Give a love of gardening

Many people say that their love of gardening was ignited by grandparents or another relative, so Christmas is a good time to interest children in gardening.

Start with easy-grow seeds which are unlikely to fail, such as Johnson’s Little Gardeners Range johnsons-seeds.com), with seed packets called Crazy Creeper Nasturtiums” and Egg Heads Cress” 1.55). They have gardening kits, too.

There are lots of children’s gift” tools, but as with grown-up tools, it’s better to stick to established brands rather than buying something that looks too gifty and is badly made.