I appreciate that people have taken time to think what I would like and then acted on that, but it’s been a huge swing and a miss.

Out of the 7 presents, 5 were clothing items, 1 was something my wife wanted (not me), and the last was actually something I had been mentioning I had wanted for a while, so that was a silver lining.

When it comes to clothing and fashion, that is not me. I’d rather wear a £10 t-shirt from some high street chain, than whatever emperor’s new clothes rubbish is being pushed by the designer brands. On top of that, I have a young child, so it’s not uncommon for there to be food, spit, mess etc. on me at a given time. I don’t want to get that on my nice clothes, so I just wear old sports t-shirts most of the time.

Maybe they’re telling me I should change my style? But I’m happy with my style, I dress for comfort and practicality over looks. I don’t care what strangers on the street think of how I dress.

On top of that, 1 of the clothing items was smart, suit-like, work trousers… I’m in the office maybe once a week, and even then I normally wear smart casual attire, nice jeans, chinos, etc.

Then there’s the joint present my wife and I got. I appreciate it was expensive, but it’s something my wife has been raving about since she saw it, and I don’t really have any interest in it. At least she’ll be happy I suppose.

What I think disappoints me the most is I saw all the effort my wife and I were putting in for my family members, coming up with ideas based on their interests and things they may not think about, so I was excited for her presents for me expecting a similar level of thought, but it was just more clothes; some nice printed t-shirts, but I’m not going to wear them much, due to the aforementioned messy nature of having a young child.

I hope I managed to hide my disappointment. The only saving grace was the fact I was cooking Christmas dinner at the same time, so I could go out to the kitchen and “check on the veg” to compose myself and come back.