Is suffering a personal injury to get the best Christmas present worth it? 

While Christmas shopping brings some people fit to bursting with excitement, for other people (myself included), it brings that feeling of festive dread mingled with stress, anxiety and slight horror.

It's not that I don't like buying people presents - I love the reaction of friends and relatives when you've found that perfect gift. It's just the bit before that. The over crammed car parks, the streets full to bursting with overexcited children, haggard shoppers and slightly too exuberant carol singers bursting out all the classics to some 50p Christmas Classics CD that skips every other line from overuse.

I am perhaps guilty of being a bit of a scrooge, but the idea of bankrupting myself to ensure that everyone gets their annual pair of socks and smellies is not the most appealing of ideas. This year, I've tried to be a little more creative and find slightly more original gifts for my beloveds.

For my mum I decided on a bird table. I knew of the perfect place to get one, out of town and away from the mad Christmas rush. I found the perfect one and quickly paid for it without second thought, glad to have crossed at least one name off of the list. What I completely forgot to register however was the logistics of getting this 3ft bird table into my sports edition Corsa.

After several embarrassing attempts of trying to fit it into the back, I finally remembered the seats were foldable and so shoved the thing across my car encountering several bruises and grazes in the process.

Once I reached home I then met my next logistical problem – getting the bird table out of the boot and into my old Wendy house without said mother noticing. This was no easy task. Our house is basically like a giant conservatory- there are windows everywhere and mum has the uncanny ability to appear in the blink of an eye.

Having decided to wrap the table in some decorators' sheets, I slowly snuck under the windows in some kind of commando run to the Wendy house round the back. Looking back, it must have looked a lot like I was carrying a corpse what with the white sheet and the way I was staggering in a slightly skulking manner.

Having finally got the table into the safety of the Wendy house, I came back in to assess the damage the thing had caused. Not only was my car covered in bits of wood and dirt but I had several bruises on my legs and arms and my hands were covered, and still are in tiny splinters.

If I had the inclination, I would perhaps launch a compensation claim against the bird table company for the lack of safety warning given. However, seeing as I am already fed up of the bird table, spending weeks arguing about it would only send me cuckoo (excuse the pun).

So my decision to be original this year with Christmas presents has so far cost me, a filthy car, several personal injuries and the reputation for carrying mysterious body-shaped loads into my Wendy house. She'd better like it.

Can I claim?