Education, education, education. We parents all agree that nothing comes before a decent schooling for our kids. Except when it comes to holidays, holidays, holidays. Then we have to make the painful decision on the cost of keeping them in the classroom. It's fine for Papa Blair, who seems to rely on well-heeled friends to arrange his holiday accommodation, but for the rest of us travelling outside the regular school break can save hundreds. Enough to kit the entire clan in new Nikes at least.

Of course, if you pay to send them privately, you have the luxury of shorter term times, so dates are far more flexible. But in my own state-funded inner-city case, the penalties are fixed. On December 14, a half-board three-star week in Tenerife for all five of us costs £850 from thomascook.com. One week later, when term ends, exactly the same holiday is over £2,000. It's enough to stretch most parents' adherence to the pedagogic principle. Simple money saving is dressed up as "getting the kids a broader education" (by introducing them to such concepts as the effect of over-development on the Costa del Sol, for example). But the bottom line is: they'll miss maths, you'll save pesetas.

At least Hazel Pegg has got the festive season sussed. She responded to last week's column about my argument with eight-year-old Storme, who wants to wake on Christmas morning in her own bed while her self-indulgent mother wants to whisk her off somewhere warm, with: "Why not compromise on Crete for the New Year? The tradition there is that Christmas is very low key, but New Year is a big celebration when Agios Vasillis (Saint Basil) leaves gifts for the children on New Year's Eve - so the kids could get two celebrations in one year." But Hazel, does that mean I have to buy her two presents?

If you have any experiences of travelling with kids, email: deabirkett@cs.com