Remember a Christmas Eve when you were really little. Tomorrow was going to be so amazing. New toys and sweets and playing with cousins. You could hardly sleep for excitement.

Christmas was shiny and new. It was opportunity and adventure.

Nothing has changed. Really. I promise.

Yes, you now know the terrible secret about Santa. You’ve worked right up till Christmas Eve and there’s still a roast to put on. Someone is bound to drop a bombshell, drink too much and get emotional. There’s all that washing up to do afterwards.

Still, Christmas holds the promise of something new for adults as well as children.

In the northern hemisphere, a new beginning comes from the deepest part of sleepy winter. In the cycle of life and death, winter solstice is a turning point of hope. Here in sunny Australia, we don’t have the ground lying fallow under snow drifts during…