When Santa's post-bags start to fill up, my children's letters are among the first to arrive. We send the Santa letters in mid-November, so Santa's elves have plenty of time to make the presents. This means avoiding last-minute panic - more important, it's a way to side-step the Christmas rush of toy advertising.

Each child is allowed to ask for three things. Once they've sent their letters, that's it. They cannot add to the list, because Santa doesn't take second letters. Even if they see something on TV that they really, really want, they can't ask Santa for it because it's too late.

I don't think this is cruel. The children are not disappointed because toy stores are all stocked in November.

When my children wrote their lists I immediately headed off to the local toy shop which, miraculously, had everything they had asked for.

The shop was quiet, so I handed out the lists to the assistants and they gathered together everything. The whole expedition took 20 minutes.

Having to rush around in the last week before Christmas looking for a child's heart's desire is my idea of hell. Not that I blame parents who do it. Children deserve to get what they really want because we have to make magic for them.

Even though I felt slightly neurotic Santa-shopping in mid-November, I suspected that other parents were doing the same: the extraordinary thing was that in the case of two toys I got the last ones in the shop. There were no more in stock.

And that was six weeks before Christmas.

Ultimately, the best advantage for parents is that you're not hassled by your kids. As soon as the Santa lists are posted, the "Mommy, I want that!" syndrome stops dead.

So, as long as the children don't find out where the toys are hidden, Santa is sorted.