It won’t be long until we hear Mariah trilling from the radio - Fiona Duff

Well you know Hallowe’en is over when the tinsel comes out in the shops. It won’t be long until we hear Mariah Carey, pictured, trilling from the radio every day – do you know how much she earns each year from All I Want For Christmas?

A quick look on Mr Google reveals that Mariah Carey makes about $3 million in royalties from her song All I Want for Christmas every year (Photo D. Dipasupil/Getty Images)

Well, a quick look on Mr Google and they reckon it’s about $3 million. That’s like winning the Lottery every December.

Well, quite aptly someone I know gave me a copy of The Five Scrolls. This is a book with five of the "wisdom” stories from the Old Testament translated from Hebrew into Scots by Hugh Pyper which was published earlier this month. Now I know that bit of the Bible doesn’t deal with the birth of Christ, and I can speak neither Hebrew nor Scots, although if the latter is read out aloud I can work out most of what is said.

I do remember on the last census that we did there were a couple of questions about our ability to either speak or understand Scots. And a quick recourse to that search engine and I discover that about 1.5 million people do speak the language – which is quite a lot in a country with 5.5 million humans wandering around. You do the maths, as percentages were never my strong point in arithmetic. I imagine that is quite handy if you are ever in one of the other three countries in the UK and didn’t want the locals to understand you.

Anyway, the point of this is that many people no longer read the Bible, and church attendances for those are limited to weddings and funerals. My problem with religion is that perhaps there is a higher being, but with so many religions in the world which one is it? Or are there lots and we have our time on earth to decide with whom to spend the afterlife?

However, whatever you think about religion, it is fair to say that much of what is in the book of the Christian faith is actually a good handbook for living life as a good person. There is forgiveness, all people being equal and upending the tables of unscrupulous money lenders. It’s a shame no-one paid more attention to that in 2007 when the banking industry showed us that perhaps greed isn’t good. Jingle Bells to you all.