Some of the most beautiful festive material texts are those aimed at children. Jan Pienkowski’s creations have already been mentioned amongst the CMT stocking-fillers, but today’s treats are from the American ‘paper engineer’ Robert Sabuda, who has designed numerous pop-up books. He often uses only white card to construct his pop-ups, emphasising shapes and forms rather than colour. On the left (apologies for the poor photography) is a page from his version of the classic poem The Night Before Christmas; ‘as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly’, Sabuda’s energetic white reindeer burst out of the book, seemingly restrained only by their silver ribbon harnesses. Just as lovely is his A Christmas Alphabet, below, in which each flap conceals elaborate snippets of festivity.

Sabuda’s comprehensive website offers some fascinating designer’s insights into the pop-up world. Usually intended for children, such books are thought of as novelties, objects which are not as seriously bookish as other books. However, Sabuda’s descriptions of the processes involved in designing and mass-producing these objects is thought-provoking. These are books which emerge at the skilled hands of the designer, and then go on to depend on the hands of the reader to open them and reveal the surprises they contain, not to mention to carefully fold them away again and ensure they do not get damaged. When we read a pop-up book, we cannot but be highly conscious of its materiality; of the simultaneous strength and fragility of paper and glue and stitches. Sabuda writes: ‘people love the surprise of not knowing what is going to be on the next page of a pop-up book. At our studio we call that the “WOW” moment. When someone opens a pop-up book and goes “WOW!” they are really affected by the magic of a pop-up and amazed that they have the power in their hands to make it happen because they themselves are turning the pages.’