All I want this Christmas is some decision-making

My excitement levels have been rising steadily as Halloween approaches. This is because, for the second year running, I can ignore it totally. Since The Student left for university, I have been able to indulge my indifference to this particular event. No more pumpkins on the doorstep, along with endless streams of children – some of whom were quite obviously 27-year-olds hiding under an old sheet – demanding treats.

But into my selfish, cantankerous old lady life this year crept my young niece, staying for the weekend and bringing with her boundless enthusiasm for the time of year.

Halloween, clocks changing (“Is it still the same day?”), thinking about The List for You-Know-Who and, of course, the element of choice when being spoilt by an aunt.

The inability of young people to make choices is something parents become wise to when their children are young – “No, please don’t ask her what she wants, just give her what you have decided she should have” – but forget about very quickly.

Hence a good few hours of my life spent standing in a shop waiting for my niece to choose one Christmastree decoration.

Faced with a gazillion diamante-encrusted items, she went into a sparkle-induced frenzy of indecision.

This was reminiscent of the time my child-free uncle made the catastrophic mistake of telling me and my siblings to pick a toy each in our local toy shop. ANY TOY WE LIKE.

The morning came and went. We adjourned for lunch. There must have been a point at which my uncle thought: “What is wrong with these children? Can we really be related?”

We went back for the afternoon before becoming so overwhelmed, we each plumped for something modest that we didn’t want as the choice was too vast.

I watched my niece holding a multi-coloured sequinned partridge in one hand and a silver icicleshaped bauble in the other. I could only offer a defeated air of solidarity as she looked between them in complete bewilderment. For hours.

She went into a sparkle-induced frenzy of indecision