There is one good thing about Santa Claus. My husband, Mr Puffles, and I use him on an annual basis to whip our children into reluctant observers of our arbitrary rules. During the Holiday Season – when someone gets out of line, we quickly mention “You know. Santa is watching. You’d better be good or you might not get anything for Christmas!”

So, this method usually works for our eldest, Little Monkey, because he is the sort of child that listens and follows the rules and is horrified by possible punishments and restrictions. This does not work quite as well for the Puppy, our second. Deep into his terrible twos, he is resistant to our attempts at behavior control.

So, Christmas Eve went like this!

You’d better go to bed! Or Santa won’t come!

I don’t like Santa!

You’d better go to bed or you won’t get any of the toys you asked for!

I don’t want toys!

Santa will bring you coal instead of a horsey!

I WANT coal! I LIKE coal!

Who says that? I LIKE coal?