My Son Hit Me With A £5,000 Christmas List!

Lucy Cavendish was shocked when she saw her teen’s list of Christmas demands

- Lucy Cavendish

Each year around this time, my children helpfully present me with their Christmas lists. Usually, all four – Raymond, 22, Leonard, 15, Jerry, 12, and ottoline, 11 – are relatively easy to shop for. I’ve seen other parents piling up heaps of goods; spending huge sums on games consoles or a whole wardrobe worth of clothes. But I have always told my children I feel uneasy about this consumerism and they’ve more or less seen sense.

Raymond, the eldest, has only really asked for money in recent years. Leonard and Jerry like Lego Transformers. Last year, we stretched as far as a trendy jumper from Topman, instead of our usual M&S. But change is afoot. A few months ago, Leonard informed me, – with the outraged dignity that only a teen aged boy can muster – that he wasn’t going to be seen dead in anything from M&S anymore.

‘That’s OK,’ I said. ‘Ask for what you’d like at Christmas.’ Maybe I should have spotted the warning signs. For the other day, Leonard wandered into my study waving a list. ‘I’ve written down what I want,’ he said, strangely hesitantly.

I looked at it expecting to see the usual boxer shorts, socks and something to play on the Xbox. But it seemed much longer than usual. Also, I couldn’t get my head around what was on it. Take this ‘Canada Goose Parka’. Canada Goose? Never heard of it. Then there was a Stone Island jumper, NMD shoes, a Tag Heuer watch and an Emporio Armani tracksuit. By the time I got to the Paul Smith boxer shorts, gym equipment and a gym pass to a local gym costing £45 a month, I wondered what was going on.

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