AS READERS may have noticed, Christmas is just around the corner.

The Christmas tree in Tadley was illuminated on Friday in a ceremony compliant with health and safety requirements. Carols were then sung.

Stamps with a Christmas theme are on sale in those Post Offices which the Government has not so far closed. My Christmas cards - or rather, your Christmas cards - lie in a large pile, awaiting signature - and an invitation to visit the local sorting office at 5am, to admire the logistics of Royal Mail, is in the in-tray.

Negotiations with brothers and sisters as to who will have our 90-year-old aunt on Christmas Day are well under way.

A pressing problem, and one which grows each year due to the fertility of our children, is what to give the grandchildren for Christmas.

This year's answer to that problem has been to delegate it to the recipients, and to invite those capable of rational choice to Hamleys.

This was done earlier in the month. Their instructions were to go round the shop, notepad in hand, and draw up a prioritised list of what they would be pleased to unwrap on Christmas Day.

As befits a former Financial Secretary to the Treasury, I imposed cash limits on this exercise. The logic was to avoid giving the dear ones something they already had, or something they didn't want, as well as extending to country children an uplifting metropolitan retail experience.

Hamleys is a perfectly safe place for children to visit, but dangerous for anyone over six foot. This is because this is the cruising level for the model aircraft that are being demonstrated.

Within seconds of arriving at the ground floor, I was removing a rocket from my hair and returning it to mission control.

The first part of the exercise was a success. They spent an hour in the store without getting lost or arrested. But getting them out of Hamleys empty-handed on the day proved impossible - anyone with some insight into child psychology could have told me that.

Some November stocking fillers had to be acquired and distributed for immediate consumption.

The lists then had to be run through with the relevant parents. After all, they would have to read instructions, buy batteries, assemble and help operate, dispose of boxes, carry out repairs and then deliver consolation when the gift expired.

This is where there is an unresolved issue. The present of choice of grandson No 1 has significant space requirements. It looked compact enough in a box but, when assembled, it needs what the Germans call Lebensraum.

Therefore, it is turning out to be more expensive than I thought. He only gets his present if I buy his parents a larger house!

2:49pm Monday 3rd December 2007

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