I've decided to be really enterprising this Christmas and am going to attempt to make all my presents thoughtful and quirky - without spending a fortune. I had the great good fortune to find three really pretty pressed glass cake stands at a recent car boot fair for £6 each and I have made three Christmas Cakes for my time-starved (or non-culinary!) girlfriends. Decorated, placed on top of a cake stand, extravagantly tied up with cellophane, wired ribbon and a couple of vintage glass decorations ( also found at a car boot fair for 50p each) they look a million bucks. There reaches a time in ones life when one really doesn't welcome pointless or superfluous "stuff". As one gets older I find "amusing" joke presents all end up in the bin, clothes are impossible to successfully buy for other people and if one isn't careful, Christmas present giving becomes just a list-ticking chore which defeats the real sentiment. Children know EXACTLY what they want - God knows they are targeted on television and actively encouraged to release every ounce of festive avariciousness - but grown-ups ( perhaps more mindful of the recession and unable to ever harness their REAL wish-list ) get all feeble about what they'd like to be given and instead waft on about non-specifics. So many times I've heard myself replying " I'd love a new nightdress, some black boots, books and bath oil." No-one is going to fulfil that list in the way I'd like it filled - and nor would I expect them to; for what I REALLY want is a Cath Kidson nightdress, Christian Louboutin boots with a 6 inch heel, the collected letters of Nancy Mitford and Basil and Lime bath oil from Jo Malone. So this year what I'd really, really like is something either joyous, or original or edible. Preferably all three. And inexpensive.
This sounds such a good idea, wish I had found those cake stands !
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