AS far as Christmas is concerned, this year we are going to get away with it.

Any by get away with it, I mean that we able to avoid buying our little daughter something expensive.

Even though the Christmas chocolate penny has finally dropped in her mind about this wonderful season in which we fill the house with decorations and treats and read her stories of a man who visits the children of the world and leaves them a gift, she hasn’t decided to demand something costly, big, or even specific.

When we ask what she would like from Father Christmas – I know, we’re our own worst enemies as we are the ones encouraging it all – she pauses before replying, every single time, “something spotty”.

And so her devoted grandfather, in whose house she will be spending her Christmas holidays, has gone and bought spotty wrapping paper – plus a lot of treats, too. Nothing on earth would have prevented him from getting her a few gifts to open on Christmas morning and, let’s be honest, I think at this moment that he’s the one who is most excited.   

Come to think of it, I recall his enthusiasm re queuing to get my brother a Tracy Island, a Power Ranger or whatever other toy of the year my sibling was insisting that he wanted from Santa.

Of course, as she gets older we will impress upon our daughter the true meaning of the season but for now, a little simple fun will do no one any harm.

Our gifts to her are some bubble bars from Lush, which she loves to crumble into her own baths, and a special tin of her favourite biscuits, Party Rings (not be eaten all at once, of course). Being a bookworm, I have of course bought her two new glossy tomes and that’s about it.  

Given our rate of household expenditure recently, this not having to spend masses on her presents is a godsend.

We all know that domestic chaos comes in threes and after our boiler broke, we’ve since had to buy a new back gate after the last one gave up the ghost entirely, and look for a new washing machine, when the drum of the old one decided to live a separate life from the rest of the appliance.

We have also certainly indulged our close family and friends as far as their gifts are concerned, and, along with most people, in the long, long month of January, we’ll be feeling that awful post-Crimbo pinch.

However, it is a pleasure to give to loved ones and the glow of our holiday time together will surely sustain us through any coming austerity.