Exclusive Q&A: Tom Fletcher On The Christmasaurus And Why It’s The Christmas Book Every Child Needs

Before he was one of the UK’s most beloved children’s authors with over 10 million books sold globally, Tom Fletcher was best known as the frontman of Brit Award-winning band McFly. Then in 2016 he published The Christmasaurus — and it became the biggest debut children’s novel of that year. Since then the Christmasaurus franchise has grown into a full series, a Musical Edition with its own album and a spectacular live stage show. We sat down with Tom exclusively to talk about The Christmasaurus and the Naughty List — and everything he told us about writing festive stories, his love of Christmas and what the Fletcher family Christmas actually looks like is absolutely worth reading.

The magical new adventure from the number one bestselling author and this year’s Strictly Come Dancing contestant, Tom Fletcher, kindly answers our burning questions about his new book, The Christmasaurus and The Naughty List, plus he lets us in on if he felt he was ever on Santa’s naughty list…

We’ve LOVED The Christmassaurus story so far, so in three words only, how would you describe The Christmasaurus and The Naughty List?

“Oh, three words? ok so it’s Christmassy, it is adventurous and, ah, one word left, I can’t say festive as that’s just Christmassy it’s happy-making. I think it’s going to make you feel happy and Christmassy.

Three words: Happy-making, Christmassy and Adventurous.

What inspired you to carry on with the story of The Christmasaurus?

I guess, I just can’t leave that Dinosaur alone!, because when you write a book, you create this world with all these characters and then it’s sad when you finish as you feel like, what happens next?, especially with Christmas as you have it every year, and I really want to know what they are doing this Christmas, plus when I thought of this title The Christmasauras and the Naughty List, that was a really cool title, and I wanted to find out what the book was for that title, so I wrote it.

OK, time to be honest: did young Tom at any point ever think he was on Santa’s naughty list?

I think young Tom was never on the naughty list; I was quite a good kid, too good in fact, looking back, suspiciously good. Grown-up Tom, I’ve probably done a few things that would get me on the naughty list, but you know, who hasn’t? I think that’s the moral of the book: you’re not good or bad or naughty or nice; we’re all a bit of everything, we’re all flawed, we all do some bad things, we all do some good things, that’s what the book is about.

Finally, Tom, we ask everyone at the end of all of our Q&A’s, what will Christmas look like in the Fletcher household this year?

Well, Christmas this year will look Christmassy. There’ll be a Christmas tree; last year we had Dinosaurs on our Christmas tree, I’m hoping (if I’m allowed!) to put dinosaurs back on the Christmas tree this year. That’ll be fun, I like the dinosaur Christmas Tree!

Thanks so much to Tom, who kindly took the time to answer our Christmas questions about his new children’s Christmas books, The Christmasaurus and The Naughty List, which we can’t wait to read.

The Christmasaurus and the Naughty List by Tom Fletcher is published by Puffin Books and available now.

🔗 The Christmasaurus and the Naughty List — Amazon UK

👉 More exclusive Christmas author Q&As? Read our exclusive interview with Robin Robin illustrator Briony May Smith for another brilliant behind-the-scenes Christmas book chat.