I haven’t heard of all of the songs people have nominated, and of those I don’t know some are, frankly, quite weird. So I am glad that other people nominated old favourites, and Nat King Cole singing The Christmas Song is pretty much the definition of an old favourite. Do watch the video as well as listening to the song, because there is something endlessly charming – something, despite his youth here, somehow grandfatherly – about the way he looks when he sings.

This song was chosen by Katie, who was my best friend at university back in the dim and distant past. Over the last few years we lost touch for various reasons, but then she turned up on Twitter and her tweets were so funny and cute that I remembered why we were friends and was annoyed that we’d ever stopped being. So now we’re back in touch, which is an excellent Christmas present.

Happy Christmas, Katie!