Christmas Cake Kit, £20What could be finer than creating your very own Christmas cake with a little help from Fortnum & Mason? Doing it yourself in style also means you can omit any pesky adult ingredients that your child doesn't enjoy

Perfectly capturing childhood innocence, charming  illustrations of Belle and her rabbit Boo can be found clambering all over this subtly nostalgic collection.The Birthday Surprise, £11The delightfully illustrated picture book debut of Belle & Boo founder Mandy Sutcliffe.

of decorating and of course taste-testing your creations.To make it easier, you can buy a festive kit with the gingerbread dough already made. Or try your hand at good enough to eat centerpiece, with a Gingerbread house kit, that children can assemble, and ice

or a wardrobe staple. A fashion collaboration this year is with Swarovski Elements, which sees the crystals sprinkled over all kinds of Autograph items for adults and children including a pretty white girls’ dress with laser cut petal detail

, she took to visiting the school with advice, even though she had barely completed the first module of the course. Once or twice a week the poor teacher would have to put up with the mother’s latest half-baked ideas on child psychology. She even offered