In the past two years, I've gained two new nieces and a nephew, taking the total count to seven. I love them all and have a funny feeling the number will grow further over the next few years. (I've done my work at three, but suspect the sisters-in-law will be busy for a few more years!).

My kids are delighted at their ever-growing collection of cousins, looking up to the older ones and running around after the younger ones. It's great that so many of them are close in age and will hopefully become good buddies.

In total, there are now eight grandchildren on the Nolan side of the family, ranging in ages from eight years down to six-months, which means there's rather a lot of little people expecting Christmas presents.

Nana Kaye and Grandad Michael will be under the most pressure, as each one of their ever-growing brood will be expecting something wonderful. (Thankfully they're not complaining, and delight in their increasing family circle.)

When it comes to the aunties and uncles, sense has prevailed and we're all fully paid up members of the Chris Kindle brigade. That may be Kris Kringle to you, or perhaps even Secret Santa, but whatever you want to call it, it's a damn fine tradition that makes a lot of sense.

Rather then stressing about finding fantastic gifts for every family member, Chris Kindle allows you to focus on buying one kick-ass present for another family member. It's a tradition that's worked quite successfully for my husband's family, and with five children, you can see why it was first mooted.

One sister is in charge of drawing out the names each year, although it's no secret that much rigging goes on. (Let's just say that some family members are easier to buy for than others, so it makes sense to be present when the, ahem, random draw, is being conducted.)

The good thing is everyone has the same budget of €50, so there's no room for extravagance nor cheapskate behaviour. Admittedly some folks are better at buying gifts than others, but, for the most part, everyone takes their Chris Kindle duties seriously.

Given the burgeoning nature of the Nolan family, this year and the little cousins are about to enter the world of Chris Kindle for the first time. We've decided that each child will just 'give' one gift and receive one gift each from their cousins. That means we have to buy three presents: one from Cal, one from Ely and one from Ivy. If you only have one child you only have to buy one gift.

If this sounds mean, I beg to differ. The spend is limited to €20 per child which means each of my kids will end up with something lovely from an auntie and uncle. It also means my kids won't be swamped with stacks of gifts from all quarters. It's really awful clearing up after Christmas and not even knowing where the lovely new game came from because the kids were swamped with such armfuls of gifts.

Christmas may be all about the kids but it doesn't need to be about losing the run of ourselves financially. Most of us are worse off than previous years, so it makes sense to tailor our shopping lists and make the season more manageable for everyone. If you haven't done so already, consider introducing your family to Chris Kindle this year. He's one guy that's really worth knowing.

- Jillian Bolger