PADDY McGuinness' family won't have a Christmas tree this year, to make the festive season easier for their twins.

The Bolton star and wife Christine have three children, four-year-old twins Penelope and Leo and Felicity.

The twins are autistic meaning that Christmas can be a difficult time for them and Christine took to Instagram to explain why they won't be having a tree but how this won't affect them having a great time as a family.

She posted a video of five stockings with the letters D, M, L, P and F standing for Daddy, Mummy, Leo, Penelope and Felicity.

The post said: "I think this is enough for our Christmas decorations, I’m nervous about putting a tree up, I don’t think I’m going too.

"Last year was the most upsetting Christmas we’ve had, we had just been told our twins had autism and we felt very out of our depth. Christmas massively affects the twin's behaviour. They were extremely anxious and unsettled.

The Christmas lights, trees, decorations and music.. it was all too much. It was very over stimulating and with so much change everywhere it was quite frightening for our children who were pretty much non verbal, they had no understanding of what was going on. They both just walked passed their presents on Christmas Day. I was devastated that they didn’t get up and run down the stairs really excited 'like other kids'.

"I knew nothing about autism then. Now I’m fuelled with knowledge on their condition and I’m really looking forward to preparing them in advance to help them understand the magic of Christmas. I’m feeling confident we will have a happy Christmas this year.. With a lot less decorations.

"Less is more for our children, they wouldn’t care if they got one present or 10 and that is a quality you can’t buy."

This is not the first time the couple have opened up about autism and earlier this year said they would not be having any more.

Paddy got in the festive spirit recently by helping to turn on Bolton's Christmas lights.

He was born and grew up in the town and attended Mount St Joseph High School.