In our digital age, online shopping and supermarket home deliveries make it easy to forget about the Christmas rush, conveniently shutting out the hustle and bustle in shops across the county.

With a reliance on technology to complete large parts of my job, the failure of a computer component meant a last minute rush to an out-of-town electrical retailer at the weekend. I became an unwitting pawn in festive shopping Armageddon, with the queues reminding me of the last minute rush at 4pm on Christmas Eve when I worked at a shop in The Shires nearly two decades ago.

Very few customers were buying replacement fridge freezers or ovens – instead, crowds were two or three deep around the gadget and technology aisles. One major retailer had already estimated they would sell at least one tablet computer every 15 seconds across their stores in November and December – but as I queued to pay for my £15 part, thousands of pounds were ringing through the tills in front of my eyes.

Killing time, I struck up a conversation with a couple around their mid-thirties in front of me in the line. They were spending around £500 on two tablet computers for their twin daughters, aged nine. The girls had decided they would pass on traditional toys and games for a device with both entertainment and educational benefits.

According to a price comparison website, this shift towards electronic gifts will see around £3bn spent on gadgets for children this Christmas with eight in 10 parents spending an average of £243 on electronic gifts for their offspring.

They also asked children what their top gift would be: After the tablet computer, they named video games, smartphones, digital cameras, and e-readers like the Amazon Kindle as their top five. The least popular gift would be a basic mobile phone. What ever happened to the bucket of Lego and Monopoly?

Perhaps the most encouraging news in the survey was that while parents embrace technology, seven in 10 would limit how long their children spend using it. This is a stance wholeheartedly encouraged. While gadgets help make our world smaller, there’s still lots for young, inquisitive minds to explore away from apps, social networks and text messages. That said, I’ll be doing all my Christmas shopping online!