Let’s talk turkey! enthuses Mrs. M. Yes, it’s that time of the year when we clip holly from the garden to put green sprigs over all the pictures. The heady smell of pine needles and mulled wine wafts through the house. The entrance hall is stacked with boxes of red and green ribbons and gingham angels and giant pine cones which will find their way eventually onto the front door wreaths which are begging to be hung.

I’ve spent hours at the top of a step ladder, even risking my neck to place an angel onto the top of a twelve foot tree. There’s still the mistletoe to be hung in strategic places and old family decorations to the found before once again our home will look welcoming and the sort of place where Santa would want to pause to feed Rudolph a mince pie.

My plan for getting all these jobs done is simply to Work, Work, Work and make endless lists until at last the great day arrives. And Oh, what bliss and relief, when finally “time’s up!” There are no days left to add anything else to the Christmas transformation of the house or cook another festive dish. One has to give up and start enjoying the holiday. Already my home is beginning to look like the cover of Good Housekeeping, an idealized version of Christmas magic and bonhomie.

At night my brain works overtime scheduling the daily chores like a general planning his troop movements in a campaign. Will there be enough mince pies for the drinks on Christmas Eve? Have I ordered sufficient chipolatas not to mention bacon? Who will make the brandy butter? Are there stocking fillers for everyone, including the dogs? It all becomes overwhelming, but in a pleasant way.

Thank God, we still love the Christmas traditions. It’s comforting to think that with all this global chaos these home grown and home made values still matter. There’s a freshness and naiveté to decorating for Yuletide that contrasts with our ruthless world. Thank God, we still want the Christmas mystique.

At the end of most nights I sit exhausted watching the food channels. Nigella enjoys a pomegranate martini; Rick Stein roasts a giant sea bass; the Two Hairy Bikers barbeque a goose on the Isle of Mull; and Market Kitchen furiously debates the pros and cons of serving turkey or a more creative Christmas dinner. Why bother to change something we only do once a year? Why fix it if it isn’t broken?

I find it soothing to see the zealous efforts we still make to celebrate one of the most humbling and least materialistic events of all time: the birth of Christ in a manager surrounded by donkeys and Wise Men from the East.

The simplicity of the Nativity is a welcome change from the complexity and greed of the world we live in. Even though Christmas is commercialised the world over, we still have a moving image of the baby in the hay beneath a shining star attended by lowly shepherds. This divine and humble tableau has inspired hope in mankind for two thousand years.

Most of us are bewildered and dismayed by what we hear on the news everyday, which destroys our peace of mind. But once again Silent Nights and Little Towns of Bethlehem fill our hearts with hope. Joy to the World turns our hopes and thoughts to the peace of that faraway manger, the glory of self sacrifice, and the faith that there is something more powerful and wondrous than the material world. And that truly is a miracle.

All of us at Mrs. M’s London wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!