Are you looking forward to Christmas?” Such a question tends to give me the chills. I’m one of those – I don’t like Christmas. For all the usual reasons, not least because the commercial end of it seems to start after Halloween. It’s like when someone tells you they’re getting married and you ask if they’ve fixed a date: “Yes, next June in 48 months.” Just a tad too long of a lead-in for me I’m afraid. Hardly makes me clap my hands in gleeful anticipation. But I observe the social niceties and mumble something along the lines of: “Congratulations, sure you won’t feel it ‘til 2019,” and walk away wondering, yet again, if the whole world is totally bonkers.

“I hate turkey,” I heard someone comment recently, “but I have to have it for Christmas. It’s not Christmas without turkey.”

Did you ever hear such nonsense? So no, I don’t look forward to Christmas and no, I’m not a fan of turkey either. Someone once said that every mile is two in winter. I think the same goes for turkey dinners – for me, each one is two.

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But I’ll tell you what I do look forward to, the winter solstice. Oh such bliss to know that 21 December marks the shortest day and longest night of the year. Two whole minutes of extra daylight gained in the first week. It doesn’t matter if it still feels like the middle of winter. It doesn’t matter if it’s some time before we see a noted stretch in the evenings. None of that matters. What matters is that it’s a turning point. Slowly, we turn away from the darkness and towards the light.

It has been said that we must honour the dark before calling in the light. American author Og Mandino says: “I will love the light for it shows me the way. Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.”

In that sense, I think it’s an ideal time for quiet reflection. We can look back over the past year and take stock. If we’re wise, we will see the stars that we can bring forward with us into the coming year.

It’s also a time for letting go and saying farewell to resentments. It’s a time to release our regrets into the darkness. It’s a time to turn again towards the light (without having to wait until next June in 48 months). As for the Christmas turkey, well, it can go and get stuffed. Merry Christmas everyone. CL