Christmas family planning

IMAGINE . . . Christmas dinner's over, a few brandies sunk, presents opened, family rows out of the way. It's time for the afternoon quiz.

'Name as many forms of contraception as you can, Grandma,' demands little Jimmy, holding close to his chest the Christmas card from the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong.

Should Granny at that stage not swallow the small plastic thingy pulled from the Christmas cracker, she would of course have at least 12 methods to choose from, each turned into a wonderful cartoon character by the association's artist, Cornelia Lo.

'Our feedback suggests they are being used for quiz purposes,' Eric Wong Koon-wah said.

'One of our major services is promoting contraception and we wanted cartoon characters to make it more acceptable to the public.' Well done. But my Gran would still prefer after-dinner dominoes.