As I write this blog we have exactly 52 days until Christmas, including today. The shops are already being stocked with Christmas goodies in order to entice us to buy early and save precious time later, and we are constantly reminded how many shopping days we have left until close of business on Christmas Eve.

As most of us return to school after our half term break we will also have preparations for ‘Christmas at school’ in the back of our minds. You may be fortunate enough to have one person, maybe a music specialist, who is given the role of leader as far as a Christmas play and a carol service is concerned, and they may have the onerous responsibility of coming up with something both original and creative. You may do the same thing in your classroom every Christmas and not feel the need to plan anything different…but whatever your circumstances Christmas will need to happen in our schools.

My reason for writing this now is to give a warning, as much to myself as to anyone else. In the midst of the extra hustle and bustle at school let us attempt to find the time for our personal preparation. Let us try to write our Christmas cards in good time to meet the deadline for posting, which by the way is Thursday 18^th December for 2^nd class. Let us try, and I realise how hard it will be, to make the time to do our shopping if possible before the end of term and definitely before Christmas Eve. It is all too easy to be so busy at school that we fail to give ourselves time to prepare for our own Christmas celebrations. Let us try, and this will be even more difficult, to pace ourselves so that we have the time to capture the essence and real meaning of this special time of the year.