Did you put your Christmas tree up earlier, and keep it longer this year and do you still have some of those Christmas lights up?

We did, and I know from simply walking about – not a lot else to do – that a great many other families did as well. Trees were up earlier, and lots of garden lights and some trees are still there.

What does that tell us? That in tough times we all need a bit of cheering up? Of course.

In fact the Christmas tree tradition goes back to pagan times when people decorated their homes with tree branches – usually evergreen conifers – as a symbol of the spring to come. The Christmas trees that we know today appear to have originated in Germany in the late Middle Ages, although its exact links to Christianity are debated.

The tradition of both decorating and lighting trees appears to have originated in the 15th or 16th century. Like all such traditions there is varied evidence and inevitably many competing claims from cities and regions.

From Germany it “migrated” to both Victorian Britain, possibly with Prince Albert’s marriage to Queen Victoria, and the United States (presumably with German migrants) - and the advent of electricity transformed the lighting potential, and reduced the fire risk.

Christmas trees are, as will be obvious, quite northern European. They give us light and hope through the longest and coldest dark nights as we pass the mid-winter solstice. They may have migrated across the world but that sense of light amidst darkness remains, even if the tree is looking out on a scorching mid-summer’s day at Bondi Beach.

Which is all very interesting, but what about now?

Well it’s obvious, isn’t it? This is undoubtedly one of the longest dark spells many of us have faced. Covid wasn’t meant to still be with us, and too many families have lost loved ones before their time.

When we reach the point where even family gatherings round the tree become such a source of danger that they are effectively banned, we know we are in a bad place.

So we hang on to the light and hope for a better spring to come, not just because of the vaccine but because instinctively it’s what we all do at this time of year.

So I say well done to everyone who put their tree up early and kept it later – and thank you to all those who decorated their garden and who still have some of those Christmas, now winter, lights shining. Its made my walking at night a bit happier and a bit more festive – even well into January.