Tomorrow we go to spend Christmas with my family. All families are different; all families are the same, so you already know why family is so special at Christmas. It’s a rite of celebration and remembrance for an unlimited number brought together in body or spirit. And it’s organic. There are guidelines but no rules. Every family reinvents it for themselves and it continually evolves. Individuals are recorded in it, with decorations they owned or by the passed-down memory of how they did things. Often a single genius of Christmas dominates who defined the spirit of Christmas. Zak’s was his Mum. Mine was my Grandmother. Our Christmas is a way of celebrating and remembering them both. Christmas is also like a sort of spiritual tax return. Everything you enjoy over Christmas reminds you of those who can’t, and makes you want in whatever way you can to do something about it.

Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas

The Obelisk at Welcombe 1876, monument built in 1876 by Robert Needham Philips (1815–1890) MP for Bury as a memorial to his brother Mark Philips MP for Manchester (1800–1873), photo by my father Robert Mulraine, 2017.