This week I was asked onto the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2 to discuss the growing trend for making your own Christmas presents, cards, cakes, puddings and decorations. Also appearing on the programme was the queen of all things home-made, Kirstie Allsopp.

I was mortified. How could I possibly admit to the doyenne of homespun Britain that I don’t bake, knit or weave? Or that the possibility of me making my own Christmas cards and presents is about as likely as me feeling a little peckish at the end of Christmas day.

You see I’ve never had a problem with admitting I’m neither a baker nor any kind of crafty person, but nowadays there does seem to be some pressure in certain circles to ‘do it yourself’, and not in a putting-up-a-shelf kind of way (which, incidentally, I’m also rubbish at). When I was a child, the term ‘home made’ was somewhat derogatory and frowned upon.

So when did derogatory become de rigueur?

Has it been the influence of TV programmes such as the lovely Kirstie’s, or is it purely down to cost? I’m sure the current economic climate has helped make the home made Christmas more of a necessity than before, but for those of us with no noticeable flair for crafty pursuits the thought of making our own is, frankly, terrifying.

But what about this pressure we feel to go home made? Is it self-inflicted or is the pressure from our peers really there? Once or twice a year, Molly’s school has a charity cake sale and I have to load her up with goodies to sell.

It seems like a lot of the mums (and maybe the dads, though I’ve not personally witnessed any), have seemingly effortlessly undertaken a baking marathon and arrive with their tupperwares crammed with perfect-looking cakes, cookies, biscuits and my current bête noir, cup cakes. (Cup cakes?? For goodness sake, they’re just fairy cakes with an ego.)

A little less confident are the mums like me who just don’t have the baking gene.

They turn up with a slightly apologetic smile, holding sad-looking offerings which are dry when they should be moist and vice versa.

They carry biscuits that look like they’ve been attacked with a blow torch and cake you could tarmac a road with.

And they seem to have put themselves through their baking hell purely to keep up with the yummy mummies.

And then there’s me. I am happy and proud to say that I do not bake and that I wouldn’t subject my daughter and her friends to the results of my efforts.

So I turn up, with no apology whatsoever, but with much charity raising fare, all of which has been perfectly created by the master bakers of Sainsbury’s Tesco, M&S et al.

And here’s cheers to them!

You may not be surprised to hear that I have the same attitude towards home made gifts.

I, like the rest of the country, am trying to keep Christmas spending as frugal as possible.

However, I cannot agree with the current adage that states that home made presents are more thoughtful and that they mean more than those shop bought ones.

If I made my presents (whether they were knitted, macraméd, sculpted or glued), I know that when the recipient opened them I would see that look in the eye. You know the one, that quick flash of deep and utter disappointment – hastily hidden by a rigid smile of ‘delight’ – which completely ruins any joy of giving.

For me, if a present has had some serious thought put into it and is really something that you believe the receiver will want, then that’s all that matters.

So I will certainly put that thought into it, and then I’ll go and purchase the best present that my budget will allow.

I’m sorry Kirstie. I bow down to your greatness and admire you hugely, but it’s just not for me.

So if any of you lovely people of Ealing are expecting me to bestow upon you hand crafted gifts this year, then you’re in for a long wait.

I will not be gathering cinnamon bark and wild berries to make my own wreaths, I won’t be scientifically mixing apricot kernel oil with citric acid to make scented bath infusions and I certainly won’t be whittling a mug tree out of an old woodworm-infested tree stump.

I will go Christmas shopping and I will enjoy every minute of it.

NOTE TO SELF: Home-made Christmas? Bah, humbug!