The Elves Told Me to Do it — Adam Carter

Seven-year-old Abi's only wish is to have her father back for Christmas. After meeting a bearded old man in the park, she returns home to find her father has been magically returned to life. Yet there are terrible consequences and Abi repeatedly returns to the supposed Father Christmas in order to rectify them. The results of her granted wish promise to scar the child for life. Eleven years later, Abi warns her thirteen-year-old sister Lilly not to attend a Christmas concert. In an act of defiance, Lilly enters an adult world of alcohol and boys. However, there is more going on at the festival than it appears and Lilly stumbles upon a deserted elven workshop and a giant, scarred rat determined to obtain the magic of Christmas. The following summer, Abi's psychiatrist Kaoru is attempting to convince her patient that all of these delusions are born of the psychological trauma she suffered when she was seven. Then Kaoru is thrust into a snowfield with a giant rat and no longer knows what to believe. That Christmas, Abi is working in a Santa's grotto with a young woman called Mia. Their Santa, Jacob, is paying unhealthy attention to Mia: attention which could cost her dearly. 4 interconnected stories about the true meaning of Christmas: hope, greed, faith and despair.