Lilburn's musical Christmas gift to Lawrence Baigent and Leo Bensemann in 1941, the first of four such offerings (1941-44), shows the composer in a merry mood. The collection commences with four preludes in which Christmas bells ring out. There follows two pieces for 'musical box', the first including a Scottish song (The Lassie's Lament) and reel (The Highland Gathering), which disclose the composer's ancestry, and the second graced with a Mozartian touch. The original entertainment concluded with a Bolero for six hands (the three friends were all competent pianists) but this item is reserved for other piano-ensemble works later in the series. 

Lilburn entitles the manuscript A Musical Offering of Preludes, Musical-boxes and a Tempo di Bolero with an 'apologia' that reads: 'Musical-boxes says Lawrence / Excite my abhorrence / And these preludes says Bensemann / There's really no sense in 'em', followed by the musical quotation 'I do like to be beside the seaside' reworded as 'But we do like to swing the old Bolero.' Lilburn, knowing Baigent's finesse and Bensemann's acerbity, is having fun.