From us to you, a very British Museum Christmas gift: we invited twelve colleagues across the Museum to tell us about their favourite objects and gathered their responses into a special Christmas compendium. Hear all about the objects that they find inspiring, and the stories behind them.

 Sushma Jansari – the Mathura lion capital (Room 33)

Elizabeth Morrison –the Folkton Drums (Room 51)

Sian Toogood –  Greek slingshot (Room 69)

Ros Winton – Ancient Egyptian model (Room 65)

Tess Sanders – the Assyrian Lion hunt reliefs (Room 10)

Lee Roberts – Painted Japanese screen (tigers crossing a river) (Room 92)

Nick Harris – Japanese hand grenade casings in (Room 94)

Francesca Hillier – Palmerston gold cups (Room 47)

Alfie Meek – the Alfie lions (Room 47)

Russ McKeown –  Portrait of late director Lord Wolfenden (not on display)

Richard Wakeman – the Vindolanda tablets (Room 50)

Hugo Chapman – Samuel Palmer watercolour (Prints and Drawings Study Room)