Dan Morris: Putting the 'Father' in Father Christmas

I've always enjoyed the festive season – when the log fires are lit, the mince pies are served, and the ale flows. But I suppose it's fair to say that I've never been one of those to truly get swept up in the 'magic' of Christmas.

My other half, on the other hand, is a very different story. A full subscriber to the philosophy of 'if you can keep Christmas for a day, you can keep it all year', my good lady is never happier than when the fairy lights are set to twinkle and the mistletoe is under every doorway.

Since we've been together my old heart has gradually softened, and the festive spirit has crept further into my soul with every year that passes. Yet this year, I finally feel like a full convert, and for one obvious and all-important reason.

2022 will be the first year that I'll be putting the 'Father' into Father Christmas, with this being my first one as a dad.

It's an age-old story (and here's where I start teaching so many of you how to suck eggs), but there's nothing like a child to remind you of the joy of the festive season, and, indeed, the joy of the world in general.

'Rose-tinted specs' doesn't really cover it at all. The fact is that when you become a parent, you don't just strap on a new pair of glasses with happier lenses – you actually find yourself with a whole new pair of eyes.

Small things that may once have provoked a small smile now have the capacity to leave you grinning like a Cheshire cat, and if your glass was ever half empty... well, it just feels like it never can be again.

Today will be a huge milestone in both mine and my little daughter's life – for the first time, she is off to see Santa Claus! At just under three months old, I'm not expecting her to be particularly verbal with her wish list. Yet this is one little lady who doesn't ever need words to make her desires known.

Without question, this will be one of those trips that makes the memory book, and I fully expect to well up like the embarrassing Christmas pudding I have recently become.

Yet it isn't just me that has caught the bug. My father (again not a bloke averse to Christmas, yet despite his own big white beard, not exactly good Saint Nick himself) has spent the last week turning his home into nothing less than a Yuletide altar.

I can't blame him for being excited. Like me, he is abuzz at the prospect of spending Christmas Day with a baby in the family pile, and has pulled out all the stops, unleashing the big kid that has been lurking barely below the surface for 68 years. He's even bought her a rocking horse. While it may be some time before she is strong enough to mount said valiant steed, he simply couldn't resist it, and went for it in a wonderful moment of 'well, it's Christmas!'.

This festive season will certainly be different for me, as it will for many. Sadly, this will not universally be for such happy reasons.

As the cost of living crisis continues to bite, for many Christmas 2022 will be the one where cutbacks were made, things were done a lot less liberally, and the event itself was approached with nervousness and worry rather than delight.

Times are hard – there's no question about it – and they may stay as such for a while.

Though many people won't be able to go as 'full throttle' as they normally would in terms of expenditure this Christmas, I suppose the times that we're in make this one all the more important.

Loads of us need a bit of a lift right now, and where we can we should all help each other to enjoy the festive season and the spirit it brings.

With that, this old Ebernezer will be sending his Christmas ghouls to the closet for good, and I'm sure I won't be the only one.

Merry Christmas folks – time to pull together and make it as special as can be.