A third of children will be sending their wish lists to Santa by smartphone app this Christmas.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Now, when the kids aren’t looking, swipe their gadgets – all of them – and hide them in a sock drawer until December 26. Because technology is ruining Christmas. And I mean ruining it.

I wrote an unashamedly traditional children’s book called The Sleighmaker, which is out this week. My publisher assures me that it will capture the public’s imagination in much the same way as The Snowman did all those years ago. Except that it won’t. Because that was then, and this is now. Raymond Brigg’s classic picture book was released in 1982, long before Britain’s obsession with all things ‘smart’. In those days, children read books for entertainment, not homework. Books were the must-have ‘device’, the original hand-held tablet.

Children still love to read – a lot. Sales of children’s books rose 16 per cent last year to £365million, according to figures released by the Publisher’s Association. But in today’s tech-obsessed households, where youngsters spend an average of six hours-a-day (yes, you read that correctly) glued to an array of ‘smart’ screens, the paperback no longer takes centre stage. Technology and its new leading lady, the smartphone (which has never been, er, smarter), steal the show. A quarter of children will use one to send Christmas wishes via Facebook on December 25. Yes, technology has written off the humble pen, too.

And so back to Christmas and the thankless pursuit of that impossibly perfect day. Nothing, even the in-laws, should be allowed to spoil it.

Except that technology in any of its guises almost certainly will. Its availability anywhere in the home will prevent kids from focusing on wonderful books like The Snowman (and The Sleighmaker). It will fill your home with irritating noises, and reduce your children’s vocabulary to monosyllabic grunts. It will also cause your children more harm that cocaine, if you believe the warnings (Earlier this year, an addiction therapist claimed that giving children a smartphone is like “giving them a gram of cocaine”. She said time spent messages pals on Snapchat and Instagram could be just as dangerously addictive for teenagers and drugs and alcohol).

A new smartphone app lets kids scan the barcode of a toy they want for Christmas before sending their parents an automated email with the details.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Now, when the kids aren’t looking, swipe their gadgets – all of them – and hide them in a sock drawer until December 26. Because technology is ruining Christmas. And I mean ruining it.

The Sleighmaker (Raj Joshi Publishing) is out now priced £11.99 in hardback, £6.99 paperback and £4.60 as a Kindle eBook. Signed copies and further information from www.thesleighmaker.com