"I had a brief conversation with our regular postie this morning," said . "He suggested a visit to the local sorting office - apparently it's floor to ceiling backlog of internet purchases for Christmas. Whether they can be delivered in time is a real headache."

And the remainder weren't overwhelmed by the advantages of e-commerce either. Asked 'How much of your Christmas shopping are you doing online this year?', about a quarter of voters (26 percent) went for the answer 'Just the odd item that's hard to find in the shops'.

One in five (19.8 percent) said the split between shops and online would be about half and half.

"Living in the country I search the internet for all Christmas presents and purchase around half of them online," wrote . "For presents that need to be looked at in more detail, I will venture out to the shops and have a closer look at them, especially if they are what I call expensive."

Which left 15.3 percent of voters plumping for the answer 'Mostly online' and the smallest group of all - 7 percent - who answered 'I bought - or will buy - the lot online'.