SETTLING down with the family to watch one of Julia Donaldson’s beautiful children’s books being brought to life has become a Christmas staple.

In recent years The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child, Room on the Broom, Stick Man and The Highway Rat have all graced our television screens.

The sixth book to be adapted is Zog, a tale about a keen but accident-prone dragon who gets himself into mischief while learning how to fly, roar, breathe fire and fight knights at Dragon School. He is tasked with capturing a princess.

Written by Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, the half-hour animated special will be voiced by a stellar cast including Sir Lenny Henry as the narrator, Tracey Ullman as Madame Dragon, Hugh Skinner as Zog, Patsy Ferran as Princess Pearl and Kit Harington as Sir Gadabout.

Here Donaldson, 70, who moved with her husband Malcolm from Bearsden to Sussex in 2014, talks about what it is like to see her creations on TV and her plans for the festive season.

Tell us a bit about Zog, this accident-prone but lovable dragon?

Originally he was going to be Zog: the Zig-zag Dragon because I liked the alliteration but then I was told it would be too hard for Axel to draw zig-zags and make them consistent in every picture.

So I chatted to my editor and I offered either Zog: the biggest dragon or Zog: the smallest dragon. To my delight, she thought Zog the biggest dragon would be best.

I think often larger children are a bit accident-prone and people aren’t necessarily that sympathetic to them the way they are with the sweet, little child.

How does it feel to see your stories brought to life on TV?

It is lovely, especially if we have the family with us to watch them together.

Do you have a favourite among the BBC adaptations to date?

I always love the latest one, so at the moment it is Zog. I really loved Stick Man and Room on the Broom – perhaps more than The Gruffalo.

The most touching one is Stick Man and at the preview for that my grown-up son cried for 10 minutes afterwards. The whole audience was in tears.

What are you working on?

Axel is currently illustrating a book I have done about aliens. That will be out next year. I have just finished writing a book with one of my other illustrators, Lydia Monks.

I am compiling a poetry anthology. I was very inspired when I was a child when my father gave me The Book of 1,000 Poems and I learned a lot of those off by heart when I was five. I would like to do an anthology that is perhaps a bit more heavily illustrated than that one.

I’m choosing quite simple poems. I am trying to have some old favourites but also finding forgotten authors or commissioning current authors to write something. That way there will be some poems that aren’t in countless anthologies already.

Do you have any festive traditions?

The only presents from Father Christmas are the ones in your stockings. We don’t do this thing where are all the presents are from Father Christmas. I think that is ridiculous. He comes down the chimney and he fills the stockings – the rest are from us.

You have until the afternoon to get the presents. We do dress up as Father Christmas to give out the presents. We have a Father Christmas costume from when we act out Stick Man.

Then, normally, unless one of my stories is on, we don’t watch television at all on Christmas Day. We play parlour games, pencil and paper games and acting games.

One of our favourites is the adverbs game. One person goes outside the room and everyone else thinks of an adverb such as “surreptitiously”. Then the person comes in and everyone must answer questions in the manner of the adverb. It is a lovely game. We eat and drink a lot.

Who does the hosting?

We take turns. This year we are hosting. Our two sons, their wives and seven grandchildren – who are between the ages of nought and eight – will be coming. I know it will be very noisy and messy but very enjoyable as well.

And the Christmas cooking?

Usually that’s me. One of my sons is really good at cooking. He will probably go to a butcher and order some incredibly classy organic bit of beef.

Last year my sister and her family came. I did that thing of putting flavoured butter under the skin of the turkey. It was all fine up until the last minute and then I scraped it against the roof of the oven and it split open and all the butter came out. So I don’t think I will do that this year.

I don’t really think about it until quite late on. I strongly disapprove of people starting to celebrate Christmas in November – or even in early December. It should all start the week before Christmas and then go on throughout January.

When we lived in France, they didn’t start anything until a week before Christmas but then after Christmas people have the whole New Year to write their cards, the twinkly lights are still on the trees all through January.

Whereas we have this ridiculous thing where we start Christmas even before Halloween and afterwards there is this puritanical thing: “No more enjoyment, take it all down.”

Then everything is in the shops for Easter. I really hate that. I would like to relax after Christmas and be allowed to keep all the decorations up.

It is ridiculous the way we all get so frenzied about Christmas. I do like cards and I hate getting electronic cards. I can understand that people might not want to do cards, I might have a year like that myself, but I don’t want anyone sending me an e-Christmas card.

I’m not terribly keen on the round robins – they are a bit impersonal. I wouldn’t mind round robins if they came all throughout the year from different people. People write reams about how Auntie Muriel came for the Whitsun holidays and they went to the Lake District. That can be a bit tedious.

My sister Mary and I always have Christmas together – all throughout our childhood, adulthood and bringing up our children we took turns to host it. But now it is alternate years because neither of us has a house big enough to hold everyone.

What are your childhood memories of Christmas?

I have such wonderful memories. We lived in a Victorian terraced house where my granny was on one floor, my aunt and uncle on another floor and our family on the ground floor.

Usually we had Christmas with my aunt and uncle. She was a wonderful cook and he was a very witty host who always made up crazy games, you know, very inventive, and did lovely drinks.

My aunt, not only would she cook the Christmas dinner, but in the evening suddenly this lovely cold spread would come on with some olives, a duck and salads. I can’t quite live up to that.

Zog is on BBC1, Christmas Day, 4.50pm