CHRISTMAS creates opportunities to re-package, re-launch and re-tell classic stories for children. The Snowman, Raymond Briggs's charming picture book, now comes in hardback with a snow globe to add to the magic. Just tip the globe and watch the snow descend as you read the tale yet again to your offspring. The pack retails at £8.99.

In 1822, clergyman Clement Clarke Moore wrote a poem that would become The Night Before Christmas, a tale that has become a holiday tradition in itself. Now it features gorgeous illustrations by Christian Birmingham in a hardback version at £3.99 (Collins). For obvious reasons, you might like to consider giving this present ahead of the big day.

The screenplay of The Wizard of Oz, the most enduring of all children's films, is now available in paperback (Faber and Faber, £4.99). Robert Langley's masterpiece can be used to follow the film, in a school environment or in a drama class, and it features all the songs as well as the dialogue. A quick glance at any of its pages will bring back memories of scenes from the Judy Garland classic. Altogether now: "We're off to see the wizard..."

No home should be without some tales of Paddington Bear. Paddington - A Treasury Of Classic Stories by Michael Bond (Collins, £19.99), which comes 43 years after the first Paddington book was published, is packed with 35 tales about the charming, marmalade-guzzling bear from Darkest Peru.

The collection is divided into seven sections, each focusing on a different aspect of young Paddington's many mishaps with the Brown family.

Whether it's at the pantomime, on holiday in France, a trip to the hairdresser or a picnic by the river, the good-natured, but ever-so clumsy bear, always ends up in hot water!

Peggy Fortnum's original drawings have been beautifully reproduced, hand coloured by her step granddaughter, Caroline Nuttall-Smith.

Angelina, the dancing mouse, returns for her tenth adventure in Angelina's Christmas by Katherine Holabird (Viking, £9.99).

In this warm and enchanting festive tale, our heroine notices that Christmas lights are shining in the windows of all the houses near her home except one, the home of retired postmouse, Mr Bell.

Being a bit of a goody four paws, Angelina bakes some Christmas biscuits and, together with her cousin, Henry, decides to pay Mr Bell a visit, much to his delight. A charming story, which youngsters should love. The illustrations, by Helen Craig, are delightful, too.

With the aid of a huge pair of goggle eyes and a zany, catchy rhyme, The Eye Book by the legendary Dr Seuss (Collins, £7.99) introduces younger children to the concept of sight and seeing, looking at a range of familiar, everyday items, from colours and cutlery to socks and underpants. Great fun.

Across to the other side of the world now, for Victoria And The Crowded Pocket by Carolyn Sloan and Mary Murphy (Viking, £9.99). Victoria, the young kangaroo, is fed up with living in her mother's messy pouch (which is full of keys, coat hangars, candles, tins of treacle and cheese sandwiches!) So she decides to hop off to pastures new. She tries living with a koala bear, a rabbit and a goose, before returning home to her mum.

A fun story with bold and brightly-coloured drawings, which should make it a favourite with youngsters.

"All you need to make a fairy tale" is the claim of the delightful The Fairy Catalogue by Sally Gardner (Dolphin, £5.99) - and no idle boast at that. To accompany the lavish illustrations, there is a wealth of useful tips to assist all fairy devotees to make up their own fairy story - 100 year old night cream which will keep your skin looking soft and supple until your prince comes along (if only!), a recipe for fairy cakes made with an egg laid by the golden goose, or the cross channel fairy, an ideal companion for a trip to France.

With information like this at your fingertips you need never read the same story twice.

The Mystery Guest by Tony Bradman and John Wallace (Puffin, £4.99) is a bright, colourful book with simple illustrations telling the tale of guests at a fancy dress birthday party. The narrative is told in three and four line rhymes describing the partygoers who are all known to each other.

The party is in full swing when a mystery guest arrives dressed as a very convincing alien and promptly eats everything in sight including the fridge and joins enthusiastically in all the games. It is not until the party has finished and the television is switched on to new reports of a UFO that the truth dawns. An easy read for the younger child.

Paul May has done a fine job updating the classic Goldilocks story in You're A Big Bear Now Winston Brown (illustrated by Selina Young, Dorling Kindersley, £4.99). Winston returns home to find the door open, his porridge eaten, chair broken and footprints leading to the bedroom. Winston can't look but growls as loud as he can and Goldilocks runs away. He's a hero.

Don't Rock the Boat (Dorling Kindersley, £4.99) is Sally Grind-ley's tale of Charlie the cat who takes a boat trip down the river. As each new animal jumps aboard, the journey becomes more difficult. Bold and cheerful illustrations by Sarah Battle help make this a hit.

Pamela Allen's books, Brown Bread and Honey (Penguin, £10.99), The Pear in the Pear Tree and Mr McGee and the Biting Flea (both Puffin, £4.99) are all worth a read. The lively stories match Pamela's energetic, stylised illustrations.

What about for older children? Forget the Harry Potter phenomenon, and jump aboard the new craze by giving The Bad Beginning (Egmont Books, £5.99) a try. This is the first of a cycle of 13 books by mysterious author Lemony Snicket, under the name A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

With heavy heart, Snicket tells the sad histories of the Baudelaire children, with irresistibly funny results. "In this book," it begins, "not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle." How could you not read on?

Books two and three in the series are already out and book four, The Miserable Mill, is published this week.

Also from Egmont, More Muck and Magic (£4.99) is a second collection of rural tales and poems by such favourites as Ted Hughes and Jacqueline Wilson, with illustrations by Quentin Blake. An entertaining mix, with the added bonus that some of the profits go to the charity Farms For City Children.

More verse in A Century Of Children's Poems, compiled by John Foster (Collins, £9.99). This splendid anthology of 100 poems by 100 of the major children's poets of the 20th century will make an ideal Christmas stocking-filler for eight to 12-year-olds. Poets featured include Wendy Cope, Seamus Heaney, Robert Graves, T S Eliot, Ted Hughes and Spike Milligan.

Finally, after the critical success of Roddy Doyle's first children's book, The Giggler Treatment, he has brought out another. Rover Saves Christmas (Scholastic, £9.99) is a delightful seasonal shaggy dog story, as Rover steps in for an indisposed Rudolph.

The tale takes us around the world, an adventure punctuated both by Brian Ajhar's expressive drawings and by lots of fun tricks by the author, like commercial breaks and health warnings. A new Christmas classic.

Reviewers: Richard Foster, Steve Nelson, Simon Ritchie, Terry Ruane, Chris Titley, Ann Wood