When I leave the children at the kitchen table, new Christmas notepaper and pens laid out, ready to go, I naively hope that I'll come back to a pile of beautifully written letters. But instead, I come back to bored, grumpy faces and doodles of Pokémon characters.

It's only since becoming a dad I realise where the strength must have come from. You've told me countless times "you'll know what it's like when you have your own", and you were right.

Whilst we are knee deep in winter and the lead up to Christmas - I am in the throes of worms. Not me personally. Nope, so far I have managed 35 years on this planet without those offensive, miniscule, vile vermin crawling around my asshole, but sadly our eldest daughter became their latest casualty.

It's not that I don't want to spend the money on them. It's that I think in the eyes of a child, innocent and simple, all that matters is that the are loved. Something every child has a right to. For me the day is about making memories to smile about and that doesn't cost a penny. Surely happy memories are the greatest gifts of all.

Giving money is often contemptuously referred to as 'sticking a fistful of notes into a card'. Yet this is a slightly unfair characterisation, and there are some benefits to this approach. Firstly, it allows a child to choose a present that they actually want.

Buying art as a gift can seem like a daunting prospect and one that many people might shy away from, but remember, the brave will always be rewarded! With a bit of research and careful consideration, it is a beautiful, often unexpected, gift to receive, which will last a lifetime and certainly shows more than a little effort from the person giving.