I remember being able to have snowball fights at Christmas.

I remember waking up one Christmas Eve and keeping my eyes tight shut because I could hear Father Christmas and I knew that he wouldn’t leave anything if I saw him.

I remember knocking on people’s doors and singing carols around the streets of Motspur Park and Ewell and nobody feeling the need to write to the newspapers about youths begging or the general decline of civilization.

I remember Christmas tree lights being quite large. And that was the only place you had lights. There would be paper garlands - or paper chains that you had to make by licking together each loop. I can still taste the gum. And those tin foil spirally things.

I remember, every year in the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, it would fall to a new boy to read the lesson that had the word naked in it, giving rise to much sniggering in the pews.

I remember going up in a space ship to see Father Christmas at the Co-op in Morden, though eventually I cottoned on that it was just the lift.

I remember it all had something to do with Jesus... Happy Christmas!