Hi. I am trying to remember and locate a book that I loved as a child – possibly published between 1956 and 1961, in which the centrepiece was a Christmas Tree with a fairy that every now and then tinkled. In any memory the tree stood on the landing at the top of the stairs in the house. It may have involved a girl called Cristobel /Christobel/Christobal.
Was it the same or another book in which there was a character, a girl, called Aurora. In this book there seemed to be a grove or woods.
Both were well-written and may have been Australian prize-winners from the Children’s Book Council or similar. However they do not seem to me to have been particularly Australian in flavour. Possibly English.
This sounds like it could be English author Rumer Godden’s “The Fairy Doll”.
The Fairy Doll sits on top of the Christmas tree and may provide magical guidance and inspiration to Elizabeth, the clumsy youngest child in a family of five. Each of Elizabeth’s ideas presumably provided by the Fairy Doll are preceded by a “ting”. The eldest child (eight, to Elizabeth’s four) is named Christabel.
As best I can recall, there was no Aurora in this book. Perhaps she was in another of Rumer Godden’s children’s books.
The Fairy Doll by Rumer Godden. Aurora is the name of the princess in Sleeping Beauty so maybe you are also remembering a Sleeping Beauty book.