindness to keep her going. It's not long before her hope begins to drain away.

Meanwhile, up at the North Pole, magic levels dip dangerously low as Christmas approaches, and Santa knows that something is gravely wrong. With the help of his trusty reindeer, a curious cat, and Charles Dickens, he sets out to find Amelia, the only girl who might be able to save Christmas. But first, Amelia must learn to believe again....

©2017 Matt Haig (P)2017 Listening Library

Critic reviews

"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)

"With a little bit of naughty and a lot of nice, this Christmastime yarn is a veritable sugarplum." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Lovely Christmas Tale

A lovely new version of how Father Christmas and the elves came about. And how important “Hope” is to the world now and always.

Great story kept my interest

Love Cary Mulligans voice and different characters especially the goofy sounding one towards the end of the story. Bet her facial expressions were funny when she had to do that one. highly recommended book

Amazing!

This book sent chills up to my cheeks. Wonderful Christmas story! Must read! Loved it!

Magic!

Love the reading, & the message! And the clever use of Dickensian elements, as well as Dicken’s himself.

Fun story

This tale is wondrous, a bit sad, thoughtful and triumphant. Amelia’s is a sad story. First losing her mom. Then other bad things happen. Not told in a terrifying manor so young children may not be scared. A magic resolution to restoring Christmas Spirit. The narrator was was wonderful.

Delightful, magical holiday fun for all ages!

Matt Haig has such a clever way of weaving fun, even into scary troll bits!
This story should be made into a holiday movie too!

A Lovely Christmas Story

I really enjoyed this Christmas story of Hope. That four letter word is what has gotten me through a lot of tough times!

Many years ago I struggled with the reason of why I should stay on earth. I had no hope. I had a dysfunctional childhood, but I pulled through it. A marriage that ended in divorce, after almost four years that caused me to almost go crazy, because he left me for another woman. Later I dropped out of college. After multiple failures and a new one triggered by my father, I went to a dear friend. A priest that was my mentor.

I told him how I felt about living. He pointed out that I had lost HOPE! Once that word came out in the open, I understood it all. That was the key. Each time in the past it was harder to keep going because I didn't have Hope. I was blinded with the idea that nothing could change. Wrong!

Life is ever changing. When you're in a bad place always keep Hope. New events will happen that will change current situations. Bad people (NOT my dad) will try to take that away from you. YOU get to choose to whether to let them steal your Hope, or to hold it tightly in your pocket. HOPE IS LIFE CHANGING!

A hart warning Christmas tale stood out a lot to me and my mother.

I loved all of it (ALL OF IT) me and my mother thought it as a very wonderful audio book to listen to with children before Christmas.

Fantastical Christmas story

The story was ok, a bit over the top on the fantastical but it was very well done. Carey Mulligan is my favorite narrator and Matt Haig one of my favorite authors.

Fabulous Xmas story

A superb storyline with Twisty turns ,
Great narrator
And a marvelous guest appearance of Charles Dickens .