Trusting in units: Sue Fieldman hears how some of the professionals would handle their children's pounds 100 Christmas presents

ELISSA BAYER is an associate director with the stockbrokers Gerrard Vivian Gray. She and her husband Max have three daughters.

She plumps for investment and unit trusts. She says: 'I would put 50 per cent of the money into Gartmore Emerging Pacific fund and the rest into Fidelity Europe.'

Michele, 12, does not give her vote of thanks. Her pounds 100 would be spent on clothes, tapes and computer games. Katie, nine, would buy a dog and have her ears pierced. She says her sister Julia, nine months, would get some new toys.