I am usually the king of Christmas, convinced it’s so irrevocably the most wonderful time of the year that nothing can stand in its tinsel-draped, eggnog-soaked, ornament-decorated way.
But after a year in which my dad died, easily the most horrible and difficult thing to happen to me in my entire life, and a number of other smaller difficult things took place, I began to wonder if Christmas could be saved.
Or was 2016, which has proved to be a dark and miserable year without parallel in my lifetime, so far gone that not even the festive season could salvage it?
Tempting though it might have been to throw in the Santa-patterned towel, the truth is that Christmas is a pretty tough beast, bright red, sleigh-leading nose and all, and so I decided to keep the faith and celebrate the best I could, even though everything told me to give up.
And in that never-say-die, pass the fruit mince pies spirit, Adam Brady, playing a beleaguered train conductor in this year’s Wes Anderson-directed ad for Swedish clothing brand H&M, decides that nothing will get in the way of him throwing his much-delayed passengers the best possible Christmas that he can with the time and limited resources available.
It’s magical, it’s uplifting, and yes even though it’s designed to sell more clothes, it really affected me and inspired me to keep celebrating Christmas no matter how dark, awful or nasty times may be.
After all, isn’t that when you need Christmas the most?