Ellie's Christmas Carol: Excerpt

Ellie was six years old. She lived with her Mum and Dad in a village called Castle Green. Her house was right in the middle of the village where all the roads, lanes and footpaths met. On one side of her house were the ruins of a castle where Ellie loved to play. She loved being out of doors and nearly every day she went for long walks in the fields and woods around the village.

When she played or walked she made up stories about the places she saw and the hundreds of people she imagined had been there before her. She invented the people, but in her head they were real: princesses, wizards, angels, elves, giants, kings and queens, and even a few robbers.

It was wintertime, nearly Christmas. But people had stopped preparing for Christmas because of a great storm. Ellie had not been out for a week. First of all, strong winds had battered the country then pouring rain had flooded towns and villages. Some trees in the village had been blown over and the bridge over the river in Castle Green had been swept away.

It got very cold. It snowed and snowed until Ellie’s house was completely white and under a great drift of snow. It was the same all over the country: houses, flats, hospitals, shops, hills, fields, roads, motorways, railways and airports all disappeared before the icy wind. There was no electricity, no gas, no water, no television, no telephone, no internet and no computers.

There were no buses or cars on the frozen roads. There were no boats, trains or aeroplanes. Nobody could go to work and in their houses they did not talk much except to moan about the weather. Most people just wanted to crawl under their duvets, go to sleep and wake up when everything worked again.

• The above excerpt is intended to give just a taste of the whole of Ellie's Christmas Story.
• The whole story is about five times as long as the excerpt and tells a light morality tale leading to an unexpected ending.
• Ellie's story, as told to her toys is aimed at young children (2-7).
• It is intended to be read to children who can't read yet, with those who are learning to read, and for those who can read for themselves.
• The whole story is intended for parents and children to share.

To download the complete story go to Amazon.

This story is published as the first of the Christmas Trilogy, 9 December 2013
© 2013 Ivan Rendall All Rights Reserved