Christmas gift advice for air travellers

It's a good job that Santa Claus travels by reindeer-drawn sleigh. If he was to make the journey by plane, there would be some extremely busy security officers at UK airports.

But anybody else looking to head abroad for Christmas might wish to take note of the latest advice from Stansted Airport. Tighter security measures over the past couple of years mean that even the most innocuous items of hand luggage are now more likely to be treated as suspicious when passing through controls.

Many passengers are aware of size restrictions on their baggage and the limitations on the amount of liquids they can carry on their person. Some have found the rules to be excessive, trying clever ways to work around the law - such as the case of a man freezing a bottle of water and arguing with security officers that it was not a liquid but, in fact, a solid.

That traveller may have struggled a little more with the rule affecting Christmas gifts and other items which people may take abroad on their festive breaks. A spokesman for Stansted Airport advised passengers: "If passengers decide to carry fragile Christmas presents in their hand luggage, they must be unwrapped for any security inspection that may be required.

"[And] don't carry Christmas crackers - they are not permitted in hand or checked in luggage."

That may seem a little Scrooge-like, but these measures are in place in the interests of security. Christmas holidaymakers might be best advised to do their wrapping once they have arrived at their destinations.