I AM sort of ashamed to admit it but I cried when I saw the John Lewis Christmas advert. Yes I am a pathetic specimen. An advertising executive’s dream. A complete sucker.

But come on, you’d have to have a very hard heart to resist. It’s just so cute.

For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s the story of a little boy who is waiting impatiently for Christmas.

His advent calendar seems never-ending in his little life.

The seconds tick by frustratingly slowly.

Finally the day arrives only for him to leap out of bed, run past his own pile of presents to find his gift to give to his parents.

Lovely.

Totally unrealistic of course.

Not because children can’t enjoy giving. They do.

It’s more that the whole advert revolves around keeping a secret and my experience is that children and secrets don’t generally go hand-in-hand.

My son certainly doesn’t understand that you don’t have to tell everyone everything.

It’s an issue we’ve been working on because I’m worried Christmas may lose its mystery a little if he announces to all what we have bought them in advance.

So far, our efforts are not working.

His preferred giving method is still to present other children with their birthday gifts accompanied by the words, “It’s a train/Woody hat/Lego set.”

Last time, I managed to jump in before the big reveal with a loud ssshhh.

Only to watch helplessly as he leaned in closer to the birthday boy’s ear to whisper, “Ssshhh, it’s a train/Woody hat/Lego set.”

We did have success once. I heard him tell another three-year- old, “I can’t say what I’ve got you for your birthday, it’s a secret.”

Only for him to follow it up with, “Come and have a look, it’s in the dining room.”

Friends tell me this is just the beginning and before long I will have all my deepest, darkest secrets laid bare to any Tom, Dick or Harry he may come across.

At the moment I can’t think of anything he could say that would be too bad.

But I’m sure after the first toe-curlingly embarrassing secret is revealed I will change my mind.