IT all started with a stroll through the frozen water gardens at Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, on Boxing Day. Our children, like all the others, were irresistibly drawn to the ice.

While they skimmed stones and sticks across it, poking their fingers at the edges, we parents were urging caution: "Not too close." "Remember you must never, ever step on the ice, it's very dangerous."

But why not? People do skate on ice outdoors, they complained. Like us, they've seen it in Hollywood movies. Those are proper skating rinks, we explained. But it's not something any of us has ever done.

And so, the next day we found ourselves queuing up for our skates at the open air Baltic Square ice rink in Gateshead. True, the rink was quite small. And it was crowded. On the big screen, we're used to seeing people gliding on the ice in front of New York's glamorous Rockefeller Centre, or in the middle of Central Park.

But as we swished, slipped, bumped and spun around on the ice in the Baltic Square, it occurred to me that this was hardly New York. It was better than that.

Surrounded by the elegant Millennium Bridge, the beautifully curvaceous silver Sage building, the modernist Baltic art gallery and the glittering River Tyne, it is hard to imagine a more stunning setting.

And what's more, everyone was smiling or laughing. From our two-year-old, who spent most of his time on his bottom, to clumsy grown-ups and graceful young couples, everyone was enjoying themselves.

Somehow, I can feel a Christmas family ritual coming on...

WHILE the Baltic gallery building is breathtaking, the art inside it was mostly disappointing. I do enjoy thought-provoking conceptual art, but much of this was mediocre. One exhibition in particular, by Bob and Roberta Smith, consisted mainly of bland, political sloganising about things like David Blunkett and his plans to introduce ID cards - hardly appropriate or topical any more. And one placard, referring to a fellow Northern Echo columnist, declares "Ray Mallon is a nutter". Although I am sure it would make Mr Mallon smile, it hardly adds to the political debate. The exhibition makes the point that all of us are artists. But surely that also means none of us are - something Bob and Roberta demonstrate very well indeed.

WE bought the DVD of Hitchcock's The Birds to watch over Christmas, telling the children it was the scariest film imaginable when we were small. They were unimpressed when nothing much happened at first. "Keep watching, Hitchcock is a master of suspense," we said. Eventually, there were some scary bits but our boys, used to sophisticated special effects, simply laughed. They claimed The Birds was pathetic. It wasn't until next morning we discovered two of them had crept into their eldest brother's bedroom in the middle of the night because they were too scared to sleep alone. Perhaps Hitchcock knew what he was doing after all...

THOSE children who received a huge, extra long Toblerone bar in their Christmas stockings deserve an apology. One of my boys couldn't believe his eyes: "This must be the biggest Toblerone in the world," he said, pointing to the slogan on the side: "Tobleron and on and on and on..." But when he opened it, out popped several pathetic little Toblerone bars. More like Toblercon and con and con...