More new mothers are discharged from hospital following the birth of their baby on Christmas Eve than on any other day, figures have revealed.

The Daily Mail is claiming that this may be because midwives are trying to fit births around their holiday rotas.

On the other hand, it could just be because women are more likely to want to get home quickly at Christmas. Couldn't it?

The figures show that on December 24, 2008, there were 2,266 new mothers and babies discharged from hospital in England, but just 1,349 on Boxing Day.

Clare Byam-Cook, a former midwife who has helped celebrities such as Kate Winslet and Natasha Kaplinsky learn to feed their babies, told the Daily Mail: "I'm sure that it is the case that mothers are sent home early because Christmas is approaching.

"What is so depressing is that mothers and babies are booted out of hospital at the earliest opportunity just to save work generally. With Christmas approaching that pressure is even greater."

She warned that this could put babies at risk and said if women were sent home too early their babies could end up suffering from dehydration.

Nestling amongst my children's gifts from Santa every year is some writing paper and matching envelopes. And round about now, we will be settling down with this writing set and working through our Christmas thank you letters. If the process is proving particularly fraught, I may have to resort to payment of one Quality Street chocolate per completed letter.

If I was really organised, I would have ordered something like these lovely personalised thank you cards from It's Your Story – that would make the process so much easier.

The reason we do thank you letters is because we live far away from most of our family and gifts are generally sent by post. On Christmas Day the adults ring round everybody and thank them. But I think that it is very, very important that children have some manners and take time to personally thank who ever has been kind enough to think of them. In the frenzy of opening gifts on Christmas day, children often don't realise who gave what to whom, so sitting down to do letters gives them time to pause and be grateful for whatever they've got.

A woman from Cornwall has put the rest of us to shame by cooking Christmas dinner, nipping off to have a baby, and then coming back an hour later to serve the meal.

Paula Thomas, 29, started having contractions on Christmas Day but carried on basting the turkey and preparing the vegetables.

When the baby started getting imminent, she popped off to the hospital, gave birth to her daughter Lexi and then came back an hour later to serve up lunch for eight.

The baby was Paula's fourth so she clearly takes it all in her stride.

She told the Express that the birth went so smoothly she thought she might as well go home and enjoy her Christmas meal.

"I really wanted my Christmas dinner – I was starving," she said.

Many parents no longer sing nursery rhymes to their children because they are too old-fashioned, according to a survey.

Apparently only 36% of parents regularly use nursery rhymes with their kids, while almost a quarter admit they have never sung a nursery rhyme with their child.

I'd love to know how these parents survive long car journeys.

After a five-hour trip back from the in-laws with our 11-month-old this Christmas, my throat was hoarse.

I had been singing all the way home to keep our daughter entertained – and it made me realise I need a bigger repertoire.

According to the survey carried out for National Bookstart Day this year, the nation's favourite nursery rhyme is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

The rest of the top ten were Incey Wincey Spider, Round and Round the Garden, Baa Baa Black Sheep, The Grand Old Duke of York, If You're Happy and You Know It, Humpty Dumpty, This Little Piggy, Ring a Ring a Roses and I'm a Little Teapot.

But believe me, that doesn't cover more than a couple of junctions of the M25.

A woman died during childbirth on Christmas Eve and her baby was born lifeless - but then both were revived.

It's been dubbed a Christmas miracle after the amazing recovery of the pair in Colorado Springs, USA.

Tracy Hermanstorfer stopped breathing while she was giving birth and after minutes passed with no sign of life doctors decided to deliver her baby by Caesarean section.

But the baby was lifeless too and it was thought mother and baby were both dead.

However as medical staff managed to revive the baby boy, his mother incredibly started breathing again.

Doctors say she had no heartbeat for about four minutes.

Tracy and her husband Mike say the "hand of God" was at work.

You can see the couple tell their amazing story here.

I love seeing the house all decorated and festive looking. First of all there's the tree, which has a mish mash of decorations made by the children over the years and souvenirs we've brought back from holidays (no subtle colour schemes here!). Then around the house there are festive pictures on the walls, and tinsel wrapped around everything from the stair banister to the cat's scratching post.

We put our decorations up around the middle of December. But once Christmas and New Year have passed, they start to look stale straight away. Of course that doesn't mean that they go away entirely – I fully expect to be hoovering up pine needles from the tree for months to come.

I love Christmas decorations, but once I get up on New Year's Day, it's like something's changed. Suddenly it all starts to look far too cluttered and dusty. The house feels too small and I want to have a big clear out.

Parents are borrowing money from their children's savings to help them get through the recession, new research has shown.

One in five parents admitted to taking money out of their kids' savings, according to the survey carried out by child trust fund provider Engage Mutual Assurance.

Reasons given were unexpected car repairs, house repairs and other bills.

To be honest I'm surprised it's as low as one in five. Many people struggle at one time or another and if it's a choice between saving the money and keeping the electricity on, I know which I'd go for.

However, 14% of those who admitted to taking money had used it to pay for a family holiday and 8% said they had used it to help with Christmas presents.

Which seems a bit daft. What happens when the child turns round and asks why he can't afford to go to university like his friends? You tell him "it's because we went to Florida every year and had nice Christmas presents..."

Most of the parents who have taken money do say they are treating it as a loan and will pay it back as soon as they can. But we all know how difficult that can be.

One part of Christmas I'm a little bit apprehensive about is cooking the turkey. The main reason for this is that I've been a vegetarian for over 20 years and haven't the first clue about how to decipher one end of a bird from the other. On reflection, perhaps I'm not the best person to entrust with your Christmas meal, but nobody else in the family volunteered so here we are.

Luckily, help is at hand in the shape of the Turkey Hotline, which is on 0800 783 9994

Apparently hundreds of people ring this freephone SOS number in the lead-up to the big day. It's manned by real live people, not machines, right up until 5pm on Christmas Eve. But as the countdown to Christmas gets closer, the callers get more desperate.

Here are some of the questions the Turkey Hotline has had to answer in the past:

The festive period can prove to be a difficult time for any family, but for those affected by autism Christmas can present new challenges. The National Autistic Society (NAS) has given ParentDish some helpful tips to ensure that families can enjoy this year's festivities.

Make a Christmas schedule
Highlight the holiday period on a calendar or timetable to help your child prepare for the change in routine and plan for the coming month. Mark up certain events in December, for instance, the day you put up your Christmas tree and then tick off each day so your child can follow their progress. Let your child feel involved and find a way to incorporate an activity they enjoy into their routine over the festive period.

This Christmas we have a neat bit of role reversal going on when it comes to Christmas dinner. My family and I are (mostly) vegetarian, so we don't tend to do the turkey 'n two sprouts traditional spread. But this year we have guests for whom Christmas dinner MUST contain turkey, so yours truly (who hasn't touched meat in decades) will be doing my best to cater to the traditionalists. Hmm. Well, that'll be interesting.

Normally it's the veggies who are the odd ones out when it comes to the family feast. Here are some tips and ideas from Karin Ridgers, founder of VeggieVision, the online TV station for vegetarians, on how to cater for your vegetarian guests:

So now we've got the big girls and boys sorted out, what would the little kids like for Christmas?

For under-twos, they really aren't aware of the festivities, and would be just as happy with some crinkly paper as a big fancy toy. But from two onwards, children do have definite preferences.

So here are some last minute recommendations for toys your under-fives will love:

First up is Night Night Timmy, featuring the popular CBeebies star of Timmy Time. Lie this Timmy down at bedtime and you'll see that he's tired – his eyes close and he starts to snore. Additionally, when his hand is pressed he'll 'baa' a welcome at you, meaning that toddlers will have a friend to talk to and hold hands with when mum and dad aren't around. How cute!