Taking the tablets off the Christmas list and colour coordinating the kettle

TO keep you on-trend this Christmas, I’m here to warn you against rushing out to buy a tablet computer for someone you love, because they might prefer a baking tin.

Two chances, I hear you say. Everybody belonging to you, from about seven years of age upwards, wants a tablet. Even if they already have a tablet, they want a bigger and better tablet. Or a smaller, skinnier tablet.

I know. I know that’s what they may be saying to you, but it’s not the full truth of their deeper needs. The full truth is that they ache and yearn for a pressure cooker or a whisk. Or, if they’re seriously high- end in their aspirations for 2014, they ache and yearn for one of those miniature blow -torches that crisps up the sugar on the top of a crème brulee. Trust me on this.