Joyce Fegan: The pressure for the perfect Christmas can ruin it

"This year the stakes have never been higher for Christmas. There's a lot riding on Christmas"

The scenes at the end of 'Love Actually'  where every creed and colour of a person is welcomed and embraced and loved by someone in an airport arrival hall, are in our psyche too.

There is a reason 'Fairytale of New York' is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. Its enduring popularity is in its poignancy; the hope for a better future ("I can see a better time when all our dreams come true"), and the regret of what-could-have-been a wonderful life ("I could have been someone").

Christmas is charged with hope and expectation, reunions, redemptions and reconciliations. If we spend 10 to 11 months leaning into our negativity bias, the human inclination to expect the worst, for some of November and most of December we are in our optimism bias.