So here we are. After all the preparation and planning, Christmas has come and gone. The decorations are down, the tree is safely consigned to a corner of the garden awaiting disposal and the last scrap of turkey has been curried and frozen.

All that’s left is for me to unwrap the new set of step ladders we received from my sister and brother-in-law and send the housemate into the loft to hide away the few baubles and garlands we can’t find space for in cupboards.

With all packed away for another year the only dilemma which remains is the eternal question of when exactly do you stop wishing everyone a ‘Happy New Year’?

So far most of the emails I’ve received this week have started with the greeting but I’m beginning to feel that while responding in kind is ok, it’s just a bit late to be putting it on my own correspondence.

I did wonder at one stage whether familiarity should be the decider - people you know personally could get a friendly ‘Happy New Year’ while other professional correspondence should overlook any friendly greeting and get straight down to business but then I found myself dithering over whether someone I’d met once, but emailed frequently, fell into Camp A or Camp B so I popped that plan on the back-boiler.

“I stop saying it when I go back to work, because then the New Year is not happy any more,” said one world weary colleague, who probably summed up everyone’s post Christmas blues.

It seems that a week after the fireworks of New Year’s Day might be far enough into the New Year to taper off the greeting but then looking at it from the other side most of us roll out that old chestnut, “If I don’t see you before, have a lovely Christmas’, from the beginning of December so using that as an example we could be chanting ‘Happy New Year’ for weeks to come.

If, like us you adhere to the rule that all forms of Christmas should end on Twelfth Night then logically that should also be the end of ‘Happy New Year’ season…but there’s always the question of whether the festive season actually ends at Candlemas which means we could be picking up pine needles and eating turkey until February 2.

Frankly it’s an absolute minefield so I’ve reached the unilateral decision that once my first column of the New Year is published I’ll stop wishing 2026 a Happy Birthday.

With that in mind I’d like to wish all our readers a very Happy and Healthy New Year. As always, thank you for your support in 2025 - we always appreciate you taking the time to engage with us - even if you don’t always agree with what we’ve written or reported on.

The world of 2026 is a strange beast and it’s getting stranger by the day and we can only hope those in positions of power will look at their own children and grandchildren and realise that their futures are more important than egos and empire building.