Amelie and Amos Celebrate Christmas

By Eva Markert

For Amelie and her cousin Amos, Christmas is the most wonderful festival of all. IThe holiday season is a time of secrets and big and small surprises. But the two of them aren't just looking forward to the presents. They also try their best to give the Christ Child a helping hand. If only they didn't have to wait so long for Christmas Eve to come! But there is one thing they don't know yet: this year, they will get a very special present on Christmas Day...

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Aug 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667411637

Book preview

Father Christmas or the Christ Child?

I can’t wait to find out what Father Christmas is going to bring me! shouts Ben.

There are only a few days left until Christmas Eve and the children at nursery school are already very excited.

It’s not Father Christmas that visits us, it’s the Christ Child that brings presents in Germany, adds Max.

It’s the same at my house, Amos chips in. And Father Christmas isn’t even real.

Of course he’s real, Miriam disagrees. He comes every year the night before Christmas Eve and leaves presents for me under the Christmas tree.

That doesn’t prove anything, interrupts Toby. The Christ Child also brings presents.

Neither Father Christmas nor the Christ Child comes to us, interjects Ayesha, Because we are Muslims.

What! You don’t get any presents at Christmas? Toby follows up.

No, I do. I get presents from my parents because all children in Germany get presents.

Well, at least you get something, says Toby.

Amos thinks it’s nicer if the Christ Child brings the presents and he doesn’t believe in Father Christmas at all. He explains this to the rest.

I’m sure that Father Christmas is real, says Ben excitedly. I know everything about him. He lives in the North Pole and he rides a sleigh that’s pulled by reindeer...

That can’t be true, interrupts Max. There’s not even any snow.

This is unfortunately true. The beautiful snow that had fallen around four weeks ago has long since thawed.

So what? responds Ben. Anyway, the sleigh flies in the sky. And besides, your Christ Child also needs one. How else will he be able to bring the presents to the children?

Amos pauses. He hasn’t thought about that before. But that’s surely no problem for the Christ Child, he can do anything.

I think angels help the Christ Child, says Max.

I still believe in Father Christmas, repeats Ben. My Dad said that he brings presents to children all over the world: in America, England, France, Russia ...

That’s true, calls Igor from the Sunshine Group. Igor is Russian and happens to be listening in. We call him Grandfather Frost.

Amos considers this. Does the Christ Child go to children in other countries too? He has never thought about that before.

There’s more proof that Father Christmas is real, calls Miriam. Everyone knows what he looks like. He has a white beard and white hair and he wears a red coat and a red hat. I’ve met him many times and he’s also in a lot of pictures.

The Christ Child has blonde curly hair, blue eyes and a white dress, counters Amos.

What makes you think that? asks Ben.

Well, that’s how I imagine him.

The children who believe in Father Christmas sneer.

Meanwhile, Amos has become quite unsure. What the others are saying sounds rather convincing.

Still, he prefers to continue believing in the Christ Child. He must speak to his parents about this.

When his mum picks him up, he blurts out immediately: How do we actually know that the Christ Child is real, but Father Christmas isn’t?

We can’t know it, we can only believe it, she responds.

Amos explains to her why lots of the children at nursery school believe that it’s Father Christmas who brings the presents. Because people can see Father Christmas and they know a lot about him, he summarises.

And that’s exactly why we know he doesn’t exist, answers Mum.

Amos looks at her puzzled.

Think about it, she continues. People always see Father Christmas on the television, in adverts, on the street, department stores... they can’t all be the real Father Christmas. They are just people dressed up as him. If Father Christmas really did exist, he couldn’t be in different places at the same time And, he would have other things to do than wasting his time with shows like that.

When Amos hears this, a weight is lifted. So, Mum also believes that there’s no Father Christmas.

When Dad comes back in the evening, Amos says to him: "I’m happy that I don’t know anything about the