Mr Nut is a happy boy. We don't do the whole Father Christmas thing to excess in my family, and stockings are full of little treats that don't constitue a present (sweets, little bits and bobs from market stalls) tremendously fun to recieve and something to keep the kids entertained till getting up time and the main presents. I want to get the credit for the christmas shopping i've done, not some suspect beardy bloke. Unless that bloke is jim, anyway. if anything the expensive present requests are directed towards nana (interrogation revealed this was because she introduced him to the Argos catalogue AKA that book of toys)

Still, we live in a culture that promotes Father Christmas, and I believe it would be worse to deny him the magic of feeling the filled stocking heavy on his feet christmas morning than tell him the truth, and under the influence of school he did want to see the big guy this year. So that is what we did.

We went to costa and then we went to a little charity shop where i'd booked a slot- cay recommended it. I'd asked for a 7-9 age group present on her advice too. They'd made the back room into a really nice grotto (much better than the garden centres pathetic shed) and the nut had a lengthy conversation about his magic advent calendar (it's' much better than other peoples, he gets angrybirds, as well as chocolate) an his present needs.

He needs a large cuddly Han Solo bird, because that is his favourite Star Wars character. And he needs a new cowboy gun, because his got broken in half. He is right to feel confident these will appear christmas morning (though not because he's told FC to his face)

He carried his present home so he could open it in front of Daddy: it contained three excellent things: fart putty, a yellow ball with a smily face, and an egg that assembled into a dinosaur.

he spent the rest of the days drawing angry birds, pigs and bees, and singing, and dancing, and wrapping a few presents.