It’s that time of year, yup, Crimbo. The mad rush is now well and truly on: Riots ensue in your local ‘Toys R Us’ (or other child-themed store) over this year’s Tracy Island, supermarket assistants taking shelter and avoiding flying umbrellas and swinging handbags as the once-a-year desire for a turkey possesses even the most sane and rational of individuals. What does this all mean? More going out than in and the January payday still a spot on the horizon! Who can’t love Christmas?

Well the Telegraph has decided to focus on the important part: Family. In an age when the globe as effectively shrunk, it is not unusual for those special people to be strewn across continents, making the obligatory phone call and handset passing an expensive expression of good will to all. Fear not however, as Emma Lunn has addressed this and how one can do it on the sort of income that would barely stretch to a piece of coal and an orange. In her section on the VoIP alternative the 3 Skypephone is mentioned specifically, and why not? Seeing that while roasting a turkey in the Home Counties you can be talking for free to your far flung siblings in Australia barbecuing on the beach.