I surfaced rather than rose on Christmas morning, having spent the evening before grazing on finger food, our traditional start to the Christmas season.

Number One Son was already pottering around then kitchen and the smell of cooking sausages provided an extra inducement to get dressed and go downstairs. I use “dressed” in a fairly loose sense – I’m wearing double flannelette and a dressing gown in various colours and patterns. Coordination never was my forte.

I’m not sure when “double denim” became a thing, or why they call a denim jacket with jeans a “Canadian Tuxedo” but for the modern day miser-chic look, double flannelette has no equal. Team up your checked pyjamas and nightshirt (note the layering effect to keep out the cold – we haven’t switched the heating on yet – with a nice striped dressing gown and you are well on the way to dressing like me. I’m sure I have some paisley somewhere but for now am accessorising with black fingerless gloves and a woolly hat.

If you happen to write a life-style blog and you are cringing at my fashion tips, good. It’s about time we chose our outfits based on warmth, practicality and what we have in the wardrobe. As a planet we throw a lot of clothes away, and 5hey are hard to recycle. The easy way is to buy fewer clothes and wear them for longer. Forget fashion and don’t throw anything away until you can see daylight through it. This is my serious thought for the day.

This article is an interesting read. I particularly like the idea of compostable clothing. in the past I have composted cotton underwear and leather/cotton gardening gloves. Unfortunately a lot of stuff is mixed fibres. I once composted socks and they left a fine mesh behind – the synthetic portion of the wool mixture.

Anyway, have a great holiday, despite me preaching about recycling. This year I cut down on waste by refusing to wrap anything I was giving. Julia went mad. Apparently this isn’t in the spirit of Christmas. But it did save me a lot of time and I didn’t have to buy wrapping paper.