There is, unless I'm much mistaken, an air of desperation about this Christmas. It's partly because retailers have been scaling back on seasonal offerings for the last few years, to the point where people rush ro get things because there's a limited supply. But this has been such a shitty year, with the promise of more to come, that I think a lot of people are saying 'Fuck it, let's have a good Christmas at least!"

As an atheist, I'm not interested in the carpenters' son, but my wife and kids are whole-hearted pagans who like to celebrate the end of the year. We're going to have a couple of family meals, one on Boxing Day with my son, daughter-in-law and grandson, the other on New Years' Day with my daughter and granddaughters (the girls are with their father for Xmas this year). Jen will join us on the 25th for lasagna, rather than be on her own.

We will buy foods we don't normally. A couple of roasts, some floret mix and a cheese sauce, extra roast spuds and Yorkshire puds, an Xmas pudding, a dozen mince pies, a chocolate log, stollen, good biscuits, half a dozen bottles of wine and some beer. We save our Tesco points across the year to afford these.

As for presents, the granddaughters have got books and the grandson clothes, as per request. For the kids themselves, choccies always go down well. I've got some Thorntons for SWMBO and my treast for myself will be a discount video game from Steam!

Our tree, baubles and lights will serve as they have done for the last ten years.

Fortunately, there aren't but the ten of us (including the cats) to worry about. More distant relatives will get a seasonal email!

But it's going to be hard facing a Christmas with no Doctor Who special!