Christmas Gifts

The Fairy Bell Sisters all love Christmas.

And this year it looks like they will be welcoming a very special visitor for the festivities …

Copyright

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2014

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers

77-85 Fulham Palace Road,

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Text copyright © Margaret McNamara 2014

Illustrations copyright © Erica-Jane Waters 2014

Cover illustration © Erica-Jane Waters, 2014

Margaret McNamara and Erica-Jane Waters asserts the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007523269

Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780007523276

Version: 2014-09-25

For Becky, who loves Christmas

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Map

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Fairy Secrets

How to Make Fairy Bell Holiday Punch

Read on for a sneak peek of …

Other Fairy Bell Sisters stories

About the Publisher

“This Christmas will be the perfect Christmas,” said Lily Bell one sparkling December morning. “I’ll have so many presents!”

The Fairy Bell sisters were lying on the hearth rug before a roaring fire in the great room of their fairy house. It was a blindingly sun-filled morning with fresh snow sparkling on every rooftop of the fairy village.

“Only ten more days until Christmas,” said Silver Bell. She was stroking a tiny kitten that was curled up in the crook of her arm. “We don’t know if we can wait any longer than that, do we, Ginger?” she said. Ginger purred.

“Well, you won’t have to,” said Clara. “Christmas is coming whether we’ll be ready or not.”

“I’m ready now,” said Lily.

“We’ll be patient, won’t we, Squeakie?” said Rosie Bell. She rubbed Squeak’s tummy.

“O-bee!” said Squeak.

“Why not, Squeak? Why won’t you be patient?” said Rosie. Squeak rolled over and rubbed her back on the side of her cot. “I don’t know what’s the matter with Squeak. She hasn’t been at all herself lately.”

“Maybe she’s getting a new tooth,” said Silver.

“Or she has an upset tummy,” said Clara. “Lily, have you been giving Squeak fairy chocolates again?”

“Not too many,” said Lily.

“I’m a little worried about her,” said Rosie. “Do you think—”

Just then there was a tinkling of bells outside their fairy house windows. “What’s that?” asked Clara. The bells had a tone that she recognised from long ago, but she did not want to risk saying what she thought. She flew over to open the door – and found no one there.

“Try the back door,” said Lily. “Maybe it’s Avery. She said she’d come and visit later on today.”

The tinkling sound came again. Rosie looked at Clara. Could it be?

Silver flew to the back door and opened it. “No one here, either,” she said.

Once more the bell tinkled. Ginger scurried into the kitchen to hide.

“Look! There at the window!” cried Rosie.

A dazzling beam of light filled the largest window of the fairy house great room.

“Squeak!” said Squeak.

The light was so bright and powerful that it seemed to be knocking right on the windowpane.

Clara took Rosie’s hand and squeezed it tight. “She’s come back, Rosie,” whispered Clara. “She’s come back at last.”

It would be terribly rude to go much further in this story without introducing all of you to the Fairy Bell sisters. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting them already, please do so now. Here are:

Clara, Rosie, Lily, Silver and Squeak live together with the other young fairies on Sheepskerry Island, which is a place so filled with magic that you might be reading this story very near it right now (only you might not know it because human people call it by another name). The Fairy Bell sisters have one more member of their family, their big sister, who lives in Neverland with a friend called Peter Pan. In case you don’t dare guess her name, I’ll tell you: it’s Tinker Bell. And it was Tinker Bell who had made that tinkling sound right outside the Fairy Bell sisters’ fairy house.

If you have read other stories about the Fairy Bell sisters, you know that now is the time I usually ask a question to see if you really want to read any further. The question could be about perfect fairies or foolish fairies or headstrong fairies or fairies with tender hearts.

In times past, most of you have turned the pages and read on, which is why you know so much about the Fairy Bell sisters. But this time, I’m going to take a chance. I’m not going to ask that question, because I believe that every single one of you will want to read a story about a magical little baby who’s about to make a big change. A little baby who has a secret language all her own. A little baby named Euphemia Bell, better known as Squeak.

You might especially want to read this story if I add that it is absolutely filled with magic and it’s about a Christmas that almost does not happen – a Christmas that is an absolute disaster … until Squeakie Bell discovers the most extraordinary Christmas present in all of Fairyland.

So get yourself cosy and wrap up warm if it’s cold outside. And then let’s see if you do go ahead and turn that page …

Oh, I just knew you would! You won’t be sorry!

“What is all this?” said Rosie.

“Did Christmas come early?”asked Silver.

Clara pushed open the window against the snow. The beam of light grew brighter and the bell sound was even higher and more clear. The great room was bathed in a brilliant light, which dissolved into tiny crystals. The crystals gathered in front of the roaring fire. They didn’t melt like snowflakes. Instead, they swirled together into words.

“What is it?” asked Silver. She had never seen such a thing before in her life.

But Lily had. She remembered a message like this on her ninth birthday, a very special message indeed. “It’s from Tinker Bell!” she cried.

The moment Lily Bell said the words ‘Tinker Bell’ the crystals swirled into shapes. And the shapes turned into words. And the words chimed. they said.

“Tink!” cried Clara. “Is that really you?”

“It’s not Tink herself,” Rosie whispered. “But it’s Tink’s magic!”

“Let’s listen to what she’s saying,” said Lily. “Quick! Before the crystals disappear!”

The words sparkled and glowed as they chimed aloud.

“Does that mean you’ll come home, Tink?” asked Silver.

“Hush, Silver,” said Clara. “It’s magic.”

The words continued to appear.

“Aahma!” said Squeak.

The Fairy Bell sisters watched the words

until they faded from sight.

Silver was the first to speak. “Do you really think—”

But her words were interrupted by another flash.

Just to be on the safe side, the sisters didn’t speak for quite a long time.

“Do you think she means it?” asked Clara at last. Clara knew from experience that sometimes Tinker Bell had trouble keeping her promises.

“Oh, she’ll come! She’ll come for sure. And she’ll bring Christmas with her!” said Silver. Silver had been so young when Tink left for Neverland that she barely remembered her oldest sister. Sometimes she even forgot what Tink looked like. “I want to see her so much.”

“Squeakie, aren’t you happy?” asked Rosie.

But Squeakie, usually the cheeriest baby on Sheepskerry Island (or anywhere else), only gave a tiny smile.

“Squeakie’s too young to know much about Christmas,” said Lily, giving her baby sister a cuddle. “But, oh my! I can only imagine what Tink will bring me from Neverland. She knows I have wonderful taste!”

Silver was so thrilled that she flew around the great room in circles at the thought of Tinker Bell being here on Sheepskerry Island. “Now I really can’t wait until Christmas,” said Silver. “It’s going to be the best Christmas of my entire life!”

There’s nowhere quite as beautiful as Sheepskerry Island after a snowfall. The land is silent. The trees are laden down with heavy white powder that sparkles with tiny crystals of colour. Fairies have wings, of course, but they all love to make the first tracks in new-fallen snow. And that’s exactly what the Fairy Bell sisters were doing one week before Christmas.

“The snow’s stopped. Can we go outside, Clara?” asked Silver.

“If you wrap up warmly, including a hat, Lily,” said Clara.

“I finally found a hat that makes me look adorable and keeps me warm,” said Lily. “Thank goodness.”

“Let’s go and make snow fairies. Oh, but not you, Ginger,” said Silver. “The snow is too deep for a kitten. You stay here where it’s warm.”

Ginger scampered over to the hearth rug and licked her fur by the fire.

“Mind you put your wings carefully on the wing table before you go out in the snow,” said Clara. “I don’t want them to get wet. You know it’s not good for them.” Clara remembered how wet her own wings had been during the Valentine’s games last year. “And frozen wings break right off!”

“It would have to get a lot colder before our wings broke off,” said Silver, laughing. “But we’ll be careful!”

Silver helped Lily take off her wings and Lily helped with Silver’s.

“Are you coming, Rosie?” Lily asked.

“I’m just bundling up little Squeakie,” said Rosie. “Your wings are too little to worry about, aren’t they, Squeak?”

“Hmph,” said Squeak.

“Hmph?” said Rosie and she laughed. “I thought that was Lily’s favourite word.”

“Hmph,” said Lily. “That’s not my favourite word. And besides, Squeak could be saying anything.”

Rosie wasn’t so sure that was true. She was the closest to Squeak, looking after her every day and watching her grow and change. She had never heard a word from Squeak that she could not understand.

“Come on,” said Lily. “Let’s get outside before the winds pick up again.”

The Fairy Bell sisters trudged out the front door of their fairy house – but they didn’t get far before they all sank into the fresh snow.

“It’s all the way over my knees!” said Silver. “Watch this!”

She stood up straight as a board and then fell backwards. “Keep your legs together!” shouted Lily. “That’s the way to make a perfect snow fairy.”

“I already know that!” said Silver. She spread her arms wide and fluttered them up and down. “Come on, Lily. You make one too. And you too, Rosie. And Squeak! Tink will see them in our fairy garden when she flies overhead. One week exactly from today!”

The four Fairy Bell sisters made dozens of snow fairies on their white-blanketed lawn.

“Look at Squeakie’s!” said Rosie. She went over to where Squeak’s snow fairy was. “How did you make those wings so big, Squeak, with those tiny arms you have? Your snow fairy looks as if she’s going to get up and fly away.”

“Silver! Lily! Is that you? Everything’s so white I can barely see!”

“That’s Poppy!” said Silver. “And Avery is right behind her.”

The Fairy Bell sisters were friends with everyone on the island, but Poppy and Avery were special. Poppy was Silver’s best friend – through thick and thin – and Avery was Lily’s. The two fairies landed with a soft thud just next to the Bell sisters’ snow fairies.

“These are beautiful,” said Poppy. “Oh, and look at Squeakie’s! Want to come with us? We’re going to pick out our Christmas trees at the Christmas tree forest.”

Avery brandished a rather fierce-looking axe. “I know how to chop wood from when I worked on the mainland. Caraway Cooke sent me this so I could chop down the biggest tree on the island.”

“Well, keep it away from me!” said Lily.

“The biggest tree on the island is as tall as a mountain,” said Rosie. “But that will be good for cutting down the kind of trees we need.”

“Come on, let’s go!” said Silver.

“Wait!”

Clara’s voice rang out from the front door of the fairy house. “Rosie, Silver Lily – we promised Tink we would let her do everything.” Even as Clara said the words she wanted to take them back. She loved choosing their Christmas tree each year and wanted to go with the other fairies to do just that. But she didn’t want to disappoint Tinker Bell – not when Tink hadn’t been home for Christmas in so long. “That includes choosing the tree.”

Silver’s face fell. Lily’s mouth turned down at the corners. Even Rosie looked disappointed.

“That’s right,” said Silver at last. “We promised Tink.”

All five Fairy Bell sisters sighed a big sigh. It was Rosie who turned the moment bright again. “We didn’t promise we wouldn’t help our friends!” she said. “Come on everybody, let’s go pick out some Christmas trees! You too, Clara. Come on!”

The Fairy Bell sisters and their friends flew up to Cathedral Pines, where Ginny and Genny, the Root Sisters, planted trees every year for the Christmas tree forest. The trees above them were dizzyingly tall.

“None of those, of course,” said Poppy. “They’re way too big. Ginny and Genny will have some just our size.”

They flew over to a field of fairy-sized Christmas trees.

“They’d all be perfect for us,” whispered Silver when she saw them.

“Tink will pick a gorgeous tree for you,” said Poppy. “The trees in Neverland are probably made of emeralds!”

“With Peter Pan’s own arrowheads for decoration!” Silver said, and the two friends grinned.

“Faith told me to pick whichever tree I like best for the classroom,” said Avery. She started strolling through the rows of trees with Lily at her side. “We have to make it look jolly for the Christmas Fair.”

Avery lived with her teacher, Faith Learned, above the Fairy School. Every year the Christmas Fair was held there. “I can’t wait to do my Christmas shopping at the fair,” Avery said. “On the mainland, the shops got so crowded – and I didn’t have any way to pay for presents.”

“That’s so not fair!” said Silver.

“I still can’t believe that Queen Mab hands out sparkling stones – for free,” said Avery. She had grown up on the mainland and things were very different there.

“Of course she does,” said Lily, looking up at a Norway spruce. “We get twelve each. Wait until you see how polished they are, Avery. I hope I get all green this year. Just like my eyes!”

“I like that we each get twelve stones,” said Rosie as she ran her hand along the soft needles of a Scots pine. “It’s always more than enough to pay for what we’d like to buy—”

“I actually think fifteen stones would be better—” said Lily.

“—and anything we can’t buy, we make ourselves,” said Rosie.

“Tink did say we’re not to buy any presents for each other,” said Clara. She didn’t like always being the one to remind her sisters about what Tink had said, but in fairness, she felt she had to.

“Because we’ll get so many from her. I bet she’ll raid Captain Hook’s pirate ship for treasure!” said Silver.

“What do you think your presents from Neverland will look like, Lily?” asked Avery. “I can’t even begin to imagine.”

Lily didn’t answer right away. She was still a tiny bit peeved that Tink was going to bring their tree from Neverland. Lily had very particular ideas about what a Christmas tree should look like. Last year she told Rosie, “It should be taller than a fairy, shorter than a troll, a perfect triangle from top to bottom with soft green needles and a gorgeous sprucy smell to fill up the house.” As that thought crossed her mind, she saw the absolutely most perfect Douglas fir tree right ahead of her. “Oh, this is the most beautiful tree on Sheepskerry!” she said. “It belongs in our fairy house.”

“Except we’re getting an emerald tree, from Neverland!” said Silver.

“Silver, sometimes you are so childish,” said Lily. “They don’t have emerald trees in—”

“Ooh, that’s gorgeous!” said a voice that came from just behind Lily and Silver. “We call that one for us!” And with that, Judy Jellicoe and her sister, Julia, swooped down into the forest next to Lily’s tree.

“Oh no!” said Lily.

“Not to worry, Lily,” said Rosie. But before Rosie could even give Lily a hug, dozens of Sheepskerry fairies filled the air and started to choose their Christmas trees.

“We call this one!” said Acorn Oak. “It’s so pretty and we’ll hang it with all our golden acorn caps.”

“We call this one!” said the Shepherd sisters together.

On and on it went until the Christmas tree forest was just about empty. The Fairy Bell sisters watched the trees being cut down one by one. “We’ve been robbed,” said Lily.

“Well, not really,” said Clara. “Sheepskerry Island is pretty full of trees.”

“Not trees that have been specially grown for Christmas,” said Lily. “Just straggly old leftovers. What if Tink forgets to bring us one?”

“What if she gets home and finds there’s a tree already there?” asked Rosie, although to tell the truth, she had been thinking the same thing. “Tink’s been away so long. Let’s give her a chance to do something she wants to do for us.”

“It’s only another few days until Tink comes,” said Silver. “We can wait that long, I know we can.” She gave her sisters a bright smile. “Let’s at least get our decorations out of the attic, in case she needs them to decorate,” she said.

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