Bella absent-mindedly ran her hand over her chin-length blonde hair and tucked it behind her ear. ‘Well, Leonie, you can go first and as soon as you’re back Hannah can go.’ Leonie frowned at the prospect of going all that way on her own as she stood up and pushed her chair under the table. ‘Good girl for pushing your chair in. You can move yourself up for that.’

The frown fell away and before she left, Leonie moved herself up the behaviour chart pinned to the wall. Each class had a basic traffic light system, with red and orange being the naughty colours and then moving up through green and silver until you were on top of the gold band, and onto a bright shining star. If you made it onto the star, you earned a reward. Sometimes it was an eraser or a new pencil sharpener, but at this time of year, Bella began cracking out the chocolate. It was amazing how behaviour got so much better as they edged towards Christmas, even with the extreme level of excitement that always brought.

As it was only November, Bella’s sweets were tiny chocolate balls in orange and green colours with monster faces on them left over from Halloween, but it wouldn’t be long before she could start on the wonderful gold and silver coins. She didn’t like the fake bank notes or credit card things you could get these days; they were just odd as far as she was concerned. Bella was all about tradition. It gave structure and meaning to that special time of year, much like a routine does for children, and being a primary school teacher, she knew how much that was needed, even though the children didn’t always like it. Christmas traditions were the same for her. She didn’t always realise what a comfort they were at the time. Like when she was helping her mum peel a million tonnes of carrots and potatoes on Christmas Eve after volunteering at Bluebell Park all morning. But when she looked back, she wouldn’t have been anywhere else.

Her own excitement began to build as she thought of the fun to come. There was nothing quite like Christmas at a primary school. The excitement of the end-of-term play, posting Christmas cards into the little post box made out of cardboard in the corner of the classroom, making decorations during wet play.

As soon as anything remotely festive appeared in the shops she couldn’t help but feel that fluttering in her stomach at the prospect of everything her favourite season had to offer: the smell of pine, bright-coloured baubles and twinkling fairy lights, hot chocolates and snuggling down by roaring log fires, her house a mini Santa’s grotto.