THE MOST WONDERFUL GIFT IN THE WORLD

Good things may come in small packages, but the best things aren’t things at all.

Esme is celebrating Christmas with Bear, a grayish-brown, anthropomorphic bear who appears to live with her. They find a last present under the tree with a gift tag reading “For Little Bunny Boo-Boo, Love, Santa.” While Bear wants to open the gift, Esme proposes they bring it to the intended recipient, though they don’t know who or where Little Bunny Boo-Boo is. Luckily, someone has placed helpful, very specific signs pointing the way through the snowy landscape. While others might’ve been deterred by signs describing the “TREACHEROUS PATH,” “HOWLING GALE,” and “DEEP, DEEP snow drifts” the pair must traverse to reach Little Bunny Boo-Boo, Esme and Bear persevere and carry the gift with them. When they arrive at the bespectacled brown rabbit’s cozy house, she welcomes the pair and eagerly opens the present, only to find it empty. But wait! A tiny note from Santa reveals that Little Bunny Boo-Boo, who’s only recently moved into her cabin, has actually received “exactly what [she] asked for”: new friends! Esme is depicted as a light-skinned human girl with black, straight hair and dark eyes in Fleming’s appealing, colorful illustrations, which place her characters in a snowy temperate forest.

Beary merry and bright.