Just about the only thing I’ve not been able to do is buy a religious Christmas card. I only need one; the rest of my cards were stencilled stars and winter scenes, but that one religious card is proving highly elusive.

Nothing close to home could serve up the goods, unless you wanted one ‘to a great vicar’, ‘to the best vicar’ or ‘to a special vicar’ – plenty of them (but none for the non-protestant MC). There were cards ‘to the cat’, ‘from the bump’ and even ‘to the house’, but nothing that might have been vogue before Christmas was reinvented as a mail order relay designed to bolster a dying postal service and still nascent industry for selling – and shopping – online. Multi-packs, yes. Singles, no.

Even the cathedral, which was well-stocked with cards bearing puppies, flowers, cars and yachts couldn’t help. I could have bought a multi-pack, of which there were just four designs to choose from in a tiny section hidden away from line of sight. And one picture of a candle.

Eventually we hauled ourselves out to late night shopping at Lakeside, and found just one… roughly three minutes after giving up and buying a picture of a present strapped to the back of a bike dusted with snow.

So it’s the snow-dusted present card that we’ll be giving, and we’ll bear in mind that a bookshop of all places – Waterstone’s – was the only place we could find a non-multi-pack religious card this year.

It’s no surprise that for a lot of people – most – Christmas is about family, presents and the unfulfilled promise of great festive telly, yet I find it hard to believe there are more people who would rather send a card ‘from’ their dog or unborn child, or to an inanimate object like a pile of bricks and a roof, than there are who would like to send a traditional design that reflects the Christmas story.

However, and why ever you celebrate Christmas, I think that’s a shame.