Mistletoe and shine..

Let’s go all out this party season with the sparkliest dresses on the high street

You may have noticed my absence last week. I had an extremely important social engagement to attend.One which took weeks of planning, took a huge amount of money to organise and is taking a long time to recover from – I still don’t think I am to be honest.

It was my daughter’s 5th birthday party. Yes, I know such an event is frowned upon in these uncertain times but she didn’t have a third birthday, and she didn’t have a fourth birthday party and she will only ever be three, four and five once in her life, so we decided to stop waiting for everyone to help make it a world where we can throw a kids’ party without fear and just go for it.

So we rented out a local hall, invited only her classmates and asked every parent to wear a mask. Which they did, happily. So we made it as safe as we could, and it’s safe to say, everyone had an abslute ball. I hired the most amazing face painter (honestly, if you are looking for the same for a future kids’ birthday party you are throwing, I cannot recommend Kathryn from www.magicalmasksbelfast.co.uk enough) and I had planned to do lots of party games to keep them entertained, but turns out, with five-yearolds, all you need is sugar and balloons.

They ran riot, and even though everyone was wearing a mask, it was obvious all the adults were smiling at seeing kids being kids again.

But it was exhausting, so exhausting I am only starting to come round now and start thinking of my own parties which are in the pipeline. And the one thing we need when it somes to parties, is a really great party dress (even five-year-olds know this). And for Christmas, the shinier the better, so here are the ones which caught my tired eyes..

£109, Zara £45, Pretty Little Thing £149, Warehouse £199, Warehouse £99, Phase Eight £85, River Island £40, Boohoo £85, River Island Sweater £12.50, skirt £14

ASOS EDITION Oversized teardrop sequin dress £195