Dear LPG, 

I know that my message will arrive too late to go out in time for Christmas 2022, but if LPG is so good as to keep it in preparation for the 2023 celebration, I hope it might be of some relevance…

I am sure what I have to say is the variation of a theme that everybody will relate to at this time of the year.   As families go, this is when I take the nearest thing to an objective look at my own, and the harmony is not all there. But suppose you are the person who hosts the family Christmas get-together. In that case, I wonder if you ever have an annual conversation, be it with yourself or with your closest family member, about who to invite and who to send a Christmas card to.

In my experience, many of the older members of families are the least likely to have a reason for finding certain other members of their clan hard to socialise with. We all know which members of our clan are harbouring animosity against certain others because of some difference of opinion on a family matter or something that was said or done during the past year or even before that.

I know that I have tried to have the ‘forgive and forget’ talk with beloved members of my family who are completely alienated from others whom I love just as much and have spoken to with equal and maximum openness throughout the year, resulting in minimum progress when it comes to resolution. 

We have now had two years when Christmas was cancelled by a pandemic and one marred by strikes and the cost of everything. Still, I hope that December 25th, 2023, might be the one when the family gets together again, although I have to say that with the Royal family as our example, nothing will be easy.

So, do you snub some members for peace and goodwill or invite them all and pray for family accord or at least family tolerance on the day?

My thinking is, ‘if at first you don’t succeed…’ so I know what I will do, but I have no answer to your version of the question…

JL, Beckenham