In pictures: behind the scenes of Liberty's Christmas windows

This Christmas, the elegant wooden-framed windows of ever-lovely department store Liberty have teamed up with the Royal Ballet to create an entirely festive feast for the eyes.

Eschewing the usual commercial Christmas conventions, for the first time ever the storefront doesn’t feature a single product and is devoted entirely to seasonal classic ‘The Nutcracker’. Every window has a teeny tiny scaled-down theatre set created especially for the store, each celebrating a key scene from the beautiful ballet.

It’s a suitably lavish affair and the shop has even gold-leafed its storefront (inspired by the Milanese church bedazzled by Miuccia Prada, naturally), a growing tree and automated puppets decked out in miniature hand-crafted ballet slippers and tutus made from Liberty’s Juniper Berry cloth.

It’s a refreshing and welcome move from a retailer to shift its focus back on to the magic of Christmas instead of the mad panicked scramble to buy anything and everything in sight. Liberty, we salute you. Happy Christmas!

We also went and snooped around the workshop. Take a look at some snaps from behind the scenes:

Get tickets to see the Royal Ballet perform the Nutcracker or find out where Christmas lights are sparkling in London this year.