Make this a Christmas to cherish
HOORAY — the tree is up and laden with garish decorations as usual, the cards have all been posted, most of our presents bought and wrapped — and next week the calendar has given me an extra holiday.
For the second time in 14 years Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, which means no column. Perhaps it’s just as well because we have a mountain of food to buy and some advance cooking to do, because my best friend and her husband arrive on the 23rd for four days and must be fed. We missed them last year, so it’s another cause for celebration.
On Christmas Eve, they love to join us when we light all the candles and (taking turns) read aloud the Christmas story from St Luke.
Yes, we’ll have a merry gin and tonic in hand (beer for my husband) but we love the few moments of gentle, joyful solemnity as we share the wonderful words so familiar from childhood — about the inn, the manger, the swaddling clothes, the angels, shepherds and wise men.
How beautiful it is to me, and hearing it every year never fails to remind me of the heritage I treasure.
So I hope you too can allow a sense of the sacred (whatever form it may take) into this special time.
I’m refusing to waste any space with moans or fears about any virus or variant, even though I know it’s affected your spirits as much as it’s weighed down my own.
What can we do but trust our instincts, make sensible judgements, and vow to eat, drink and be as merry as possible — yes, even if Christmas is marred by wistfulness, as it is for the writer of today’s first letter?
My father will be absent this year and so, not to be 13 at the festive table, I will put a token for him there, knowing he’s with us in spirit.
All the more reason to hold out a hand to you all, my friends, and wish you warmth and light.
■ Bel answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, london W8 5TT, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. Names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.