With Christmas only a few days away now, I have been giving some thought to one of the pitfalls we can be presented with on the morning itself; that of the exchange of gifts. Sometimes the overwhelming joy of receiving these tokens of love can leave us, quite literally, speechless with delight, and this silence can be misinterpreted as a lack of enthusiasm. To help you avoid this happening I’ve prepared twelve useful phrases to memorise and use upon unwrapping your gifts:

1. Gosh it must have taken you ages to find something like that!
2. How original!
3. You’re so clever!
4. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it!
5. What an unusual colour!
6. Does it do something?
7. How thoughtful, I had an identical one a few years ago but it fell apart after a couple of hours!
8. Is this bit supposed to move?
9. Is it part of a pair?
10. I remember when these first came out!
11. Oh darling you know I like these, I gave you one exactly like it last year!
12. That’s lovely dear.

Finally, if you simply can’t find the right words, a prolonged glassy smile while gazing directly into the eyes of the giver usually works a treat.

Hopefully that should cover most gift-opening situations. If you do use any of the above, please let me know how you got on. I am always happy to receive messages of gratitude. And if you find anyone saying some of these things to you, just reply: ‘What a useful website Umbrellage is! It’s such a shame Chris is away now till 28th December’.

Good Luck!