The Christmas Carrolls

Mel Taylor-Bessent's The Christmas Carrolls is a very festive, very silly story for 8 year olds about a family who celebrate Christmas every single day of the year.

What happens

Holly Carroll is nine. Her house has a toilet seat that sings We Wish You A Merry Christmas, candy-cane taps and a snow-o-meter that Holly checks every morning. In July.

Mum homeschools her and teaches symmetry using the lights on a tree. Dad invents things, and Holly has her own ideas up on the family Invention Wall. Her latest is sparkly tinsel toilet roll (the testing didn't go entirely to plan).

Then the dream comes true. A house comes up for sale on Sleigh Ride Avenue, one of the most Christmassy street names in the world. The Carrolls buy it without even going to see it.

Sleigh Ride Avenue turns out to be grey, dull and totally tinsel-free. The grumpy neighbour, Mr Berg, tells Holly that singing is frowned upon. There's no fireplace! And now Holly is going to school for the very first time.

Holly is SO much fun to spend time with. She makes up words all the time (a "christmallow", looking at someone "sasspiciously") and she chats straight to you as she goes. She's also a whirlwind. She arrives late to her new class throwing snowflake confetti and hands out Christmas cards in September. You'll laugh and wince at the same time.

Underneath the jokes there's something sweet. Holly slowly realises that other people don't do things her family's way. The pile of unopened cards left on the tables at break is a little bit heartbreaking. If you've got a reader who sometimes feels like the odd one out, they'll be rooting for her.

There's also plenty of toilet humour (that tinsel toilet roll, for a start), which will go down very well with some readers!

What to read next

For another funny family trying to keep Christmas going, try My Brother's Christmas Bottom-Unwrapped! Nicholas's dad has lost his job five weeks before Christmas, and the family's ideas for making money are gloriously daft.