Well, have you all had your quota of loving, family meals and together time for the year? Are you still bathing in the warm glow of tenderness and family feeling? Or, perhaps, like 99% of the rest of us, you embrace the chance of getting back to work and some semblance of normality.

After spending my formative years watching Hollywood’s take on Christmas it’s little wonder I feel like I constantly fall some way short of the saccharine-sweet depiction of the festive season being pumped out of the “Dream-Factory”. And that’s what it is, a dream, a myth! Yet so many of my female friends expend a huge amount of energy trying to create this magical, fantastical image of Christmas.

But here’s the funny part. I don’t see much of either my brother or sister. We all live in different countries and, for many silly reasons, we don’t particularly get on. And yet….if for any reason they needed me, my help, or one of my kidneys, they would have it. They are my family and, as far as I’m concerned, that’s what being family means.

Okay, I accept that we make accommodations at this time of year; we compromise for the greater good with a definite end-time in sight, and that is fine. But to spend time with folk I would not even wish to break breath with at any other time, no! That is a step too far.

If Christmas is a time of “Love” and “Kindness”, then start with loving and being kind to yourself and do it your way.

When you watch all those great, classical, lovey-dovey Christmas movies just keep one thing in mind; they were also great actors!