The days are getting very dark now. The weather is cold, wet and grim.

It happens every year. The seasons dictate all of that when you live far from the equator. And although British weather has plenty of uncertainty, it’s still roughly predictable.

And so we have Christmas, and before that Yule. Festivals where people in the Northern Hemispheres try to bring some light and merriment into the shorter days and longer nights of the Winter Solstice.

My favourite kinds of songs are ones which do something fairly similar. They are also the kind of songs I most often try to write. Taking a difficult or sad subject and attempting to find some hope and a way forward. To keep on going till the Springtime.

Here’s a bit of mish-mash of a Christmas song that I wrote and recorded 3 years ago to commemorate one hundred years since the end of the First World war. It was lovely to have family members, (my sister and 2 grandchildren) involved in the production of this one.

I hope that you have a lovely Christmas time when it comes, and are reminded that, although times are strange, sad and difficult for many, our near ancestors have came through far harder circumstances.

In the end they reached a season of peace and light. We will too.