I must have around two thousand pieces of music on my i-pod, which includes maybe thirty or forty pieces of Christmas music.

So why is it, that when I play my i-pod on shuffle, about one in three pieces it chooses for me are Christmas songs? And what’s more, why is it that the song is generally about two-thirds of the way through before I notice? So I find myself taking the dog for a long walk and all I have in my head is the annoyingly catchy ‘So here it is Merry Christmas’ going round and round in my head.

It’s a good thing I can’t whistle, that’s all I can say.