OK, I admit it, I’m getting a little stressed about Christmas. After a good start, the shopping has all fallen in a heap over the last few weeks. I’ve still got numerous things to buy, both known and unknown. The way it’s looking, this Christmas it won’t quite be gift vouchers at twenty paces, but it might come close.

A bunch of stuff ordered online for the kids hasn’t arrived yet, and if it’s not there at the post office when I drop past this afternoon, the spot underneath the tree might look a bit barren on Sunday night. I might never order anything online to a deadline again.

Meanwhile out there in Retail Land the shops are steadily getting more, as my sister puts it, feral.

Surely the season of joy and goodwill isn’t meant to be like this?

It’s funny, ‘cos with many of us in the family now having mortgages, there was a plan (formulated straight after last Christmas) for adults not to exchange presents. Somehow that’s fallen by the wayside.

Maybe as a compromise we should all convert to Orthodox Christianity and have Christmas on January 7th, so at least we can get all the presents at the post-Christmas sales.

Update 4pm. All the parcels arrived. My faith in online shopping is restored. The children won’t go hungry this Christmas.