An English friend of mine was recently extolling the virtues of a German Christmas. I had to concur. The Season of Goodwill is still something special here and monumental efforts are made to keep it so, with mulled wine (Glühwein) obviously playing a large part. Nevertheless, as with most things in life, things are not always as rosy as they seem.....

The 6th December is a BIG day for German youngsters. Sankt Nikolaustag (Saint Nicholas Day) is basically like an early Christmas and an excuse for already sugar-fueled kids to top up their glucose levels and behave like a 33 played 78. Tradition dictates that the evening before, they clean a pair of boots and place them by the front door. During the night Sankt Nikolaus will fill up said boots with little presents, sweets, biscuits and fruit for them to find, wide-eyed, in the morning. But, and here's the drag, ONLY if the child has been good.

I was flabbergasted to learn that Sankt Nikolaus (who as far as I can understand cannot be distinguished from Father Christmas) is not just the magical and enchanting bearded old man who brings happiness to the lives of the world's small people. Here in Germany he is also a child beater!

The amount some parents spend on their kids at Christmas is quite horrifying.

A glance at some of the online forums shows that some people think it's perfectly acceptable to spend thousands on presents for their children.

A survey by Bic Kids reveals that parents in the North East of England spend the most on toys and gifts for their kids - a massive £286.70 on average.

Parents in Northern Ireland, Wales, the Midlands, Scotland, the North West and Yorkshire all spend more than £200.

Surprisingly parents in London spend the least, an average of £164.02.

Two-thirds of parents also admit to feeling stressed in the run-up to Christmas. I'm not surprised, if they're forking out that amount of money.

There are so many special offers around right now, you can really make the most of your Christmas budget and pick up some nifty gifts in the process. Sainsbury's, Superdrug and Boots all have 3 for 2 offers across their ranges. Woolworths, which has now migrated online, recently announced cutbacks in toy prices of up to 50%.

Heck, even GoGo Hamsters are back in the shops and available for £9.99 and not the crazy prices some fools were trying to flog them for on eBay.

Here's a round up of some of the coolest gifts under £10 around right now to delight your family:

I know my baby won't really understand about Christmas this year, but I'm still ridiculously excited. I've been waiting for it to be December for ages now.

And although she'll only be 11 months old, I know she'll appreciate lots of Christmassy things.

That's what I'm telling myself, anyway, as I try to relive my childhood.

So here are some festive activities I'll be attempting with my daughter over the next month:

1. Take her to a carol concert. The public school near us does a proper carol concert in its chapel - but it's on too late for the baby. However, you'll find that most churches do Christingle services or similar for schools, during the day. I'll be trying to gatecrash one of those. My daughter loves singing, and we'll sit near the back for a quick escape if she gets lairy.

Cards and presents have been flooding in from all over the world for a boy who might not live to see Christmas.

Five-year-old Noah Biorkman, from Michigan, USA, has stage IV neuroblastoma and his parents decided to celebrate Christmas early in case he doesn't make it.

A message was put out on Detroit radio station WYCD asking for people to help make it a special Christmas for Noah by sending him cards.

The response has been amazing with thousands of cards and gifts arriving for the little boy from people the family has never met.

One of Noah's favourites was apparently an angel ornament. He said this was because it reminded him of where he will be soon. "In heaven, and I'm going to be an angel," he said.

Babies are born in to this world with nothing, but boy is the world quick to shower them with stuff. It can be overwhelming how many people will want to buy presents for your newborn baby. But it's a momentous event, when a new life is safely delivered. Just don't expect the same treatment by the time you have your second child - the excitement will have blown over by then, and you'll be lucky to get a bunch of flowers from the nearest garage.

So if you're buying for a new mum, and you know she's a keen green, all organic, reduce, reuse, recycle kind of gal - what are the best natural gifts to go for?

Here are some ideas:

As a child I was always the one with the birthday in the summer holiday.

My parents had to whip round all my friends' houses to drop their party invite through their door, whilst we sat hoping at least someone would turn up and not quite everyone would be off on summer holidays somewhere sunnier than Preston.

What it also meant, however, was days and days with grandparents hand-making party treats and decorations ourselves because of the extra time we had on our hands.

That legacy lives on and I just can't get enough of handmade birthdays.

The good news is you can save yourself the effort because I've done all your homework, and someone else has made the gifts for you!