Just after 3pm on Christmas Eve you can hear on Radio 4 the start of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Cambridge.

In the gathering darkness the famous service will take us into Christmas night.

Christmas cannot be cancelled. No party, no turkey is not the same as no Christmas.

The twelve days of Christmas will take us into January with a number of special days when we remember the Christian martyrs who died for the faith taught by the Child Jesus: Stephen (on Boxing Day), Thomas Becket (Tuesday) and James the Great (Wednesday).

The Wise Men arrive a week later on Twelfth Night in January. The Holy Family leaves Bethlehem on 2 February.

This year we can have a slow Christmas.