IN our festive frenzy of shopping and eating, we should spare just the teeniest of thoughts for those around the world who are less fortunate than ourselves.

For the millions who are the victims of grinding poverty and who see no prospect of a festival as weighed down by abundance as our own. For the hundreds, closer to home, who are celebrating Christmas crammed into caravans as the result of this summer's remarkable floods.

We should, of course, rejoice at the miracles of the season - whether they are the everyday miracles of a family gathering together without the usual pressures of life's hurly-burly, or whether they are the truly extraordinary miracles of someone like Ellis Slater (page 3), about to taste his first Christmas dinner.

But when that teeniest of thoughts creeps in, it should acknowledge that worldwide poverty will increase and natural disasters will become more common unless we are prepared to tackle global warming.

And, in the season of goodwill, we can all play our own little parts. Are the tree lights burning away when no one is in the room; are the outside lights illuminating the whole neighbourhood when there's no one passing to see them?

What from our festive free-for-all can we recycle: the tree, the cards, the acres of wrapping paper, the mountains of bottles?

And if our local council isn't helping us, why not give it a quick ring and ask what is happening to the door-to-door collections that our hard-earned council tax is supposed to be providing?

This is not a killjoy Christmas. It is a slightly responsible Christmas, preparing ourselves for 2008, which will be - the economy notwithstanding - the first year in which even George Bush has to consider how he can help the environment.

And so Merry Christmas to one and all.

Let's hope it's a good one, and let's hope there's a greenish tinge to it.