Every Christmas morning, thousands of children across the land sit among piles of wrapping paper glowing with pleasure at their latest bike, video game or trendy toy.
And invariably, sat in a sad, forgotten pile somewhere near the tree, are the boring new books.
But we all know that while the other presents will be out-grown, forgotten or slip embarrassingly out of fashion, the best books will last forever, symbols of seasonal cheer that stay with with us long into adulthood.
And so to celebrate the staying power of the Christmas book, we've compiled our top ten titles of all time. Enjoy curling up with some of these Christmas classics - long after the Xia-Xia crabs have been put away...
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