“As I sit contemplating the task of writing about “The real meaning of Christmas”, I am listening to the strains of Wizzard’s 1973 top ten hit ‘I wish it could be Christmas every day’.

I dug out this record, not because I wanted to revisit the heady days of my early twenties, but because I wanted to reflect whether I could echo Roy Wood’s sentiments.

I am pondering if any of us could physically or financially stand it being ‘Christmas every day’.

The way we celebrate Christmas today seems to be by an excess of everything, of eating, drinking and spending,

The holidays, for those that can either afford it or borrow to afford it, seem to be one long round of partying and present giving and receiving.

For those who can’t afford it or who have no family or friends, the Christmas season must seem to magnify their problems and loneliness.

And yet the underlying reason for the season sets itself against loneliness and against worry and tries to envelop us all in a process of removing pain and hurt from our society.

As the year progresses and the gloss goes off the presents received, and we begin to recover from the excess of food and drink consumed; we are thrown once more into the fight for survival in an often dangerous and confusing world.

Most of us totally ignore the very real and important gift that we are all given to assist us in this fight; that gift that Christmas appears on our calendar to celebrate.

Aside from the excesses that I have already mentioned, I am heartened that the Christmas season does produce another excess; there certainly seems to be an increase of bonhomie each year.