Are you one of those people who feel that unless they’ve done everything perfectly, the Christmas season (and really, what I like to call the superior preceding Advent season) somehow shouldn’t have started yet, because you’re a bit behind and might never catch up? I’m not talking about wrapping every present in matching wrapping paper and making sure you write more Christmas cards than last year and getting caught up over which supermarket’s turkey is the most ethically sourced (although these have also been my worries).

No, I mean the perfectly honourable reflections of the fact that you are a good middle class person with a conscience…getting an advent calendar with stories and pictures to cut out, lighting a candle on each advent Sunday, reflecting well enough on the coming of the King and what that should actually mean, baking the most meaningful Christmas bakes, making sure each neighbour you’ve disliked this year gets a bag of goodies, thinking really hard about each present you buy or ask for (as subconsciously you’re a bit guilty that we even do presents when what the world really needs is for us to be ethical and not excessive), making sure we do something fun and festive at the weekends that the children will remember in years to come, but also engaging them in some form of charity event because that’s important, too…I’m out of breath just writing this…

I’m one of those people. I want to do it all well. Desperately. But a very wise friend, incidentally, the one who also does Advent inspiringly well, once taught me the value of simplicity. How it applies particularly when you come to a shift in how you do the everyday. Simplicity means it needs to feel doable. Like we’re entering into the season with a refreshed sense of excitement. Of actual joy over the one who came to save us, not the guilty, better-feel-joyful kind. This is a joy that’s mobilising. And as I think about this, my perfectionist inner wannabe domestic goddess can go pheeew and deflate. The joy of my salvation will carry me through all the excitement, pain and potential of this season, because the King has already come. My soul is so saved. More each day. And that’s why, for me, Christmas can come this year.