Matchless: A Christmas Story

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Matchless: A Christmas Story is a short story by Gregory Maguire, published in 2009 although originally commissioned as a piece for National Public Radio in 2008. The story is a version of and expansion on the 1845 story "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Andersen.

Plot summary[]

The story focuses on Frederick, the "urchin" from Andersen's original story who took one of the Match Girl's slippers. Frederick is the son of a poor woman who works as a seamstress to clumsy royalty. Frederick takes the slipper to act as a boat for the spool people that populate the toy town he has created in secret in his attic. One year after the death of the Match Girl, Frederick nearly gets lost late at night but is guided safely home by some mysterious lights like the ones that the Match Girl saw during her own strange experience.

External links[]

• Matchless (full text and audio) at NPR.org

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