Christmas is nearly upon us and for once in my life I seem to be surprisingly under control with my present buying. This is an unusual occurrence for me, because although I am usually organised to within an inch of my life about most things, Christmas always seems to be my undoing. I don’t know why but it always seems to creep up on me and even though (or maybe because) I don’t have that many people to buy for, I always leave it till the last minute. One year it was so bad that I took my life in my hands and ventured to ToysRUs on Christmas Eve. It was a living hell.

Why have I been more organised this year? Well I think it might just be that at long last I’ve learned my lesson. It’s not like I don’t know what date Christmas is going to fall on each year, and the Christmas TV ads seem to start earlier and earlier. But this year rather than harrumphing at their arrival on our screens and bemoaning the fact that the beginning of November is no place for baubles and glitter, I actually took note and started to plan my purchases.

And so, in a bold and daring move, I actually started my Christmas shopping in mid-November, something that I have never done before. I did some online and also picked up the odd thing while I was out and about. I even felt slightly smug about my organisational prowess, as if I was the first person that had ever done this.

But I have to say I’m rather pleased I did, particularly this year, because it seems that there might be many poor people who left things a little late (like me normally), ordered presents online, and now might not receive their orders before Christmas Day. This could be a tragedy for many households and is down to the massive surge in online shopping this year. Some £810million was spent on Black Friday alone, 50% more than was expected, and a further £660million was spent on Manic Monday, further stretching the capacity of the delivery firms. We have now been told that everything should arrive before the 25th but what about those poor people who are travelling to far flung places for the festive season? It’s possible they might not have their gifts delivered before they set off. I don’t even want to imagine their stress levels.

We just have to hope that, as online shopping keeps increasing year on year, this year will have been an unfortunate but important learning curve for all the online retailers and their delivery companies. In this economic climate, people need to get deals, save money where they can, and provide a fabulous Christmas for themselves and their families without breaking the bank. So the least the online retailers can do is make sure that they provide a delivery service that won’t collapse under the festive strain. If Santa can manage to deliver all his presents to children across the world in one night, you’d think that these massive retailers would be able to organise their deliveries during the months preceding the big day. And if not, maybe they should think about swapping petrol power for reindeer power!

NOTE TO SELF: I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.