Illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini

Published by Simon & Schuster, 2018.

The Night I Met Father Christmas is the story of a boy called Jackson who stays up late one Christmas Eve in a bid to find answers to his questions about Santa. Jackson gets to meet the big man himself, who in fact turns out to be a tiny elf called Torvil, and he joins him on his sleigh for a night of adventure and explanation. As they travel around the world delivering presents, Torvil Christmas tells his story: how the orphaned elf grew into a miserly toy shop owner before redeeming himself by becoming the benevolent Father Christmas.

The story of  The Night I Met Father Christmas closely follows the premise and structure of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Torvil Christmas visits scenes from his past, present and future. He is not accompanied on these journeys of self-discovery by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come but instead by a talking reindeer, a faltering Christmas tree and a gigantic talking snowman.

I enjoyed the twist on the familiar story. I also really liked the Arctic setting and the elf village that Miller has created. There’s a lot of humour too: sometimes it’s very dry, at other times it’s laugh out loud. The Night I Met Father Christmas is a feel-good festive read and a great book to warm up your December.

Rating: 💙💙💙💙

Suitable for children aged 8+

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me this book to review. I reviewed it as part of The Night I Met Father Christmas blog tour where Ben Miller shared his top five children’s Christmas books with me. Find out what they were here.