Tiddlywinks is a Christmas cracker

THE shops may be full of Harry Potter merchandise ranging from small figurines to hi-tech - and high-cost - computer games, but the humble game of tiddlywinks is staging a comeback this Christmas.

Department stores group John Lewis said tiddlywinks sales are up 18% this year as the market struggles to find its champion seller this festive season.

'There is no toy of choice this Christmas,' said Vanessa Lodge, assistant toy buyer for the John Lewis Partnership.

While Harry Potter games have been in short supply, last year's favourites - scooters and anything to do with the Pokemon characters - are in decline and falling in price. It may not necessarily be that parents are turning to tiddlywinks as stocking-fillers because they are cheaper than other games. John Lewis's own-brand Mischief tiddlywinks, for example, retail at £5.25.

'Snakes & ladders, draughts and chess are doing well, too,' Lodge said. 'You could say traditional games are coming back this year. After all, they are harder to break and they are less noisy.'

Trying to flip counters into a receptacle by pressing them with another counter became popular in late Victorian times. As a commercially available game, it was patented by its British inventor, publisher Joseph Fincher of London, in 1889 as Tiddledy Winks.