The stage is set for all that glitters (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

The stage is set for all that glitters

8:52am Tuesday 9th December 2008 in Columnists By Debbie Lindley

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? It seems like just a matter of weeks ago that I was on the hunt for pink tinsel for our daughter's Nativity play last year.

OK, so it's only a pre-school play, and last year's performance was just a wonderful collection of tiny tots fiddling with their hair and sucking their thumbs, but it's important to Megan so that's reason enough for me to get excited.

If I'm honest, just the thought of spending an hour with the staff and children is enough to bring a smile to the most sullen face. It still makes me feel like I've forgotten to hand in my homework, though, when I turn up for the performance.

Last year Megan was an angel - wearing pink tinsel, as you do - and this year it would appear that she has a somewhat bigger role. She's playing a reindeer which, if nothing else, means she's grown a bit longer and acquired another pair of legs. I did take a moment to check my diary to see whether I'd missed the auditions. Did we turn up on Rudolph and not Mary day? Checking will have to wait.

I'm relieved at only having to provide a pair of brown tights, which is great since over time some of her white ones could now be comfortably called "beige" and the poor set that ended up in a boil wash with a fake tan towel are certainly brown in places. She'd struggle to wear them, though, since they'd be a snug fit on an Action Man.

Pushing my trolley around the supermarket, I struck lucky on my first visit.

Brown tights fit for a, err, reindeer are piled in among the groceries and I allow myself a millisecond of congratulation for actually getting something to the playgroup not just on time but early.

Then my gaze fell on an adorable collection of antlers, red stick-on noses, even a little handbag with Rudolph on the front. It's everything a fashion conscious toddler would want to wear and, for a second, I'm tempted.

Megan could be the tidiest reindeer, but would she be the best? When I was little I remember watching my mum making me an angel halo out of a wire coat hanger and helping me cover it with glitter.

I remember how proud I felt each time I put it on with my bed-sheet dress and how the bits of glitter fell off and stuck to my nose. Glitter - you'll love it on pictures but you'll hate it on your sofa.

I know things may change but, for now, I want Megan to wear the glitter and to laugh when the tinsel that Mummy's sewn on to her outfit either falls off or gets stuck to the scenery.

Most of all, I want to be there to share in it. Much as I'm tempted to be a pushy parent, designer Rudolph can wait. I wonder if they would cast a 35-year-old?