Time is the most valuable festive gift you can give

VANESSA Feltz is right when she says that young children don’t need expensive toys at Christmas to make them happy (“An easy tip for saving money”, December 6).

Her two-year-old grandson was thrilled with a £2.65 sketch pad from the local newsagent and my three-year-old granddaughter’s prized possession is a bucket of conkers that she and her daddy have been collecting since back in September.

I think we have all been brainwashed into thinking that children must have costly gadgets and toys and that they are somehow deprived if they aren’t given the biggest and most expensive toy in the shop.

Yes, Christmas is about giving but giving your time to someone or having fun with a child with crayons and a notebook proves that it is really the thought that counts, not the cost. Lynne English, Wickford, Essex