The church bells chime across a snowy town, a brass band strikes up by the bandstand while foxes skate on the pond, sleigh bells jingle through frozen woods, a fire crackles, and at the end of the evening everyone gathers under the tree to sing carols while fireworks fizz overhead. Press the pages and all of it happens.

This is the one that comes out of the box every December and gets read forty times before the twenty fifth. Federica Iossa builds each spread out of holly and snowdrops and robins and small animals in knitted hats, with holes to peep through and fingertrails to follow, and there is enough hidden in the corners that a child finds something new on the last reading of the season.

Ten thick board pages, an on and off switch so the batteries survive to next year, and the rare Christmas book that a one year old and a five year old will fight over equally.