Christmas Madness

We’ve all been there…you think you have the perfect present and then you worry it’s not enough so you keep buying little extras. Penn Vincenzi feels exactly the same as you…

‘It’s the same every year. Around about the last week of shopping time, with everything more or less in order, this little worm comes into my head and starts wriggling. And starts me fretting. Have I been really REALLY fair with the presents? Does the scarf for Daughter No 3 really equal the earrings for No 4? I mean, I know it’s cashmere, but it didn’t say so anywhere on it, dammit, and the earrings are real pearls and it says so all over the box, and . . . well, it doesn’t look quite right, not quite a level playing field; and then granddaughter No 4 just wanted a Frozen rucksack for school and her cousin, No 3,  wanted a party dress, which seemed not equal at all but the mother of the Rucksack Granddaughter said no point giving her something else because all she wanted was the rucksack, so guess what, I still went rushing out and bought her a copy of The BFG, which didn’t really help either because then she’d got two parcels and her cousin only one…

And then the eldest son-in-law likes socks from Hackett more than anything and however many pairs of socks you buy, they look really mean set against a leather belt, which is what the youngest son-in-law asked for, although they probably cost nearly twice as much. . . and so it goes on.

Many’s the Christmas Eve that’s seen me actually going down to the heap of presents at three in the morning to add some hastily wrapped little extra something for some notionally perceived imbalance; and then return to bed, and start worrying that now maybe is that too much…

Only mercifully by then it’s too late.

Happy Christmas everybody!’

If you love Penny Vincenzi, don’t forget to treat yourself to a copy of A Question of Trust…the perfect gift for Christmas