The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. Late on Christmas Eve a boy who is beginning to doubt hears a train pull up outside his house. It takes him to the North Pole, where he is given the first gift of Christmas — a single silver bell, which only those who still believe can hear.

The Caldecott Medal winner, in the gold-foiled gift edition with a QR code for the free read-along audiobook narrated by Liam Neeson. Large landscape hardback. Suggested ages 3–8, and a read-aloud the whole family tends to sit still for.