So what’s the best thing about Christmas? For some it might be the moment when the shopping, preparation and cooking is done and the children are still on a present- induced happiness high and you can sit down for the first time in two weeks and nod off while watching a sentimental movie on TV.

For others perhaps it is watching the children and dredging up bittersweet personal memories of that barely containable excitement on Christmas Eve, desperately wanting, yet at the same time not wanting, to go to bed.

For yet others, it is possibly eating too much turkey, but still having room in the evening for the cold cuts washed down with a glass of something just a little bit more interesting than the usual supermarket Vin Ordinaire.

All these things have their undoubted charms, but Christmas is summed up for me by the nativity plays produced in nurseries and primary schools all over the country.

My daughters are adults now, so no more tea towels or gossamer wings for the Baker family, otherwise wild reindeer would not prevent me from witnessing those unforgettable moments; when the innkeeper forgets his lines and tells the pilgrims from Nazareth he has plenty of room; or when Joseph picks up the infant Jesus by his head to allow Mary to prepare the straw in the infant crib; or when angels, kings and shepherds scan the audience with screwed up eyes until they spot their adoring mums and dads and then give very un-biblical cheery waves before spending the rest of the performance riveted to the audience and paying no attention to the drama unfolding in the stable; and, inevitably, when the desire to visit the loo compels a diminutive sufferer to seize and hang on to affected area of his anatomy until being led away. 

On one memorable occasion I saw a five-year-old Mary get quite shirty when a helpful angel tried to replace on her lap the Baby Jesus, when he had tumbled unnoticed to the floor.

But there is something about the charming innocence of all this that adds to the message of the Nativity play and can provide memories that last for years until that time when the big decision is deciding which parents get to see their partnered-up children on the big day.