The Christmas Pig

Jack brings DP to school for Show-and-Tell, and the whole class loves him. Jack is pleased that his classmates find DP interesting, even if he is a worn and scruffy stuffed animal. One night, Jack hears his parents having a big argument. After something crashes, he believes that they might be fighting a burglar together. When he comes out of his room, he sees his dad storming out and his mum crying on the couch.

Jack’s parents get divorced, and his dad moves abroad. Jack is saddened by this change and by his mother’s news that they will sell their house and move closer to his grandparents. Jack wants to stay with his friends at his familiar school. DP is the only one who understands Jack’s pain, which he refuses to share with his mother. When Jack arrives at the new house, he is pleasantly surprised by how nice it is, and he has fun with his grandparents and their dog, Toby. DP is a comfort to Jack as he adjusts to his new house.

On Jack’s first day at his new school, he feels shy and nervous. An older girl named Holly Macauley, who is a popular and talented gymnast, picks him to be her younger “reading buddy.” Jack is amazed by how nice and smart she is, and because she pays him special attention, Jack’s classmates find him interesting. He soon makes a new friend named Rory, who wants to have a playdate with him. Jack feels as though Holly is his “DP” at school. When he gets home, he tells DP about his day.

Everyone loves Holly because she sings, gets good grades, and has been on TV for gymnastics. She wants to become an Olympic athlete, but despite her many talents, she is not arrogant at all. One day, an upset Holly tells Jack that her parents are getting divorced. Holly feels bad because she must now choose which parent to live with. Jack is surprised that she has confided in him, and he realizes that in a way, he has become her “DP,” too.

Jack keeps in touch with his dad, who is always abroad. He also adjusts to school and makes new friends. He enjoys his birthday party, which he celebrates at the pool. At the end of the school year, Holly Macauley brings her gold medal to school and waves to Jack. Over the summer, he goes on vacation with his mum and grandparents, and he brings DP. When he returns to school, he misses Holly, who has gone on to high school, but he enjoys spending time with his new friends.

Jack’s mum begins going out on her own one evening a week, leaving Jack with his grandparents. One day, Jack meets Brendan, his mom’s boyfriend. Although Jack likes him, he wishes that Dad were spending time with them instead. Anxious to avoid hurting his mom’s feelings, Jack tells no one but DP about his sadness. He wishes that his life could just stay the same instead of changing all the time.

Jack learns that Brendan has a daughter. One day, Jack and his mum meet Brendan’s daughter, and Jack is shocked to realize that it is Holly Macauley, his old reading buddy. While he is initially excited to see her again, he is soon disappointed by her lack of interest in visiting with him and her rude behavior toward his mum. 

Months pass, and Jack’s mum reveals that she is engaged to Brendan, who will come to live with her and Jack. Jack likes Brendan but has mixed feelings about Holly, whose behavior toward him and his mom is erratic at best. Mum and Brendan have a simple wedding and afterward Holly confronts Jack, telling him that Brendan is her dad and will never be Jack’s dad. Feeling scared, Jack agrees.

Jack adjusts to Holly spending every other weekend at his house. Sometimes she is nice, but she has a quick temper and does not want Jack and his mother to be involved in her life. At Christmas, Holly insults Jack’s home-made angel, which he created out of a toilet paper roll when he was very little. Holly often hurts his feelings, and Jack is relieved when he learns that she will be seeing her other family members over Christmas. However, his happiness is dashed when Holly comes storming in one day, refusing to go with her mum and insisting that she spend Christmas at her dad’s. Jack overhears the news that Holly has lost a gymnastics competition, and her parents argue about what to do. Jack is afraid to go downstairs, and he falls asleep holding DP.

On Christmas Eve, Jack wakes up; he is excited for Christmas until he remembers that Holly is there. He hears a commotion downstairs as Holly accidentally pulls down the tree. Toby the dog grabs Jack’s toilet-roll angel and wrecks it. Jack’s grandparents decide to take the kids to pick out a new angel, and Jack can sense Holly’s annoyance at having to spend time with all of them. He puts DP in his pocket for comfort as he gets ready to go to the store.

Gran, Grandpa, Jack, and Holly go into town and buy a new angel for the Christmas tree. Jack dislikes it because it is too fancy and looks nothing like his creative craft. Holly is rude to Gran. On the way home, Holly complains about needing fresh air and keeps the window open, letting snow into the car. Jack is tired of Holly being rude and always getting her way. When she mocks him and calls him a baby, he calls her a loser. The two get into a spat, and Holly grabs DP and throws him out the window.

In the back of the car, Jack screams hysterically, insisting that they stop and find DP. Grandad, struggling to drive on the snowy motorway, explains that they cannot simply stop. Eventually, he pulls over and looks for DP outside but cannot find him. Jack cries and wants to get out, but Gran keeps him in the car.

At home, Jack has a huge tantrum. He fights with his grandparents before going to bed, crying. For the rest of the day, he refuses to come out of his room, and he vows to find DP.

Grandpa and Holly come into Jack’s room, and Holly apologizes for what she has done. She gives Jack a new stuffed pig. At first, Jack stays calm, but when he feels pressured to like to pig and be a “good boy,” he has another tantrum and stomps on the Christmas Pig. He cannot believe that they want him to simply forget about DP and accept this new pig instead. That evening, Jack puts on his pajamas and goes to bed, as Gran asks him to. He knows that if he cooperates, she’ll leave him alone, giving him a chance to sneak out of the house and go back to the highway to find DP.

While he lies in bed, Jack hears little voices in conversation. Scared, he pretends to be asleep and eavesdrops on them. When something pokes him in the face, Jack hits the object and turns on his lamp to find the Christmas Pig, his new stuffed animal, sitting on the floor. When it gets up and begins speaking to him, Jack thinks that he must be dreaming. The Christmas Pig explains that he wants to help Jack, but only if Jack is polite to him.

Jack’s old matchbox car comes to life and defends him, explaining that Jack has been through a lot and is really a good boy. As Jack scans the room, he realizes that every object in his room has come to life and can now speak. The Christmas Pig explains that Jack’s things can only feel, speak, and live on special nights like Christmas Eve. He says that it might be possible to rescue DP.

The toys tell Jack not to go back to the motorway because DP is no longer there. DP is now in “The Land of the Lost,” which is ruled by a grumpy villain called the Loser. Because the Land of the Lost is a land of Things, Jack will need their help to go there and find DP. Jack asks the Christmas Pig to lead him into the Land of the Lost.

The moment that Jack agrees to the journey, he shrinks dramatically until he is the size of a toy. Ignoring the warnings of his old toys, he follows the Christmas Pig out of his room and down the stairs. Suddenly Toby the dog begins chasing them, and they hide underneath the couch, then decide to creep around the tree and make their way to the kitchen. As they move, Jack gets confused by the piles of presents around the tree and admits that he is lost.

Jack and the Christmas Pig enter the Land of the Lost, sinking out of his home and into a strange new world. Jack sees hundreds of other objects sinking with them. He notices that the Things tend to group themselves by type as they chatter to each other. Some of them work for The Loser, enforcing his laws so that he will not eat them.

As newcomers, Jack and the Christmas Pig need a ticket. They are directed to the children’s toy area and board an old lost roller skate to get there. Despite the chaos, Jack begins to feel excited, believing that he will soon find DP.

The Christmas Pig has bad news for Jack: DP will not be in the warehouse because he has been lost for too long. DP is now outside, where the Loser preys on lost toys. Jack is scared, and the Christmas Pig assures him that DP will be safe if he follows the law. The Christmas Pig reveals that he is DP’s brother, since they are different iterations of the same toy. Jack finds this idea strange and squabbles with the Christmas Pig, but he also apologizes for hitting the toy earlier. Jack and the Christmas Pig work together to embark on the next leg of their quest.

As Jack and the Christmas Pig wait in line to be sorted, the Christmas Pig begins to worry that the workers will notice that Jack is a human. They invent a story, deciding to claim that Jack is an action figure who was made in a factory in Birmingham. The Christmas Pig suggests that Jack pretend to be “Pajama Boy,” but Jack refuses to adopt this silly superhero name. Before they can decide on any further details, they hear a huge commotion.

Jack and the Christmas Pig watch as a little bunny is dragged toward a metal door and thrown inside. Jack feels bad that he can’t help the bunny, but he takes advantage of the distraction to crawl past the checkpoint. The Christmas Pig also passes the checkpoint by explaining that he is a new pig who was bought as a replacement. The guard makes fun of him and suggests that he’ll probably be found and resold at a charity shop. The Christmas Pig rejoins Jack, and they continue on their journey.

Jack and the Christmas Pig enter the next area, a stony wasteland with a painted wood ceiling and eerie snow falling. An alarm goes off, and the Things that reside there explain that something is wrong; someone is not following the rules. As the only live boy in a world of lost items, Jack worries that the Loser will come and find him, but he and the Christmas Pig carry on. They climb onto a toy donkey to get a ride, ready to look for DP.

The donkey trudges on with Jack and the Christmas Pig on his back. They aren’t sure where they are going, but they must allow the donkey to carry them. If they had refused, they would have been sent to the Wasteland, where the Loser eats his prey. The Christmas Pig hopes that DP will be found soon, since he was too beloved to be sent to the Wasteland. Finally, the donkey stops, and Jack sees a sign that reads, “Welcome to Disposable.”