Kevin raced to the Christmas tree and grabbed his first present. Rip! - off came the wrapping paper. What was it? A book - boring! On to the next: a toy car - boring! Then a Lego set, a model aeroplane kit, a pencil case, a board game - boring, boring, boring! Finally, he stormed out of the room in tears. So much for Christmas!

Tomorrow is Black FridayThe day after US Thanksgiving, when lots of shops offer discounts on goods for Christmas shopping. - the biggest day in the Western world for Christmas shopping - and some of the statistics are amazing. On average, Americans spend $998 on presents - and 21.5% of them get into debt as a result.

Their extravagance is not always appreciated. Around $15bn is spent each year on unwanted gifts. In Europe, 10% of people return one or more to the shop they came from, while another 10% cannot remember what they were given. One mother, quoted in the Daily Mirror, said she was "sick to death" of her children throwing presents into the cupboard, never to be seen again.

Writing in Psychology Today, Sean Grover explains that having too many presents is damaging. Someone who is spoilt is likely to run into money problems: "Unwrapping a mountain of gifts produces a burst of happiness - but it has no staying power. Instead, it feeds an insatiable hunger for more."

Possessions, he adds, do not lead to happiness. Having a good relationship with your family and friends matters more - and giving is more likely to make you feel good about yourself than receiving. O HenryAn American author (1862 - 1910) whose real name was William Sydney Porter. He made his reputation as a short-story writer while serving five years in prison for embezzlement.'s classic short story The Gift of the Magi tells of a poor young couple who sell their most precious possessions to buy presents for each other.  

Another psychologist, Barry Schwartz, calls people who are happiest "satisficers", meaning they are happy with what they have. At the other end are "maximizers": people who are always on the look-out for something better.

Giving lots of presents to your family has not always been part of Christmas. In Britain, there was a tradition of rich people giving boxes of presents to servants and the poor on 26 December - hence the name Boxing Day. The only present given in Charles DickensThe Victorian novelist is credited with inventing Christmas as we know it today through the warm descriptions of it in his books.'s 1843 novel A Christmas Carol is from ScroogeA miser who is taught to open his heart to other people by three visiting ghosts. to his clerk Bob Cratchit, in the form of a large goose.

According to an American historian, Paul Ringel, the idea of buying presents for children took hold in the 19^th Century. Before that, most Christmas celebrations took place not in people's homes but in the streets. Wealthy New YorkersRingel particularly identifies a group of men who called themselves "Knickerbockers" after the trousers worn by early Dutch settlers., Ringel argues, were fearful that the poor would demand food and drink from them, and might even riot - so they set about making Christmas something associated with staying at home. Having presents around a Christmas tree was part of this.  

For a long time, the emphasis was on giving one or two simple presents. Some families have returned to this with the introduction of a three gift rule - meaning that each child receives just three presents. And some give to charity rather than to each other.

Some say, yes: the commercialisation of Christmas has got completely out of hand, with more emphasis on spending money than on kindness and the spiritual meaning of the festival. If we had fewer presents we would appreciate them more and be more sensitive to the needs of others.  

Others argue that what matters is the thought that goes into a present, not its price. A carefully chosen gift is an expression of love - so it would be a shame to have fewer of them. It is not as if there are many occasions in the year when we give things to each other.