I have pondered long and hard over whether to give this year’s advent calendar a theme or a twist to distinguish it from last year’s. I wondered about clips from my favourite musicals, or country and western Christmas songs, or just 24 Christmas songs by Ella Fitzgerald. But then I remembered how many favourites I had to leave out last year, and how agonizing it was choosing which ones to ditch, and I realised I would have more fun doing the same thing again than I would having to stick to a theme, or a meme, or any kind of scheme.

I promise not to include Mistletoe and Wine again. Not in the actual, official advent calendar, anyway. It’s still November, right?