Well done Wymondhammers – you certainly know how to do Christmas.

I was on a late-night jog with my sister and a family friend over the holidays, just a few nights to go before the 25th, and we chanced upon the Christmas Display raising money for Rebel Arts on Wood Avens Way. Pictures are attached (with us sweaty runners mercifully cropped out). It was absolutely fantastic. Everyone who contributed should feel chuffed. I believe it was all raising money for youth activities run by Rebel Arts, which is an added bonus to the Christmas cheer it brought. And it certainly improved our horrid dark rainy run. My sister and her friend run in that area as a yearly tradition to see those lights, and this was my first year joining them. It was incredible. The community spirit is alive and well.

January is always a slightly depressing month by comparison. But that is fine. I have no truck with the “new year; new you – #YasQueen!” tradition. I am a firm believer that the phrase “start as you mean to go on” does NOT apply to the New Year. It is lovely when that does happen, but sometimes it is okay to start on a bit of a downer before things get better.

But for all the pessimism, there is lots of good stuff happening too. The twilight of 2024 had some serious positives. Cinema-wise, we had Wicked (film of the year), Juror #2, Nosferatu and Conclave. We were spoilt TV-wise too: the latest Cormoran Strike adaptation, The Ink Black Heart, came out on the BBC.

Similarly, by the time this is published, January will have passed and it will be the season of Valentine’s. I reckon February is a great month, regardless of whether you love or loathe Valentine’s Day. The cinema showings are fantastic at this time; Edinburgh has had reruns of Titanic every Valentine’s I’ve lived here. (I have a fantastic professor at university who would be all over that, claiming that that tradition is a problematic aestheticisation of a terrible tragedy for romantic “feel-good” purposes. But – for better or for worse – I have gone along each year.)

I am very much in favour of Valentine’s Day. I totally stand by actress Emilia Clarke’s words: “If you’re in a relationship, it’s an excuse to have a date night. If you’re not in a relationship, it’s an excuse to go out with your girlfriends and shout, ‘being single is great and here’s why! Let’s do something ridiculous.’” She rather charmingly says in the same interview that she is also in favour of people seizing the moment with that office or school crush. “Do it! Carpe diem. You never know – that person, she or he, could be it. And it just needed some mulled wine and some bad DJ music to make it happen.”

So go on Wymondhammers. You celebrated Christmas in style. Now it’s time to do the same for Valentine’s. No celebration is a bad celebration. Going on a date night is just as valid as renouncing the entire thing and spending it on the sofa binge-eating Guylians and watching Gossip Girl. Last year, being ever the Victor Hugo fan, I went to the cinema by myself and belted out the songs on a rerun of Les Misérables.

Speaking of – Victor Hugo remains one of my favourite authors, but one of my best friends recently punctured the illusion that he was an angelic human being. He preaches in both Les Mis and Hunchback of Notre-Dame about how prostitution is modern-day slavery. But when he died, the brothels all closed in a day of mourning – not because he was a feminist hero, but because he was such a frequent visitor! Apparently, he had a rather active sex life…talk about not practising what you preach. He was even rumoured to have boasted that he slept with his wife nine times on their wedding night. He was out and proud.

I can’t decide if that puts me off or makes me love him even more.

So there you go, folks. Whether you’re okay or not okay this time of year, at least we know that one of the most beloved proto-feminist French authors of all time was actually a sexually ravenous philandering hypocrite. That can put a smile on our faces. It’s the ultimate reminder, going into 2025, that no human being is perfect.