In wishing someone a happy Christmas in this country, we express the hope that they will have a relaxing time with family and friends, often typified by coming together for a festive dinner.
The overriding sentiment in our good wishes is for everyone to experience a time of peace and happiness and that children in particular will enjoy the warmth and love which lies at the heart of this season.
In other parts of the world, however, the concept of happiness would mean something entirely different.
In Gaza, for example, it would be an end to the killing which, following dozens more civilian deaths in recent days, means that more than 45,000 people are recorded as having died there in just over a year.
According to the medical journal The Lancet, each direct death results in anything from three to 15 indirect deaths, through trauma, stress and the disruption of normal life, including the absence of medical facilities.
Taking four indirect deaths as a conservative estimate, the total death toll in Gaza could now exceed 200,000, or somewhere close to 10 per cent of the total population.
That is the equivalent of about 190,000 deaths here in the north, a figure which will perhaps temper our view of what constitutes a happy Christmas.
There will be no special dinners in Gaza, because there is practically no food there. Oxfam reported two days ago that barefoot children are forced to search through rubbish for scraps to eat.
On December 20, Israel finally allowed nine United Nations trucks to deliver food and water to an aid distribution point in Beit Hanoun, where civilians reported that they had been reduced to eating leaves.
Adults tell their children not to play, so that they do not become dizzy because of the lack of nourishment. There will be no happy Christmas for the children of Gaza.
This pattern of suffering, starvation, injury and death will also continue tomorrow in other parts of the world, including Ukraine, Myanmar and the Sahel countries of North Africa.
Meanwhile, military spending across the globe reached £2 billion last year. There are huge profits in human misery.
So while many here try to achieve the perfect Christmas, we might realise that in Gaza that would be a day without bombing and a day with enough food for the first time in months. The best possible gift, of course, would be permanent peace.
In wishing each other a happy Christmas here, we might extend that wish to the people of Gaza and all the war-torn societies across the globe.
Whatever happens tomorrow, it here will be a lot happier for most of us than the Christmas they will experience.
