Well, the Christmas tree is back in its box and the lights have been re-wound and put away along with the decorations; the last sheets of Christmas kitchen roll and toilet paper have been used and I have taken down the cards.

I won’t commit them for re-cycling until I’ve had just one last look through and I know that that means a few more, the really lovely angel pictures and grandchildren’s homemade ones, will join those which are kept with the decorations to bring out every year, there’s a growing pile, as you may imagine! But, for now, the house looks bare and forlorn without them.

My Aunt always said: “Jan and Feb – lowest ebb” and with dull, cold weather, horrible things on the news and a sense of little to look forward to, not to mention people deciding to go without a warming glass of ginger wine all January, there doesn’t seem much to cheer us up at this time of year.

But, although the trappings of Christmas are put away, the Church keeps the season going until Candlemas on February 2 and I for one am glad of that.

Because I believe that the essential message of Christmas, and our human need of that good news, goes on.

The shepherds are back with their flocks because hungry people need to be fed; the wise men, back in their palaces, must get on with making good decisions which take the views of poor and disadvantaged people into account and which bring peace to the nations; the angels have to find the little, the lost and the least and bring them home.

We have stopped singing carols but, if you listen very carefully, the heavenly music of Christmas goes on all year round. More from Ann Easter