I am going to start with a question: How will you celebrate Christmas?

You may be a committed Christian, for whom Christmas is all about the Nativity and presents are secondary. You will know all about the heavily pregnant woman and her husband in Bethlehem, desperately seeking a roof for the night. But as you attend Midnight Mass or, like the Queen, Christmas morning service, will you be thinking of the many homeless people in this city and county, or the hundreds of thousands trekking across the Mediterranean and Europe in search of a new life? Last month another 206,000 sought asylum in Germany. The migrant crisis didn't stop when the good weather did.

Are you in favour of bombing ISIS or whatever you call it, and if so, how do you square that with the peace and goodwill to all men you will sing about at least once?

Perhaps you follow a different religion or are an atheist and aren't interested in the Nativity. Will you be exchanging presents in order to follow a British cultural tradition, or do you ignore it, along with the turkey, tree, mincepies etc. There will be many in York and North Yorkshire, for whom Christmas represents a choice between their family cultural background and the culture that surrounds them. It is possible to observe both and many do, at different times of the years. But Christmas in England can leave English residents from a non-Christian background feeling out in the cold. As the anti-Isis and anti-Muslim rhetoric ramps up, let us not forget that Muslims are ordinary human beings like ourselves and are just as entitled to seasonal goodwill as everyone else.

Perhaps you view Christmas as a chance to meet up with the family, which may not be a joyful occasion. Not everyone gets on with their relatives and when the house is crowded out and the weather prevents outdoor activities, small arguments can rapidly become big ones - as the police and the local courts know only too well. Christmas is a peak time for domestic violence and marriage break-ups.

Some people, often elderly, don't have living relatives any more, so they may prefer not to celebrate Christmas because it brings back too many painful memories of past years. Imagine the problems they have trying to find a television programme to while away the hours in their lonely home.

Then there are those for whom Christmas is a chance to put their feet up after the frantic pre-Christmas rush such as teachers exhausted by preparations for the school carol service, the school nativity play, the end of term parents' evening, etc etc. They are quite happy to let everyone else do the celebrating, provided they can have mincepies, sherry and Christmas pudding delivered to their armchair at regular intervals.

Shop assistants should also be collapsed in front of the television after selling us all our presents, but they are just as likely to be working, getting their stores ready for the Boxing Day Sales. At some point they will grab a mouthful of turkey and chestnut stuffing before collapsing into bed for a brief rest before the hordes burst through the store doors again. Celebrating Christmas is hard when you work in a shop.

Then there are those who have to put Christmas on hold because December 25 is an ordinary working day: the emergency services and hospital staff, as well as the pub, restaurant and hotel staff, slaving in the kitchen and behind the bar to make someone else's Christmas.

It is easy to get carried away by all the festive spirit in the office, shops, on the internet or in the media. Not everyone sees it in the same way.