Once again Britain has been plunged into a shopping frenzy that just about kills any interest I may have in Christmas. It gets such a big build up by the media and the retail sector that both hope to profit from a one day public holiday.  The queues and mass of greedy shoppers depress me . From the amount of goodies in the bulging trolleys you would think the nuclear winter was upon us, whereas, the stores like ASDA are open Christmas eve and on boxing day, leaving us to fend for ourselves for a mere 28 hours or so.

For an ungodly nation everyone is making an awful fuss over a celebration that, having being hijacked from pagans by the church, is supposed to celebrate the birth of Christ an be a season of giving. All I see is wanton greed. However, I dare say I shall get as much pleasure out of the huge turkey dinner as the rest of us and whatever gifts come my way but, I cannot help think of the good some of the money spent on gifts could do in the right location. Problem is that donating to all these charities now, in the digital information age, makes me wonder how much of my money would reach those on the breadline and how much would be put into producing those appalling adverts designed to cash in on guilt over this festive season.

Maybe it will be special again when I’m a grandparent.