We are now a few days into 2012, the decorations are due to be taken down tomorrow and it is the time of year when I start to be racked with indecision.

My problem is quite simply this: at what point do you stop saying ‘Happy New Year’? For the first couple of days it just takes care of itself, the path is straightforward. However, it gets trickier when you return to work a few days in. Is it not overkill to greet each colleague separately with a breezy Happy New Year?

What about when you see friends for the first time, say in the middle of January? Is it too late then? Or bump into a neighbour you haven’t seen since the bells chimed? I just find this all a bit awkward.

Christmas is easy. Although it has complications in knowing exactly when it starts (September?) or what it is exactly we are celebrating (a virgin giving birth in a stable with wise men and shepherds dropping by? Really?), once it is Boxing Day, Xmas is a done deal. But when a year stops being ‘new’ is problematic. Now Auld Lang Syne is over and 361 days still stretch in front of us in this Leap Year, at what point does 2012 stop becoming a novelty? Perhaps the Coalition government could let us know.

I struggle with social convention. I haven’t sent a Christmas card for 15 years. Bah humbug me if you like, but I don’t see the point. If I want to stay in touch with someone I will contact them several times a year. Writing their name and my own into a pre-printed card will do little for our relationship.

Many send cards fearing not doing so will cause offence. However, let me share a secret with you. People don’t care whether you send them one. They really don’t. I still get many cards from more generous spirited people than myself and quite frankly, if they choose to do an audit of ‘sent’ and ‘received’ and decide never to send me another, then I won’t complain.

I got one card this year with two words in it: ‘Gav’ and ‘Dave’ which suggested to me that Dave wouldn’t spend too much time thinking about me during the festive period. At the other end of the brevity scale, I still get one of those brilliant round robin letters in a card from someone I met on holiday 10 years ago. Recent years’ letters have openly discussed the reasons underpinning her daughter’s crumbling marriage and her own hysterectomy.

So save some time, money and trees next December. Instead just pick up the phone and speak to people a couple more times during the year. It goes a lot further than the superficial rhetoric of a Season’s Greetings card.

Happy New Year to both my readers. It isn’t too late is it?