Parents will spend £400 per child for Christmas — more in the poor areas

Scott Gavin has five children and says he expects to spend £400 on each of them for Christmas, while the mother of another family says her four children will cost her much the same, about £1,500 in total, mostly for iPhones and perfume.

Both of these parents live in the northern town of Kirby in the borough of Knowsley, which is ranked as one of the most deprived areas in England.

Wilmslow in Cheshire, by contrast, is one of the country’s most affluent towns, but a survey showed that Christmas budgets there were less extravagant, ranging from £30 for a baby to a maximum £300 for teenagers.

An analysis by the BBC showed that the poorer parts of the country, such as the North East, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside, spend more at Christmas – 25 per cent of disposable income -- than the affluent London and the South East, where spending falls below 20 per cent.

Business expert Sir Cary Cooper suggested the difference could be connected to extra financial obligations.

COSTS

“Middle-class people have lots of other costs, like private schools and private health care. They’re well-off but they are not rich and they have heavy outgoings.”

A Wilmslow father of three children, aged 12, 16 and 18, said, “We will probably spend a couple of hundred on each, but they want upgrades on their iPhones as well and they don’t think that’s part of Christmas, just part of life.”

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Three generations of the same family have died within a month.

On November 25, James Tomlin, from South Shields, died at the age of 93. Twenty-four hours later, his great grandson, Jak, aged 10, suffered a ruptured heart artery and could not be resuscitated, and four weeks after that, the boy’s mother, Ashley, 32, died from the same condition.

Keith Tomlin, Ashley’s father, said his own father’s death at a great age was sad, though “the natural progression of things.” But the death of the boy had a devastating effect on Ashley. “The coroner did say it’s a broken heart.”

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Brenda Grant watched in distress as he mother’s mind deteriorated through dementia and she vowed that would never happen to her.

Accordingly, she made a living will stating that she must not be given treatment to prolong her life if she should reach a similar state.

In October 2012, Mrs Grant, from Nuneaton, suffered a catastrophic stroke that left her in exactly the physical condition she had long feared, unable to walk, talk or swallow.

FEEDING TUBES

But when she was admitted to the George Eliot Hospital, she was fitted with feeding tubes direct into her stomach, then discharged into a nursing home, where she remained for nearly two years. She frequently became agitated and tried to pull the tubes out of her arms, prompting staff to put mittens on her hands.

Mrs Grant had not told her family about her wishes and the living will went unnoticed in her voluminous medical notes.

When it was found, the feeding tubes were withdrawn and Mrs Grant died a few days later on August 4, 2014.

The hospital admitted liability and paid the family £45,000.

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Winter has come early this year and it is minus two degrees Celsius as I write this, with snow and frost outside my window. I didn’t go to the weekend church bingo because, like all old folks, I’m frightened of slipping on the ice. Instead, I stayed home and watched a popular nature programme, The Blue Planet, about life in the earth’s seas and oceans.

And what was the opening scene? The frozen Arctic with Beluga whales trapped in a huge ice hole and a polar bear plunging in to catch one for his dinner. Brrrrh!

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The Christmas Cracker season is upon us, when we pull those paper things apart to get a satisfying crack, retrieve a paper hat, then read the weird information and excruciating jokes inside.

I’ve been collecting a few: The longer it goes, the shorter it grows. What is it? A candle.

SANTA CLAUS

The day before yesterday, Bill was seven years old. Next year he will turn 10. How is this possible? Today is January 1. Bill’s 8th birthday was yesterday so the day before (December 30) he was still seven. This December he will turn nine and next year he will turn 10.

What word can be written forwards, backwards or upside down whilst remaining the same word? NOON.

Plus a regular Christmas joke: Little Jemimah goes to see Santa Claus in his cave at the big store. He lifts her onto his knee and asks the usual question: “Well, now, what would you like for Christmas?” Jemimah stares at him in astonishment. “Didn’t you get my email?” she says. 

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