IT’S going to be a busy Christmas for one Pontypool family whose identical triplets are ready to dive into their Christmas gifts.

One year old triplets- Ffion, Madison and Paige keep their parent’s Ian and Karen Gilbert on their toes and older sister, Faye, age four, is excited to see the three opening their gifts.

Mr Gilbert, 35, said: “Christmas last year was quiet as the girls spent most of the time sleeping so the main attention was on Faye as the triplets take the lime light so much of the time.”

But now the triplets are walking and have been keen to try and pull at the Christmas tree so this year will be different.

“The one thing we are both dreading is working out where all their new toys will go,” he added.

But they are looking forward to the chaos of the day.

He said: “To see the magic in the girls’ eyes will no doubt make all the stress and hard work worthwhile”.

Faye helped to pick out new sleep suits for the girls to be wear to bed on Christmas Eve and is looking forward to opening gifts alongside her siblings.

But the family won’t have much time to relax, with them planning to spend the day at Mrs Gilbert’s parents' house in Cardiff.

It can take up to an hour to get the triplets ready and the couple say that pre-planning is key with a day bag for the three containing 12 nappies, six clean bottles, six pints of milk, three bottles of drinking water, snacks, a full pack of wet wipes and a change of clothes for each, along with toys.

Mr Gilbert said: “We have found that people seem to be glad it is not them who have triplets when they think about the amount of work it must take.

“But for us we don’t see any of it as a chore. It can be immensely hard at times but the good times outweigh the bad and the big pay off is when we see our children happy and playing together on Christmas Day.”

The pregnancy was a rollercoaster ride for the couple who received the shock news of the triplets when Mrs Gilbert was eight weeks pregnant

Their consultant told them that there were about 150 triplet births in the UK in 2012, including pregnancy via IVF, so natural conception of triplets is extremely rare.

However, with doctors fearing the three foetuses would not survive due to lack of space in the womb, she was offered a termination on two occasions.

But the couple were determined to go ahead with the pregnancy and the three girls were born on August 2 last year via emergency Caesarean section, two months early.

Ffion, Madison and Paige, were born weighing 3lb 8oz, 3lb 5oz and 3lb 4oz respectively.

They stayed in hospital for around five weeks before being allowed home.

As the triplets are identical, it is difficult to tell them apart so each has a different colour nail varnish on their toes to help.