Parents pamper their children at Christmas by lavishing gifts worth an average 150 pounds on their little darlings, one leading building society said on Monday, but only half save anything for their children's future.
Yorkshire Building Society said parents did their children no favours by blowing such a vast amount of money on short-term gifts.
"While not wishing to appear like Scrooge, it is concerning that so many parents spend so much money on their children's 'must have' toys, yet one in two do not save anything at all for their children's future," said Chris Edwards, savings product manager at Yorkshire Building Society.
Edwards said many children grew bored of their new toys within a month of receiving them that the value of the gifts was quickly eroded. As a result, he said children were now "toy rich, cash poor".
Home insurance company Churchill Insurance said British children own, on average, 634 pounds worth of toys.
Parents were set to spend nearly 1.8 billion pounds this Christmas on yet more toys.