So this is Christmas?

Whilst for many major retailers Christmas begins just after Valentine's Day, for the Church the festival kicks off on the day itself.

It's actually one of the shortest periods in the liturgical Christian calendar, ending on 5 January to be replaced by the feast of the Epiphany.

This year, of course, Christmas Day has been very different for many Hadleigh residents compared with previous years. Even before the Government announced that Suffolk would go into Tier 4 on Boxing Day, many folks were being very sensible and reducing their contacts with family and friends to protect themselves and others.

Of course, there are likely to have been a handful of conspiracy theorists and their boggle-eyed anti-vaxxer brethren who went out of their way to dangle the mistletoe with lips puckered to each and every stranger they met along the High Street. But one suspects that trade was slow for what they had to offer.

So for many, the big day was something of a big let down. That said, the taps of Hadleigh's community spiritedness were opened to a flow as torrential as the River Brett after the recent rains.

I saw these saints delivering meals, chatting - at the appropriate social distances, of course - with their more isolated neighbours and going on walking conversations with others.

But painful though this time has been, in many respects it affords us all the opportunity to get closer to the reality of the whole reason we drink eggnog, wear flashing reindeer-themed woollies whose casual wiring burns nipples and ogle at Macauley Culkin's lack of acting ability at this time of year.

Whether you believe in the accounts of the Nativity or not, most people appreciate the dramatic nature of the story.

Putting aside the very unBiblical imagery of camels, donkeys and aliens that populate most primary school productions, the combined Gospel records show a resilient hope within the society of the time for a better future, a very brave and determined young woman and her beau who risk everything to do what is right and the grinding poverty and uncertainty of both this couple and the society in which they live.

After the birth of Jesus ,things get worse before they get better as the family is threatened with murder and become desperate refugees in a neighbouring country. Nigel Farage, that ghastly Yaxley-Lennon mortgage expert et al, take heed.

Therefore, this bare bones Christmas that we are all experiencing pitches us back two thousand years into the whole bang shoot of events that kicked the thing off in the first place. Makes you think – hopefully – doesn't it?

The Feast of the Epiphany itself commemorates the pitching up of the three gift-bearing dudes from Asia at Bethlehem with a little help from a certain celestial GPRS.

Most unfittingly, the less-than-wise men and women who comprise Babergh District Council's 'cabinet' come bearing budgetary gifts of a far less welcome nature.

As revealed by Hadleigh Nub News, these Ipswich-based panjandrums are intent on imposing new car parking charges, for both short-term and long-term use, on Hadleigh.

It's difficult to order in one's mind what is the more outrageous sin: the idea itself that our town's hard-pressed businesses, who have struggled to trade through a time of COVID can tolerate some of their customers turning away from Babergh's latest money-making wheeze or the fact that Babergh has tucked away this ridiculous brainwave within their broader budget and tried to sneak it under the metaphorical radar during Christmas, however that festival is defined.

Unlike Babergh under Generalissimo John Ward, who appears to be over-compensating for something in his butchness on this issue, previous administrations who fancied a fight with us at least had the courage to go out and seek the views of the businesses and residents that would be most affected.

But Cllr Ward has clearly been reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and especially the part when the plans to destroy earth were made public, albeit in the council's most inaccessible loo.

Such a sneaky approach belittles the whole reputation of Babergh. Regardless as to whether this idea is approved or not, this particular council has lost even more credibility here in Hadleigh. And for Cllr Ward to refer to the costs of managing the car parks in Hadleigh and elsewhere is rather Orwellian: he could equally have used the verb 'invest'. The free short stay car parks are an investment in Babergh's towns. Perhaps they should be given over to Babergh's economic development team to run and be accounted for?

Finally, and talking of Babergh councillors, I'm told that Alan Ferguson was none too pleased with my comments about him in a previous column.

This former Nedging resident clearly doesn't appreciate or understand the directness with which Hadleigh folk tackle issues. If 'Bolter' Ferguson wants an easy ride, perhaps being a Suffolk County Council candidate for Hadleigh in next year's elections isn't really the gift-wrapped present he thinks it is.