I’m feeling a little crankification seeping into the leadup to Christmas today. It’s an accumulation of a number of things. I really dislike summer, so the hot weather we’ve been having hasn’t been helping my attitude towards thinking about Christmas day. Our family has a cold lunch but we still have it in the middle of the day. So from now until the day we become obsessed with the weather report and whether it’s going to be stinkingly hot, or just pleasantly warm with a nice breeze. I start to worry that I’ve made all the wrong choices for presents, even though I was pleased with them to start with. Not that I want to go back to the beginning and start the present buying again. And the socialising with relatives can be more than a little wearying.

I remember once when I was very young (probably four or five) I went to bed on Christmas Eve and to this day I swear I heard sleigh bells during the night. Now that was some Christmas excitement (combined with a vivid imagination). How to recapture that joyful anticipation some 30 years later, I’m just not sure. There’s got to be a way though.

Suggestions more than welcome.