Kate and Gerry McCann begged for help yesterday to ensure this is the last Christmas they spend without their missing daughter Madeleine.

The couple released a video featuring previously unseen footage of the little girl playing happily with her family before her disappearance.

She dances around dressed in a fairy outfit, jokingly hits her father Gerry, originally from Glasgow, with a soft toy and speaks proudly of her new pink shoes.

The clips were mostly filmed around Christmas 2006, the last time the McCanns were together with all three of their children over the festive period.

Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3 last year as her parents dined with friends nearby.

The new video shows her sitting on the stairs of the McCanns' home in Rothley, Leicestershire, flanked by her younger siblings, twins Sean and Amelie.

Mr and Mrs McCann decided not to appear in the new video, but it includes a direct emotional appeal from them for assistance: "Christmas is a time for children. Please help bring our daughter back."

It closes with the words: "This will be our second Christmas without our daughter. Please help us make sure we don't have a third."

Spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "This message is entirely focused on Madeleine, as it should be."