Many years ago in a country far, far away, or in other words, England, I had a friend called Anthony who was an estate agent. Now, I am a very nosey person and there is nothing I like better than having a good old stickybeak around other people’s houses, and so whenever Anthony needed potential buyers to have a look at a property newly on the market, I would trot along and pretend to be a prospective purchaser, an arrangement which suited both of us very well. He was a very good looking young man but totally resistant to any overtures by either sex, something which puzzled us all back in those hedonistic days of yore. But the mystery was solved when I met him at one of those parties where circles overlap unexpectedly with the love of his life, a totally drop dead gorgeous Hungarian lady many years his senior.

I was talking to Anthony one day in the run up to Christmas and noticed he looked a bit tired. I made some very bad joke about Magda keeping him up all night but was not at all prepared for his comeback.

“It’s not Magda darling. It’s the spirits,” he replied.

This took me back a bit as I had only just started out as a baby clairvoyant.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, they were moving large planters around the balcony for the whole of the night,” he said. “We kept asking them to stop, but they were having great fun. It’s the time of year you know. They always get frisky in the run up to Christmas.”

This was a new one on me, but now, looking back over the years, it does rather resonate. From my own personal experience, the spirit world does seem to make its presence felt more as the nights draw in and the period between Halloween and the winter solstice seems to be an optimal time to look through the glass a little less darkly. Do we feel this more because dark nights and candlelight in the Northern Hemisphere have historically created the perfect atmosphere for ghost stories or do the unquiet take advantage of the veil lifting slightly on All Hallows Eve to make a little foray into our world? Or is it just that our departed nearest and dearest simply like to join in with all the festivities at this time of year? After all, I am well aware that the increased consumption of one sort of spirit could result in the perception of another, but it does not explain Magda’s plants being moved gleefully by unseen merry makers. We put out a glass of sherry for Father Christmas. Let’s also raise our glasses to our loved ones in the spirit world and let them know that they are especially remembered during the festive season.