YOU know Christmas is almost upon us when the darts world championship starts and football managers start complaining about fixture congestion and the lack of a winter break.

Sport and the festive season go hand in hand in this country and for many of us it is as much a part of Christmas as the turkey dinner and mince pies.

Football clubs regularly see attendances rise over the holiday period as fans spend the time off work with the family cheering on their team.

And Boxing Day is traditionally a bumper day for horse racing too.

It is not just in Britain where sport is a feature of the festive season either. In Australia, the Melbourne Test match post-Christmas is a part of the furniture, although it must be surreal sitting in baking sunshine on December 26 – the chestnuts Down Under hardly need an open fire to roast on.

Even Christmas TV gets in on the act – Escape to Victory being shown is as predictable as Scrooge or the Wizard of Oz.

So when all this talk of winter breaks in football comes around, I hope it is never introduced around this time of year.

Don’t get me wrong, those of us working in the newspaper industry would, much like the sporting world, love an extra few days off rather than be packing those turkey sandwiches and heading to the office or a football ground somewhere in the country.

But it is part of the culture and I, for one, would not know what to do without my festive sporting fix.

Christmas is all about presents as well and I expect I will be unwrapping the odd sporting autobiography when I visit my parents’ house next Thursday.

But it got me thinking what you could give those sportsmen and women if you were Santa for a day.

A couple of new strikers would be an ideal present for Wanderers boss Neil Lennon or you could get a signed Floyd Mayweather Jnr deal for Bolton boxer Amir Khan.

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers could do with Luis Suarez back from Barcelona while I’m sure a centre-back would be on Louis van Gaal’s wishlist at Manchester United.

You could maybe get Diego Costa a place on reality show Splash to perfect his diving technique with Tom Daley.

Phil Taylor might ask for somebody to hide Michael van Gerwen away for a couple of weeks to give him a better chance of reclaiming his world darts crown.

Alistair Cook could just do with some runs on the board and a rare positive display from the England cricket team.

At present, both are as common as a side-splitting joke from a Christmas cracker.

I think there is more chance of buying the winning festive Euromillions lottery ticket.