WE have got a problem. It’s the end of November and for those of us that aren’t in a supermarket marketing team, it’s about the time we start thinking about the that thing beginning with C. No, not cats. Or crisps. You can also rule out cars, clowns, cartwheels, Celia Imrie, clouds, cackling, children, councils and most certainly can rule out climbing.

We’re of course talking about that time of year where we suddenly develop a delectation for all that’s awful in the winter time, such as hideous racket they call ‘Christmas music’, turkey, sprouts and trying to hide the sherry before Doreen McInnerny gets drunk and starts a foul-mouthed X-rated striptease.

It’s almost Christmas time, that time of the season where everyone does the above while arguing online about whether the term ‘festive pies’ ruins all semblance of season cheer.

The emergence of the time of year is also where the merrier among us engage in a mild manner form of festive fascism by demanding everyone to ‘be happy for Christmas’, completely blind to what people are going through or indeed of the bit from Gremlins where Kate tells Billy Peltzer just after he’s let a load of gremlins loose in his town why she dislikes Christmas.

This presents a dilemma for NCB Radio’s grinches. In previous years we’ve revelled over the delight of being as stubbornly anti-Christmas as its possible to be and it is entirely possible that as November goes into December we begin our seasonal campaign of mischief.

But there’s every chance we might not this year because quite honestly, for some of us it’s been a truly horrible year at times for reasons we don’t need to get into detail of here – but think serious health issues and other things around that.

It makes you think of the smaller mercies in life that don’t involve being ordered to wear an awful jumper. The most important of which is spending time with loved ones; because that’s something you can never take for granted and its only really when you experience either loss or a health battle of your own that you come back to that thought and truly appreciate the ‘true meaning of Christmas’ if you will.

Advertisers, marketers and the excessively festive will tell you that Christmas isn’t Christmas without bankrupting yourself to buy presents, decorations and enough food to make Oliver Twist fat. That may be the case for some people, but here’s what Christmas really means in our eyes.

It’s the day spent with those whom you love. The one day in a year where the world slows down a bit and we all engage in eating terrible things, throwing hammers at the Amazon Echo when it plays Mariah Carey’s yule-tide screeching and telling Doreen McInnerny that she’s still banned from the church for stealing the communion wine.

That, for us is the true meaning of Christmas and whether you’re a grinch or not a grinch our message is quite simple – we hope you have the very best day.