A Boy Called Christmas

by Matt Haig

It didn’t really matter how small a house was if you had a big imagination.

And sometimes believing is as good as knowing.”

Nikolas gazed up at the night. Even though he had nothing much to be happy about, he felt blessed to have such sights to look at.

A shooting star fell through the sky. “Did you see that, Miika? It means we have to make a wish.” So Nikolas wished for a way of replacing meanness with goodness.

Nikolas gave Blitzen his second-to-last mushroom, and Miika his last one. He ate nothing himself, though his stomach rumbled like a distant storm.

One thing is certain. Nikolas felt something beginning to burn inside him, weak and tired and cold and hungry and sad as he was. He grabbed hold of his father’s hat, shook off the loose snow, put it on his head, and climbed back onto the reindeer. And the reindeer—tired and cold and hungry as he was—carried on walking up that mountain. Because that is what mountains are for.

If you keep on climbing a mountain, you will eventually reach the top. That’s the thing with mountains. However big they are, there is always a top. Even if it takes all through the day and all through another night, you will usually get there, if you keep remembering there is a top.

“Cheese,” said Miika. “I smell cheese!” Of course, there was no cheese to be seen, but that didn’t stop Miika. If you believe in something, you don’t need to see it.

“That’s impossible.” Little Noosh gasped as Father Topo covered her ears. “Elves never ever say that word.” He shook his head. “An impossibility is just a possibility you don’t understand yet…But

“To see something, you have to believe in it. Really believe. That’s the first elf rule.

In a world like that, it’s very easy to be bad. So when someone is good, or kind, it’s a magic in itself. It gives people hope. And hope is the most wonderful thing there is.”

It would have been wonderful to go there. But nothing was as wonderful as doing the right thing.

To lose someone you love is the very worst thing in the world. It creates an invisible hole, and you feel you are falling down it and will never land. People you love make the world real and solid, and when they suddenly go away forever, nothing feels solid anymore.

They were somewhere over Norway. Even though it was the middle of the day, it was always safe to fly over Norway, as there were still only eight people living there.

And the only way you can make something impossible real isn’t through logic or sensible thinking. No. It’s to believe it can be done. Belief is the method.