Peace be with you

AT Christmas time, our thoughts turn to the mystery of the Incarnation. That's the primary focus of Christians-or should be, although we all have other preoccupations.

- Charles Quest-Ritson

Shall we bother with a Christmas tree this year? Do we absolutely have to have turkey again? And will the cards we sent belatedly to those people we had originally crossed off our list this year get to them in time? Meanwhile, the thoughts of children everywhere turn to piles of presents, received rather than given.

Christmas is a time of hope for all, although the lawyers tell us that divorce petitions peak as soon as the season of jollification ends. I love not only the spiritual insights that the Incarnation brings, but also the personal rituals that we all develop within our families. And my own thoughts turn to the year ahead, and the lengthening days. I look forward to the first Cyclamen coum, the yellow aconites and the six weeks of snowdrops when different cultivars open in succession.