December's arrival is usually greeted with pleasure - it may be the start of winter, but it also heralds Christmas, the end of the year, and the start of a new year. Thanks to Christmas and the New Year, the latter half of December is usually taken up with shopping and parties.

Christmas remains Britain's main holiday, however Christianity's waning influence means that the traditional belief of Christmas - celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ - is no longer widely held.

The 2001 national census found that 74% considered themselves Christians, however only 7% of these went to church regularly (the Archbishop of York, David Hope recently said: "I'd be a bit hard pushed to say we were a Christian country."). Two-thirds of London's primary schools no longer hold nativity plays or carols - these are deemed "inappropriate" as many pupils are non-Christians.

Certainly, if I were to ask those around me the meaning of Christmas, not many would say midnight masses or nativity plays. The most popular answers would be parties, presents, food and drink.

Jingle bells, jingle bells

For many people, the end of the year is synonymous with parties. These usually start with the office Christmas party. In smaller companies, this may consist of paying for dinner for staff and their partners in a restaurant. Bigger companies usually hire a venue for their Christmas party (staff only, which means people can misbehave as much as they want without their partners being there!). The party may be held in a lavish place, or a top club in the West End - one company hired the Museum of Natural History for its party one year.

Ostensibly these parties celebrate Christmas, but ask anyone why they're looking forward to the Christmas party, and I will guarantee that nine times out of ten the answer will be "to get pissed", which, in British parlance, means getting drunk.

Christmas parties usually follow the same pattern - its beginning sees people milling around and chatting. By the time it's in full swing, there will be a few men or women kissing someone they probably shouldn't, and the dance floor will start claiming casualties. A slippery floor, drunkenness and high heels is not a good combination, and more than one woman will know what it feels like to execute a tricky dance move, only to end up flat on her arse on the floor (this doesn't happen to the men - self-proclaimed two-left-footed British men tend to leave tricky dance moves to the women!).

What are you doing for New Year's?

Apart from the office Christmas party, the other big one is New Year's Eve. After acquiring a mayor in 2000, London started throwing firework extravaganzas with varying degrees of success (a heavily-hyped fireworks display along the Thames one year turned out to be as brilliant as a spluttering candle, but last year's was fairly spectacular). The place to be on New Year's Eve though, despite whatever the Mayor has organised on the bank of the Thames - and if you lack a (private) party invitation and don't want to pay ridiculously inflated prices for entry to a club - remains Trafalgar Square.

There is usually nothing going on at the Square, no organised parties or festivities, but still people make their way there. It may be freezing - temperatures tend to go near or below zero on New Year's Eve - but nobody seems to care very much as they stand around waiting for midnight.

Excitement levels increase the closer midnight approaches. The Square reverberates with people counting down the seconds to midnight, and the New Year is greeted with huge cheers. Complete strangers kiss and hug each other - canny people will stand close to an attractive person and use this as an opportunity to plant hearty kisses on them!

December is incomplete without presents. At work, there is Secret Santa. The idea is simple - nobody can (or is prepared to) buy presents for everyone in the office, so instead everyone is given one person to play Santa to. Presents tend to be limited to 5 or 10. You can be lucky and get a proper gift, say, a pair of gloves.

Alternatively, if you are the Official No-Sense-of-Humour Office Bastard, your Santa may give you something embarrassing (these could range from the mildly embarrassing, like a book titled How to Tell Jokes, or something more embarrassing, like a leopard-skinned male G-string). Joke shops tend to do very well out of Secret Santa!

Outside work, the tradition of exchanging presents is still very much alive, but stockings are no longer filled with sweets and satsumas - these days expensive items like iPods and digital cameras are de rigueur. Children are given expensive toys too - the top ten toys for Christmas this year as compiled by the British Association of Toy Retailers, are for toys ranging from 7 all the way up to 299.

Many families have two working parents, and guilt over not spending enough time with their children can drive these parents to great lengths in order to purchase the item that their little darlings want - fights over the last of the wished-for item in a toy store have been known to occur.

This year I resolve...

Of course, nobody exchanges presents for New Year's, but many will share one thing at New Year's Eve parties - resolutions. Having gorged on food and drink over the Christmas season, the top resolution for many will be to lose weight (gym membership always soars in January). Other resolutions range from quitting or moderating vices like smoking and drinking to changing jobs or locations.

December also means shopping. There is shopping for presents before Christmas, and the sales immediately after. There are bargains galore this year - some shops are slashing prices by up to 70% - thanks to poor takings before Christmas (the British spent on average 868 per person for Christmas last year, this year the predicted figure is 813 per person).

Newspapers are full of helpful tips and guides for the sales - the Style magazine of the Sunday Times reminds readers of its golden rule: "if your hand/little finger/little toe is touching a potential purchase, you are entitled to ownership. Under no circumstances should you let go, regardless of whether you actually want it or not".

December is a month that offers something for everybody. Familial obligations are taken care of at Christmas, whilst New Year's Eve gives everyone the perfect excuse for serious partying. Shoppers can flex their credit cards at sales, whilst shop-haters can stay at home either watching Christmas TV, or playing with their new toys.

Naturally my December has been similar to everyone else's so come January my credit cards will take a much-deserved rest, and the gym will be my second home.

Happy New Year everybody!

FARAH FAHMY has been living in London since 1994. She started out as a student, but after four and a half years' studying, managed to find a job and has been a wage-slave ever since. She reads far too much and is a keen observer of British life.

Postcards is a column for and written by you. Send your essays to dina@malaysiakini.com.