Sandra Chapman: Christmas of old was magic so are today’s hi-tech children missing out?

In fact I won’t be going anywhere or doing much more than a bit of cooking because we are the generation which learned to plan ahead and have all the essentials for the event done and dusted anything up to two weeks ago.

And somehow or other, in all this determination to have everything ready well before time, we’ve lost some of the magic of the season and Christmas Eve in particular.

Children today will not believe that their grandparents never put up the Christmas tree before Christmas Eve; that the pudding would still be simmering on the stove just as the clock was turning to midnight on the 24th.

And no child knew what they would find in those stockings hanging from the brass rod above the fireplace the next morning.

Today there isn’t a child who won’t know what they expect to find in that stocking long before they go to bed if not a week beforehand.

Nor will they be trying desperately to stay awake just in case they hear tinkling bells on the lawn or catch a glimpse of the man in the red suit.

No need to write letters these days as they’ve sent their requests by e-mail. It’s all done and dusted in advance.

No need to crawl out of bed at 4am on Christmas morning just to see if ‘he’ has arrived.

And no need to look out to see if there’s snow for Santa.

They’ve sussed that out online. If there’s to be snow Scotland will be the lucky nation. It always has been.

The big question of course for that generation of children will be what their friends and cousins got.

That would have merited a hasty run after breakfast to the nearby homes clutching your main present to show off how good Santa had been.

The equivalent today would be every child on his or her mobile, whilst still in bed, to exchange such important information.

And as for parents there would have been no chance of a lie-in until the excited children settled down and stopped climbing all over their bed to show what Santa brought.

Feigning surprise never came easily to my parents.

Never found it easy myself. Not even with that fortifying drink I always insisted on whilst the children roared round the place trying out their toys.

Now, of course, the children are living in Europe and their children will be on their mobiles discussing their new booty with friends and maybe remembering to ring the grandparents – or maybe not.

Christmas to me is a time of love and loss.

My grandchildren are that mobile phone generation and they won’t know how Christmas used to be for us post Second World War families who, by their standards, had little but enjoyed the traditions of a festival which bought a touch of magic in dark times.