The old nursery rhyme starts with the words “Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat” and goes on to add some pertinent information regarding pennies and ha’pennies. What it neglects to mention is that the other seasonal constant – the battle between your sanity and a “party bag” which, in the majority of cases, will be hard-sided, dazzling enough to be seen from Mars, and unable to hold anything larger than a credit card. If your budget, and taste, causes you to wander into Judith Leiber territory there will, of course, be the added question of whether the bag should be shaped like a frog or a panda.
All of which is fun and festive, until you reach the point in the evening where the party outfit has been donned, make-up applied, and all that is standing between you and a good time is transferring the necessary items from your day bag to its sparkly cousin. Slowly, almost everything that you’d usually deem an essential has to be jettisoned due to size constraints. As you walk out of the door, you realize that although the bag closes (just) any attempt to open it will result in a small explosion. The curse of the evil sparkling panda has been unleashed…
