Whether we’re in a red, orange or yellow day in Italy may matter little to today’s five big points for me:

First, it’s a beautifully sunny day,

It’s one of the last such days we’ll be having before Christmas, for soon the real below-freezing winter will start and our plants will have to be protected if they are not to die.

Second, it’s going to be a rerun of the Star of Bethlehem as seen by the three Wise Men in AD zero. Jupiter and Saturn are in conjunction and it will be a treat to see such a bright light in the sky tonight. Let’s not miss this sight since another eight hundred years may pass before we get a similar chance.

Third. It’s the year’s shortest day…and the longest night. As John Donne writes in that quintessentially sad poem ‘A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy’s Day’ “this both the year’s, and the day’s deep midnight is”.

Fourth. If the UK has shut the door on Europe, Europe has done the same on Britain. But this time it’s not because of a misplaced political choice but because of a very real health emergency. The Continent (and the rest of the world) do not wish to be invaded by mutants, especially if they originate from Dover or Heathrow.

Fifth. For many people (like us) it’s going to be a zoomingly whatsapping Christmas with virtual lunches (but some real conversations at least). Yes we’ve been marooned: Sandra in the UK and I in Italy. All those cancelled flights, all those false hopes etc. It’s only the fourth time we’ve not spent Christmas together since we married over forty years ago. This is pretty good going, however, and for so many of us Christmas can be any day we wish. Like Miss Havisham with her cancelled wedding party I’ll keep the decorations up but will refrain from having rats on the dining table rushing about eating the panettone and may even do a bit of dusting to wipe those cobwebs away.

I will also not continue to wear my Santa Claus hat when going out. And as for those Christmas carols…

If anything this Christmas season will teach us many things. We are all refugees in our own countries and all in need of that little extra piece of love and humanity from others. Let’s trust we all receive that as a present at least.